Johan Bruyneel: "Pidcock is not happy at INEOS, INEOS is not happy with Pidcock, they wanna get rid of the expensive contract"

Tom Pidcock and INEOS Grenadiers' saga is an ongoing one and we do not know at this point how it will end. The Briton is currently in talks with several teams to depart the team with whom relations have deteriorated, but it is not certain if or where he would be going to. Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin have talked about one of the hottest topics of the mmoment.

"I heard from someone confidencially that they they were trying to wrap it up as quickly as possible. So the fact that it's not means there's potentially other suitors coming out of the woodwork," Spencer Martin said in 'The Move' podcast. It was reported this week that the British team would even be willing to pay part of the salary even if Pidcock was departing to another team, but equally journalist Daniel Benson has argued that the deal is off, and it currently looks more likely that the two will remain united into the 2025 season.

"There's nothing new as far as I'm aware of," Johan Bruyneel responded. "The rumours are there so obviously we heard that there have been talks, I still maintain my same position hypothesis of last week, Pidcock is not happy at INEOS, INEOS is not happy with Pidcock, they wanna get rid of the expensive contract and they're looking for solutions. i think that's where we stand. Q36.5 said that they were interested, the question is how eager are they to sign him and how eager are they to pay a lot of money. Probably not the totality of his contract, but I think it's the same situation."

It is a difficult one, since Pidcock was rumoured to have a contract of €4 million per season and even if this would lower, it would still be a significant load to any team. Alongside Q36.5, a few more teams are in talks, and certainly Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe is one of them taking into consideration the sponsor connection but also the team's improved financial situation which saw them sign many strong riders over the previous and current transfer season.

"What I did read however is that there are other candidates who are interested in Tom Pidcock," the former pro said. "As I said he's one of the biggest talents in cycling, I've also read a report from a Belgian newspaper [...] they have an anonymous professional cyclist reporting to the newspaper with news. This person, I don't know who it is, he's an active rider now, said the rumour within the peloton is that Tom Pidcock is a little island within the team".

Bruyneel goes on to explain something that had already looked rather clear ahead of the Tour de France when Pidcock said that he would do his own thing, and not be told by the team what his role would be. That looked to be a detrimental step in the relationship, and although he won the mountain bike Olympics he struggled to show results on the road. Then when it seemed he could, the team management for unclear reason removed him from the lineup at Il Lombardia where he was set to be the team leader.

"He's operating on his own, he has personal mechanic, personal doctor, a person for everything. There was at some point a last year, and this may have been the beginning of the problems, at the end of the season INEOS didn't allow Pidcock to go race mountain bike in Canada. Apparently they made it very clear and he ignored those instructions and went anyway," Bruyneel shares. "That's when it started to become a frictional relationship. For the moment I'm still gonna stick to Tom Pidcock going to Q36.5 that's still my gut feeling."