‘I was in the best shape of my life’ – Tom Pidcock on how he learnt to enjoy Grand Tour racing in 2025

What a distinction a yr makes.

12 months in the past, Tom Pidcock was caught up in a bitter divorce with Ineos Grenadiers and uncertain of his future. He was the Olympic mountain bike champion and Amstel Gold Race winner, however was struggling. The negativity and doubts about his future had been hurting his pure need for freedom and enjoyable that biking has at all times given him.

Quick ahead to the 2025 low season, and life is now good for the 26-year-old Yorkshireman. Final week, he bought engaged to his longtime companion, Bethany Zajac, throughout a vacation within the Seychelles. This week, he’s using the seven-day Gravel Burn stage race in South Africa. However not even a rain-soaked first stage might take away his smile and a deeper sense of satisfaction.

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“I feel I could be actually pleased with this yr. We accepted it is likely to be a little bit of a write-off, a type of transition to construct for the long run. However ultimately, it went rather well. I used to be in the perfect form of my life,” Pidcock instructed Cyclingnews earlier than he dived into the low season, switched off his work cellphone and proposed to Bethany.

“I can solely see myself rising much more this yr and being even higher subsequent yr. We’ll even have extra time and extra information, due to new folks within the staff and in my private staff.”

A yr in the past, Pidcock was within the midst of leaving Ineos Grenadiers for Q36.5. It was a step down from a WorldTour staff to a ProTeam, however it proved to be a liberation in lots of different methods. He turned the undisputed staff chief however had the accountability to get outcomes, rating a haul of UCI rating factors and show his critics mistaken after an usually troublesome time at Ineos. He arguably achieved all of these issues in 2025.

Cyclingnews urged three phrases to explain Pidcock’s transformation in 2025: Change, happiness and freedom. After some thought, he opted for his personal phrases to explain his yr.

“Confidence and the idea of everybody round me, that was an necessary factor,” he mentioned, fastidiously announcing every phrase.

“Then there was the information and the professionalism, too, when it comes to coaching and diet. It is the very best stage that I’ve ever had. It was all a recent begin, so there was the psychological pleasure concerning the problem that we confronted.”

Considered one of Pidcock’s greatest strengths is his perception in his personal skill. He’s a straight talker, with little endurance for bullshit or administration spiel.

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He simply desires to get on along with his life, his racing and profession. He has created his personal success, combining his many alternative skills in street racing, mountain biking and cyclocross. He’s a maverick in some ways, but in addition formidable and a pure chief. He in all probability would not slot in many WorldTour groups, however appears to be flourishing at Q36.5.

“I really feel actually concerned and a part of the broader staff, moderately than simply turning as much as races and being a frontrunner. That is one thing I additionally actually get pleasure from,” Pidcock says.

“I feel I present management on the bike but in addition off the bike, serving to to develop the staff and serving to to make selections. There are undoubtedly issues I could be higher at, however I get pleasure from management. It is the place I naturally wish to be.”

The success of 2025 and studying to like Grand Tour racing on the Vuelta a España

Pidcock formally left Ineos on December 4 and confirmed he would trip for Q36.5 two days later with a provocative submit on Instagram saying ‘2025 is about to get lit’ as he struck a match, ending a second of darkness.

Pidcock had joined Ineos in 2021 after racing on and off-road with the Trinity Racing staff, his agent Andrew McQuaid constructed round him.

In 2019, he was the under-23 cyclocross world champion and gained the under-23 Paris-Roubaix. In 2020, he dominated the under-23 Giro d’Italia. He gained the 2022 elite cyclocross world title in Fayetteville and the stage to L’Alpe d’Huez on his Tour de France debut, sparking a major enhance in his Ineos contract as different groups realised his true skills.

He gained Strade Bianche in 2023, however by then his relationship with Ineos was deteriorating, with some key particulars of rigidity on the 2023 Tour rising within the Netflix ‘Tour de France Unchained’ sequence in June 2024.

Ineos was paying Pidcock to be a Tour de France chief, however he struggled to just accept the season-long grind the function carries.

“There wasn’t a selected second; it was gradual,” Pidcock mentioned of the deterioration of the scenario on the British staff.

“Ineos is a improbable staff, they’ve their very own motivations and their targets and the way they wish to obtain issues. On the finish of the day, what occurred with me was enterprise – it was nothing private.”

Ineos CEO John Allert merely described it as a matter of compatibility, and each side appeared blissful to have ‘consciously uncoupled’ even when there have been experiences that Ineos paid a considerable quantity to finish Pidcock’s contract early.

Pidcock appeared to maneuver on from his time at Ineos as simply as he pulled on his new blue and silver Q6.5 colors. He made his debut on the AlUla Tour in Saudi Arabia on January 28 and gained levels 2 and 4 and the general GC.

It was a dream begin to the season, and the outcomes continued to circulate as Pidcock’s smile and love for racing returned. He was second at Strade Bianche after bravely making an attempt to go on the assault with Tadej Pogačar. He impressed at Tirreno-Adriatico after which focused the Ardennes Classics, ending third at La Flèche Wallonne behind Pogačar, and ninth on the Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Pidcock rode the Giro d’Italia, focusing on levels but in addition tried to safe a superb GC end result, the 2 targets leaving him fatigued and pissed off in Rome. He gained the European mountain bike title whereas everybody else was busy with the Tour and was instantly robust within the second half of the street season, taking second total on the Arctic Tour of Norway.

The Vuelta was Pidcock’s second Grand Tour of the season, and few anticipated him to regularly stand up the GC, keep there and end third in Madrid. It was his Grand Tour epiphany.

He described it as the largest efficiency of his profession.

“I feel I could be actually blissful, particularly with the Vuelta…” Pidcock says of 2025 and particularly the Vuelta, earlier than Cyclingnews even begins to debate his Grand Tour outcomes and future plans.

Till this yr’s Vuelta, Pidcock had a love-hate relationship with Grand Excursions. The Vuelta modified that.

“To have the ability to carry out in a Grand Tour might be the largest single step I’ve ever made for my profession. And I additionally loved it…” Pidock provides, highlighting what is a large think about all the pieces he does.

“On the Vuelta, I used to be racing to win levels from the lead group, moderately than simply struggling to maintain up and making an attempt to get a high 10. I do not actually get pleasure from racing GC, however I do get pleasure from issues that I am profitable in. That is why I am a bicycle owner in spite of everything.”

In a season of change, the Vuelta podium modified Pidcock’s Grand Tour ambitions, maybe eternally. Earlier than there was a way of flight from the Tour, now there’s a sense of combat.

“It undoubtedly adjustments issues in my very own head concerning Grand Excursions,” Pidcock admits.

“Earlier than, it was type of a purpose in different folks’s heads that I would by no means totally bought behind myself. Now it is a bit of bit completely different. I can see myself having fun with doing extra Grand Excursions, not simply struggling for one thing that does not appear value struggling for.”

After all, Pidcock may even trip the Ardennes Classics, race mountain bikes and dive down descents at pace in 2026.

Q36.5 have signed Fred Wright, Gravel world champion Quinten Hermans, Tom Gloag, Aimé De Gendt, Brent Van Moer and Xandro Meurisse for the cobbled Classics, and Eddie Dunbar and Chris Harper for stage races.

The Swiss-registered staff is stronger and financially stable due to the backing of former mining and commodity billionaire Ivan Glasenberg. He owns the staff, the Q36,5 clothes model and 80% of Pinarello. The Italian model is anticipated to produce bikes to the staff in 2026 and has been listed as a title sponsor by the UCI.

Pinarello-Q36.5 have an automated place within the Tour and can make their debut within the sport’s greatest race. Pidcock will certainly return to the Tour in 2026 as staff chief.

Nevertheless, he doesn’t wish to undergo and simply combat for a high ten inserting like previously, so he might goal levels and a spell within the yellow jersey.

“Let’s examine what occurs,” Pidcock says with logical warning.

“I did not miss the Tour this yr, however it’d be good to return, having earned our personal place there. It provides a bit extra that means to it.

“I feel that in the event you get pleasure from doing one thing, you do it lots higher,” he says of his Tour reticence.

“There’s an exponential distinction in the event you’re in higher form. In case you’re additionally having fun with it, then it makes a giant distinction. That is the story of my 2025, let’s hope it continues in 2026.”