"A victim of their own success" - Tom Pidcock's new teammate talks about INEOS Grenadiers fall-out and how Olympic Champion elevates Q36.5

Saying Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team have undergone a big change would be an understatement. The Swiss team, in the matter of a month have started off the 2025 season with six wins, have gotten Tom Pidcock to their best level and the Briton has already won four times and carries huge motivation with him. Rory Townsend, now teammate of the Olympic Champion, talks about the massive improvement of the team.

“There’s a great atmosphere in camp with the fresh faces that we’ve added. It's funny how even just changing the kit, for example, all feels a little bit different. But the obvious thing is what Tom brings as well. All of a sudden, there’s a lot more attention on us," Townsend said in an interview with the Road.CC podcast. The shock signing came after a falling out with INEOS Grenadiers, and the Swiss team took the opportunity to sign a star and become a new top team in the peloton - both figuratively, and literally.

“In cycling, there’s a strange social hierarchy that exists – the favourites are always at the front and they’re allowed more space by other teams," Townsend explains, and the Irishman believes that Pidcock's presence alone gives the team more power in the peloton. "And I think bringing Tom on board probably gives us a little bit more space, and that can help lift us up. Even if it’s subconscious that we believe that or if it’s genuinely recognised by other teams, I think it will help.”

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It most definitely can be argued that this is the case, with the likes of Matteo Moschetti and Fabio Christen surprising to strong wins ahead of World Tour competition this year as well. The Swiss structure has been at the forefront of many races, and Pidcock has almost taken as many wins as he did in his four seasons with INEOS Grenadiers.

“You have a guy here who’s a bit of a maverick – you can’t really plan necessarily for the things that Tom can do on a bike. For me, Tom, Mathieu [van der Poel], and Tadej [Pogacar], they’re guys who ride on feel in an old-school way. They can do incredible things on any given day, but they might not fit into the plan for the team," he argues. "Whereas Tom can come here, and he has more freedom. He can develop this project like the way Alpecin has become such a force with Van der Poel".

This means of course, that he does not believe Pidcock was a good fit in INEOS anymore. He shares that he actually knew of the transfer well before it came to be. “I probably knew more than I should, and it really became something that, because it was completely out of my control, I ended up all the time like, ‘oh, have we heard anything’? I think I was more stressed about Tom’s contract than I was my own," he jokes. "I just knew what a great opportunity it would be".

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“So yeah, I knew from quite a way out, but it was still a very complicated situation going on. I think it took a lot of work from Doug and the team, a lot of late nights to get it across the line. But I knew it was on the cards.”

He speaks about INEOS Grenadiers, “... With a rider like Tom, personally I just don’t feel they utilized him in the right way. I think they’re almost a victim of their own success in a way. They view it as ‘this is how we’ve been successful’, and if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. But the sport has changed massively, there’s no Sky train anymore. And for them, grand tours are more attractive because you can plan and schedule, but the classics – where Tom is brilliant – are more unpredictable".

Pidcock himself wanted to test his abilities as a Grand Tour contender, but until today that has not worked out. Combining that with his multi-disciplinary focus meant that he has struggled to obtain the big wins on the road in recent years. “Ineos saw he has the capacity to be a grand tour contender. But he has other aspirations and maybe those two things didn’t align. I wonder if it was a case of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole with him".

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Townsend, member of Q36.5 since 2024, notes that this move benefited his team immensely and believes his teammate also feels the same. “I can’t speak for him, but he can come to a team like ours and we’re perfectly set up to give him the foundation to go after what he wants. It might have looked like a strange decision from the outside, but I wasn’t overly surprising, especially knowing what our team is like on the inside. He’s not going to be losing much from coming to us.”

There were worries of the Briton joining a team with no experience racing against the top structures, but the team has taken a very meaningful step to become yet another structure capable of challenging the World Tour teams. “... The team is run so professionally. There are lots of guys in the peloton who probably look at us and think, ‘I wish we had half of what those guys do’. And that creates an expectation that we want to perform.

“So, I don’t think the expectations from the team side have really changed. The reality is that now we’re in a position where we fulfil those hopes and expectations.”

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