Riders and staff at Q36.5 have claimed that Tom Pidcock’s arrival in the team has created a positive new team dynamic with Wednesday’s victory in the AIUIa Tour and his resulting race leadership further boosting that trend.
“We have only one goal here, winning with Tom,” Belgian teammate Fréderik Frison told Belgian newspaper Dernière Heure after Pidcock’s uphill win at Bir Jaydah Mountain Wirkah.
“It’s great to see the team progress and to win here today. That’s even greater motivation for me.”
Pidcock quit Ineos Grenadiers at the end of 2024 following a turbulent final season, and then quickly signed for the Swiss ProTeam.
Sponsored by Q36.5 since 2023 but with a solid team structure dating back nearly two decades and with previous backers like Qhubeka and Dimension Data, amongst others, the team has not enjoyed major success in recent years.
In 2024, when they took five victories, their top international win was the GP Denain, a 1.HC cobbled Classic in northern France.
But as sports director Jens Zemke told Dernière Heure, Pidcock’s arrival for the 2025 season has not just seen the team take an early win in his first road race at the AIUIa Tour, it has also sparked other positive changes.
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“For the other riders, it’s a new situation, because last year, we weren’t in a position of being favourites very often. So that’s a change, but it’s also a boost to morale.”
Zemke said Pidcock was playing a leading role in briefings but at training camp this winter, he had also discouraged the previous team practice of coffee stops after long training rides, “because he’d say – no, no coffee, we’re staying in race mode.”
“He’s always ‘mentalised’, even in his training and he hides his serious side with a smile. That’s a good thing.”
“Tom’s really raised the demands on the riders, and the others understand that it’s an enormous opportunity for them to be in a competitive team and progress at his side.”
Frison added that Pidcock’s arrival had enabled Q36.5 to exploit its considerable resources better, and that his victory in the AIUIa Tour had caused criticism of his transfer to quieten down.
“I know that this is not a small team,” he told Het Nieuwsblad. “Most people in the peloton know that.
“Q36.5 has ProTeam status, but in terms of equipment and operation, we are at World Tour level. Tom is the leader we needed to take that step.”
