One year on from Tom Pidcock’s nadir at Ineos Grenadiers, the 26-year-old returns to the race that finally spelled the end of his difficult relationship with the British team. When he spoke to The Independent earlier this year, he would not be drawn on that episode, with only a wry chuckle betraying any hint of emotion about it. But he admitted that he had a “point to prove” earlier in the season, amid plenty of lively debate over his move to lower-tier team Q36.5. There could be no better place to hammer the point home than in Lombardy this weekend.
This time last year Pidcock was enjoying a fine run of late-season form, finishing second at the Giro dell’Emilia, one of a series of autumnal one-day races building up to the year’s final Monument, Il Lombardia. He was second only to Tadej Pogacar, so essentially the best of the mere mortals.
That did not stop Ineos from, at the last minute, and to widespread surprise, removing him from their squad for Il Lombardia. It was an astonishing move, shooting themselves in the foot as well as Pidcock. No logical explanation was forthcoming. But it was clear that Pidcock’s relationship with the team had imploded.
It was also clear that Ineos’ time as a power player in the sport was long since over, reduced from competing for titles to small-minded bickering. The best-placed Ineos rider ended up being Thymen Arensman, over seven minutes down in an anonymous 15th place.
A year on, things are quite different, on both sides of the divorce – one that was ultimately amicable, Pidcock has been at pains to stress. The Brit is once again in a late-season flush of form, having established himself as a serious grand tour contender with a third-place finish at the Vuelta a Espana. He has carried that form into the autumn Italian classics, taking another second place at dell’Emilia earlier this week – this time behind Pogacar’s young disciple Isaac del Toro, rather than the Slovenian himself.
There was no World Championships medal on the inhumanely difficult Rwandan course, but this has been a season of growing maturity and improving consistency, leaving Ineos well and truly behind. There has been something of a shift in attitude, too, a more relaxed, easily-worn confidence in his interviews, a clear synergy with his team.
For Ineos, it has been – like so many of their recent seasons – a year in flux, with off-bike dramas in the headlines as much as results on the road. A long-serving staff member was alleged to have exchanged messages with disgraced doping doctor Mark Schmidt, with the case under investigation by the International Testing Agency. There will be a major absence on the team bus next year after Geraint Thomas, the lynchpin of the team, hung up his cleats.
On the positive side, their Tour de France was rescued by two stage wins courtesy of rangy Dutch climber Arensman. The expensively-acquired Egan Bernal has finally appeared back in the vicinity of his best, if not quite his best, with a stage win at the Vuelta three and a half years on from a crash which nearly killed him.
But cycling has moved on in those years, and the one-time wunderkind Bernal is no longer the future. Ineos, as has been said many times, have been left behind. Work is underway to remedy that, although whether it has the desired effect remains to be seen. French petrochemicals giant TotalEnergies has joined as a jersey sponsor, while ‘marginal gains’ behemoth Dave Brailsford has returned to the fold, masterminding things behind the scenes.
French climber Kevin Vauquelin has just been announced as a new rider. After coming seventh at the Tour this year and a former Tour de France stage winner, Ineos will be desperate for the 24-year-old to succeed where others like Carlos Rodriguez, Arensman and in latter years Bernal have fallen short. Brailsford, intriguingly, was the only Ineos management figure to be quoted on the signing, rather than chief executive John Allert. A new era is underway, they hope.
Over at Q36.5 HQ, Project Pidcock is gathering pace too. This year’s Vuelta podium was achieved with a comparatively overachieving squad; that has been bolstered by a raft of clever signings, with WorldTour riders Eddie Dunbar, Chris Harper and Fred Wright joining the team over the winter. More and more riders are buying into the culture and the idea of a disruptor team. It certainly hasn’t pulled its punches this year.
Pidcock brings his season to a close with one final, brutal weekend of racing: Il Lombardia on Saturday, the gravel World Championships on Sunday. A cyclocross programme may follow, although he admitted earlier this year it is unlikely as he focuses on the road. Years on from Ineos trying to force their multi-disciplinary rider into a grand tour box, that same rider is willingly sacrificing other elements of his career to turn himself into a force over three weeks.
But that is not at the expense of the one-day races. Lombardia is, like every race he enters, Pogacar’s to lose. But the peloton’s great and good will all descend on Lombardy this weekend, one last school reunion for the class of 2025: besides Pidcock, Remco Evenepoel, Primoz Roglic, Jai Hindley, Del Toro, Ben Healy, Oscar Onley, Mattias Skjelmose and French starlet Paul Seixas will all be confident of a result. One major name is missing: Jonas Vingegaard’s abortive experiment in one-day racing at the European Championships is over for another year.
Even the best are not invincible and Pogacar has of course been beaten this year – including by three riders on the startlist: Evenepoel, Skjelmose, and Filippo Ganna. But it is vanishingly unlikely this weekend as he looks to equal Fausto Coppi’s long-standing record of five wins at Il Lombardia, and set a new record as the first to ever win five consecutive editions.
Whatever happens, it will be a spectacle. Victory would only add to the ever-more-spectacular Pogacar story. Defeat would no doubt make him even hungrier for 2026.
There could be no better end to this chapter of Pidcock’s career – one year on from hitting rock bottom with Ineos – than the Briton, no stranger to disrupting the status quo, beating Pogacar in his own backyard.
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