Tom Pidcock is close to finalizing a move to the Swiss ProTeam Q36.5, bringing an end to a tumultuous relationship with the Ineos Grenadiers. Tensions came to a head last weekend with Pidcock’s last-hour removal from the team’s Lombardia squad.
The move is not final but is progressing well this week. If completed, it would represent a major shakeup not only for the two teams involved but also for Pidcock, one of the sport’s brightest stars, who departs a team he’s been with since 2021 for a squad that is unlikely to even get a Tour de France invite in 2024.
The transfer saga is nearing its end, according to two sources, including one inside the Q36.5 team, who requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak on the record. Part of the lure for Pidcock, according to those with direct knowledge of the situation, is a good relationship between the British star and Q36.5’s billionaire funder Ivan Glasenberg, plus assurances of support and focus from Glasenberg to Pidcock’s camp.
Our sources support reporting from transfer expert Dan Benson on Monday evening, who also indicated that a move to Q36.5 is imminent. A possible transfer to Visma-Lease a Bike seems to have been dropped, at least for now.
Why Q36.5?
Let’s leave aside the rift with Ineos, which has made a continued working relationship between Pidcock, his close advisors, and team management untenable. An exit has seemed the most likely solution to that problem for a few months now, but the choice to head to Q36.5, particularly when teams like Visma and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe were circling, is on its face an odd one.
Dig a bit, though, and clarity emerges.
Q36.5 is the successor to general manager Doug Ryder’s previous efforts in the upper echelons of pro cycling, most recently the Qhubeka squad. That team folded at the end of 2021 in thoroughly unglamorous circumstances involving co-sponsor NextHash, a cryptocurrency company with a complicated financial history and a pattern of questionable business practices.
The team, funded in large part by billionaire Glasenberg, is in pro cycling’s second division but has made several signings in recent months, including Visma’s Milan Vader, in an effort to build a squad more capable of competing at the highest level. Vader also spends quite a bit of time in cross-country mountain bike racing, just as Pidcock does. Pidcock would be the team’s crown jewel, a rider capable of winning the biggest races in the world, but as a ProTeam, they are not guaranteed a start in cycling’s most important races, including the Tour de France.
So why move? With a backer like Glasenberg, the team can afford Pidcock. But the answer likely lies in autonomy and support, two features that Ineos has seemed unable to provide. Sources inside Q36.5 claim that promises have been made to Pidcock’s camp on both fronts, including in the hiring of a few key domestiques and an entourage of supporters.
This would be nothing new. Riders like Peter Sagan and Vincenzo Nibali, for example, always brought key staff and friendly domestiques (even siblings) along when they swapped teams. Many top riders transfer along with preferred or personal mechanics – Chris Froome brought mechanic Gary Blem from Ineos to Israel-Premier Tech, for example.
Top athletes’ understanding of their value is changing too. Mathieu van der Poel’s unusually tight relationship with his Alpecin-Deceuninck team is indicative of this trend. It’s Van der Poel’s team as much as it is the Roodhooft brothers’, a fact that is born out in everything from calendar and team selections to sponsor activations.
There’s another sponsor connection to consider as well. In 2023, Glasenberg reportedly purchased Pinarello, the longtime bike sponsor of Ineos and a company that has worked closely with Pidcock through his off- and on-road racing endeavours. Q36.5 has been riding Scott bikes in 2024 but one source suggested a change in bike sponsor is likely this off-season.
The choice to grow with a small team rather than slot into a big one is a pathway that couldn’t be farther from the traditional Ineos model, which has always required riders to fit into the team’s systems and structures. The pitch there worked for a decade: come to Ineos (or Sky before that) and you’ll receive the best support, the best equipment, the best coaching and nutrition – everything you need to succeed. Winning begets winning and the success of the program continued to attract top talent even as other teams caught up financially. That has changed in the last two years. Now top talent is fleeing.
There’s something to be said for getting in on the ground floor, so to speak, with a team on the rise that has a billionaire backer with whom you get along.
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