Tom Pidcock urged to "think about what Mathieu van der Poel did with Alpecin-Deceuninck" following Q36.5 move

Tom Pidcock's time at the INEOS Grenadiers has ended and the multi-discipline British star has dropped down a level to sign for the ambitious Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team. Now, Pidcock has been urged to follow in the footsteps of Mathieu van der Poel at Alpecin-Deceuninck and lead Q36.5 into an era of success.

"Ivan Glasenberg is the owner of Q36.5 and he also bought Pinerolo for 200 million dollars. The value of Pidcock is that he gets good results on the road but even better results in cyclocross and mountain biking," assesses ex-pro Christian Vande Velde on the NBC Sports Cycling Podcast, Beyond the Podium.

Although Pidcock was given much freedom at the INEOS Grenadiers and allowed to combine his road ambitions with cyclocross and mountain bike, it's likely the double Olympic gold medallist will get unquestioned leadership of the Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team with almost complete autonomy to pick and choose the races best suited to his capabilities. If successful, could Pidcock lead Q36.5 into the World Tour, and into the biggest races on the calendar such as the Tour de France. Given his massive contract for a second tier team, it's potentially this that is the plan.

For this to happen, Vande Velde urges Pidcock to try and folloq in the footsteps of Mathieu van der Poel. "Pidcock is going to a team with a much smaller budget, but think about what Van der Poel did with Alpecin-Deceuninck," he explains. "When he first went to the Tour of Flanders, I didn't know a single other rider in that team. Now it's a great, incredible team. We need more important players, but in the Tour work I don't see it happening next year."

"Smaller teams that become bigger: it's happened before," adds Tejay van Garderen. "Sometimes you need that one rider and that lifts a team to a higher level. It's not that they're not used to riding big races. It's a reincarnation of Qhubeka. Those guys know what they're doing and have good riders. They just needed a certain focus. Tom Pidcock is going to give them that. It will be interesting to see what freedom he gets. I'm sure that being able to participate in cyclocross and mountain biking was part of the contract negotiations."