ANALYSIS: 3 compelling reasons why Visma should definitely sign Tom Pidcock
Cycling
Team Visma | Lease a Bike is one of the teams interested in Tom Pidcock with it seeming more and more certain that he will leave INEOS Grenadiers because of the bad feeling between rider and team. However, as of today, transfer talks seems more strongly surrounding a move to the Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team.
Thus, Visma is reportedly circling the Olympic mountain bike champion, but has not made any proposal or sat down with his representative. If this is true, it is a serious mistake by a Dutch team that can not play in 2025 to the same tricks as in 2024 beyond the bad luck that we assume will not be with them again. Here, our colleagues at Ciclismoalida give you 3 reasons why Visma should not let Pidcock go if he ends up leaving INEOS:
1. Winning a Monument
In recent years the structure of the current Team Visma | Lease a Bike has won absolutely everything except one of cycling's Monuments (they haven't won one since that Liège 2020 in which Alaphilippe raised his arms too early and Roglic ended up pinching his pocket). That same year, Wout van Aert won the Milano-Sanremo and an explosion was expected on his part thereafter. Sadly however, there has been nothing more from the Belgian superstar.
2. Replacing the absence of Primoz Roglic
With a superstar rider like Primoz Roglic leaving at the end of 2023 and it would be a fantastic opportunity to get another one of the best in the world back in your ranks. Obviously with Pidcock, you're not going to win the same kind of races as with Roglic, but you'll get to expand your number of potential winners, so that things like 2024 won't happen again if Vingegaard and Van Aert get injured.
3. Help Wout van Aert
As we mentioned before, Wout van Aert has not won a Monument since 2020. Everything has happened: he has focused on the Tour to help Vingo, he has fallen, he has not known how to manage the end of the race and in the middle have emerged Pogacar, Van der Poel and even a Philipsen who takes advantage of riding with VDP and its tremendous quality to also take victory. This possible Van Aert-Pidcock duo would make Visma much more dangerous and the Belgian would surely have more chances to increase the list of monuments in his palmares;
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I agree 100 percent visma is a terrible fit. He is needs a team that can have him as a team leader completely and is prepared to also allow him to do what he wants. He will be expected to pull his weight in support of others at visma. Unfortunately, that's just not in his personality. He should stick to mountain biking - he can be master of all he surveys and leave the team sports to team players.
Pidcock's salary is equivalent to Roglic and he does not win GTs or Monuments or One week stage races. It will be a costly replacement for less than 20% return
You're assuming he will be paid the same amount he is making with Ineos.
Even if Visma only pays his half of it, INEOS has to then cover the other half
I have read enough about TP in the past week to last a lifetime. Give it a rest and try to write something interesting about someone else or is that too hard? Go back to the TP stuff when or if the situation changes. Failing that, you might as well make me totally fed up and write three reasons why each of the WT teams might like to sign him and three reasons why not.
Offer your services to Cyclinguptodate.com, you never know, you might get a job.
... This is a rider who has stated several times that he'd riding for himself, and who wants to be the big fish in the pond. Visma is a terrible fit for him.
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- Is that we including Ratcliffe or not?Mistermaumau16-03-2025
- Interesting idea, probably need some more conditions like age in order to stop certain teams filling the rosters with fake development riders.Mistermaumau16-03-2025
- But it wouldn't be a terrible idea IF you were only allowed to put in a rider from development team for the last stage of the stage race. Extra experience for them, real racing, pro peloton and very unlikely they will make any actual differencevappaxbipmv16-03-2025
- You don't have domestique, Tom. It's a problem. Without Del Toro, for sure Ayuso would not be in front of you.
maria2024202416-03-2025 - yesEvan16-03-2025
- He’s not unlike SK, people just don’t want to accept their decisionsMistermaumau16-03-2025
- Really happy for Matteo, especially despite not having much team support over the last couple of days. He's strong and in great form. He'll be a strong teammate for Jonas in the Tour. Also happy for Magnus—he's had a tough two years, and this is a well-earned reward for his dedication. Ineos have really come out fighting this year and I'm really liking this from them.Pedalmasher16-03-2025
- Is this a joke?Jkolner12316-03-2025
- He has declined leadership though in the past? Lack of confidence? Hedging your bets works sometimes, at other times it is better to commit and go in big.Cyclingsbestfan16-03-2025
- Pidcock is starting sound like a more mature rider. It may be the media reports when he was at ineos skewing things, but he starting to sound like a defferent person.Cyclingsbestfan16-03-2025