Lance Armstrong, Johan Bruyneel and George Hincapie's take on Tom Pidcock's move to Q36.5 - "When a guy like Pidcock goes to a team like this they will go all in for somebody like that"

At the top of the cycling world, the top teams increase their budget and sign more and more stars... But this winter we're also seeing ProTeams emerge with the signing of new stars. One such is the massive transfer of Tom Pidcock to Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team. Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie and Johan Bruyneel discuss the Briton's move.

"He goes to a team like Q36.5 that I'm looking down the roster here and there isn't some huge standouts but at the same time when a guy like Pidcock goes to a team like this they will go all in for somebody like that," former pro George Hincapie said in 'The Move' podcast. "There's not going to be questions on who's the leader in some of these one-day races, and it will really help elevate the level of the squad that they have a set plan for these races going in, they have a set leader, so I think we'll see a lot of these guys jump up a few notches in terms of their level".

It was an ambitious move and a very complex one. With three years of contract left and a huge salary on the table, the double MTB Olympic Champion and former cyclocross World Champion was a hard pawn to negotiate. But INEOS Grenadiers was not keen on maintaining the Briton, and instead focus on other riders. This opened the possibility for a transfer, and the modest Swiss ProTeam managed to sign a huge star already in December - much due to the connections with team owner Ivan Glasenberg, owner of the Pinarello bike brand which is a personal sponsor of Pidcock as well.

Johan Bruyneel continued. "I would assume that Pidcock's contract is a three-year deal, nowadays these guys don't sign for anything less than three years. I think it's also looking at the future because Q36.5 it must be quite challenging to attract talent. But there's so many other good teams that now with the figure of Pidcock there for in the future, when they have to hire new riders for the coming two years, these riders are going to be more attracted to go to this team because they have a leader who can win races". This can already be seen, as reportedly the team is close to signing Pidcock's teammate this year Elia Viviani.

Ultimately, this may be the first step towards building a big World Tour team. Fellow Swiss team Tudor also signed Marc Hirschi and Julian Alaphilippe this winter, making the team just as strong and influencial as several World Tour outfits. Lance Armstrong himself believes that this transfer was not only due to Pidcock's talent, but also the influence he'll have in the team's ability to get wildcards and atract more leaders in the future.

"It's like you're saying 'look we're here to play' and this is our first move, not our only move," he argues. "There is more and more an influx of money coming into the sport of cycling and I do want to get to this part of the conversation because I'm always fascinated and curious about the financial part of these transfers, what guys are making these days. But we've seen the influx of UAE, Bahrain, there's talk of the Saudis leaning into cycling like they did with gold..."