Tom Pidcock’s Grand Tour veteran teammate announces retirement after eight years in the pro peloton
Cycling
Tom Pidcock’s Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team teammate Matteo Badilatti has announced his retirement from professional cycling at the age of 34, bringing more than eight years in the professional peloton to an end.
The Swiss climber has spent the past four seasons with Q36.5, including the last two alongside Pidcock, having previously raced at WorldTour level with Israel Start-Up Nation and Groupama-FDJ. His career included appearances at both the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España, while his final weeks as a professional have taken him through the Italian autumn classics.
Badilatti announced his decision in a lengthy farewell message on Friday after what proved to be a difficult final two seasons.
“Cycling has taken me far, allowed me to discover places, meet people and experience worlds that I otherwise would never have encountered,” he wrote. “It has tested me, taught me to confront my limits, fatigue, defeats and expectations and, more than anything else, myself.”
From the WorldTour to Pidcock’s Q36.5 team
Badilatti was a relatively late arrival to the professional peloton, stepping up with Israel Cycling Academy after establishing himself on the continental scene with Team Vorarlberg. He remained with the Israel project as it moved into the WorldTour before joining Groupama-FDJ for 2021 and 2022.
He completed the 2020 Vuelta a España and 2021 Giro d’Italia during that period before becoming one of the original riders in the new Q36.5 project in 2023.
That move also brought the only professional victory of his career, on stage six of the 2023 Tour du Rwanda. Badilatti finished fifth overall at the Tour of Türkiye later that season and was still capable of producing strong results at WorldTour level the following year, taking 15th overall at the 2024 Tour de Suisse.
As Q36.5 developed, Badilatti increasingly provided experience and climbing support rather than chasing results of his own. Pidcock’s arrival for 2025 raised the level and ambitions of the Swiss ProTeam, with Badilatti remaining part of the squad through both of the Briton’s first two seasons.
The pair were together in the Q36.5 line-up at the Coppa Agostoni earlier this month, where Pidcock finished 18th and Badilatti did not finish. Badilatti then started the Coppa Bernocchi the following day, his most recent race appearance.
Looking back on the years that took him from a late start in the sport to Grand Tours and the WorldTour, Badilatti said cycling had given him “victories and disappointments”, along with experiences he would carry beyond his racing career.
“Behind every result there is much more than a number or a position in the standings,” he wrote, pointing to “difficult days, sacrifices, doubts, crashes, fresh starts” and the repeated choice to continue.
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Difficult final seasons precede retirement
Badilatti struggled throughout 2025 without initially understanding why his performances had fallen away, despite training numbers suggesting his physical condition should have allowed more.
Extensive testing eventually traced the problem to his position on the bike. Speaking to Swiss broadcaster RTR in May, Badilatti explained that he had been recruiting the wrong muscles and was unable to access his full physical capacity as efforts became harder.
Correcting the position did not produce an immediate return to his previous level. Badilatti said he had to unlearn established movement patterns and retrain his body, while another difficult spring in 2026 led him to reset his approach and focus on that process.
He returned to racing later in the season, but there was no repeat of the form that had carried him to 15th at the Tour de Suisse two years earlier. His final campaign ultimately ended without a top-level resurgence before Friday’s retirement announcement.
Badilatti thanked his family and friends, teammates, team management, staff and sponsors for accompanying him through both the successful and more difficult periods. “Without you, none of it would have been possible and, above all, it would not have been the same,” he wrote.
The Swiss rider has not yet revealed what will follow his racing career, describing retirement as the beginning of a new adventure. His departure also brings to an end a four-season association with Q36.5 for one of the riders who had been part of the project since its inaugural 2023 campaign.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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