"We now have a clear team objective" - Q36.5 teammate on how much difference Tom Pidcock's signing makes

Sjoerd Bax is not the headline signing of Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team this winter, but his experience with UAE Team Emirates - XRG can come valuable specially now with a winning team that is also supporting a winning Tom Pidcock. The 29-year old acknowledges that the Briton's presence has completely turned the team on it's head, in a positive way.

"I think it was only a good thing because otherwise, as a team, we might have hit a dead end. This squad has been around for about three years, but there wasn’t much real progress," Bax says in conversation with In de Leiderstrui. With teams like Tudor, Uno-X and even Kern Pharma winning at the high level and/or signing big riders, it would've made Q36.5's mission even harder this year.

But a falling out between the Olympic champion and INEOS Grenadiers, alongside Pidcock's connection with team owner Ivan Glasenberg (owner of the Pinarello bike brand, personal sponsor of the Briton) proved to be the perfect opportunity to taker the necessary step. "Now that Tom has joined, there’s been a big step forward. He brought in staff members, and we now have a clear team objective. That gives us more certainty about getting invited to big races. It’s really only been positive."

Bax will not be present at Strade Bianche this Saturday but believes Pidcock could potentially keep up with the Slovenian, even if the chances of anyone being able to do so are low. "If Tadej Pogacar is on the start line, winning will be tough. But Tom is in really great shape, and I secretly hope he can keep up. Still, I think Tadej is on another level."

The Dutch rider has not changed his training methods much, but he is very well aware that UAE (his former team) and Visma are going back and forth taking each others' training methods and evolving them even more. "If you constantly train in Zone 2, you have to push a really high wattage, which can make you lose some explosiveness. I also think that all coaches look at each other’s methods and copy what works. UAE takes ideas from Visma and vice versa, and we look at other teams too."