'I was in the best shape of my life' - Tom Pidcock on how he learnt to enjoy Grand Tour racing in 2025

What a difference a year makes.

12 months ago, Tom Pidcock was caught up in a bitter divorce with Ineos Grenadiers and unsure of his future. He was the Olympic mountain bike champion and Amstel Gold Race winner, but was struggling. The negativity and doubts about his future were hurting his natural desire for freedom and fun that cycling has always given him.

Fast forward to the 2025 off-season, and life is now good for the 26-year-old Yorkshireman. Last week, he got engaged to his longtime partner, Bethany Zajac, during a holiday in the Seychelles. This week, he is riding the seven-day Gravel Burn stage race in South Africa. But not even a rain-soaked first stage could take away his smile and a deeper sense of satisfaction.

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"I think I can be really happy with this year. We accepted it might be a bit of a write-off, a kind of transition to build for the future. But in the end, it went really well. I was in the best shape of my life," Pidcock told Cyclingnews before he dived into the off-season, switched off his work phone and proposed to Bethany.

"I can only see myself growing even more this year and being even better next year. We'll also have more time and more knowledge, thanks to new people in the team and in my personal team."

A year ago, Pidcock was in the midst of leaving Ineos Grenadiers for Q36.5. It was a step down from a WorldTour team to a ProTeam, but it proved to be a liberation in many other ways. He became the undisputed team leader but had the responsibility to get results, score a haul of UCI ranking points and prove his critics wrong after an often difficult time at Ineos. He arguably achieved all of those things in 2025.

Cyclingnews suggested three words to describe Pidcock's transformation in 2025: Change, happiness and freedom. After some thought, he opted for his own words to describe his year.

"Confidence and the belief of everyone around me, that was an important thing," he said, carefully pronouncing each word.

"Then there was the knowledge and the professionalism, too, in terms of training and nutrition. It's the highest level that I've ever had. It was all a fresh start, so there was the mental excitement about the challenge that we faced."

One of Pidcock's biggest strengths is his belief in his own ability. He is a straight talker, with little patience for bullshit or management spiel.

He just wants to get on with his life, his racing and career. He has created his own success, combining his many different talents in road racing, mountain biking and cyclocross. He is a maverick in many ways, but also ambitious and a natural leader. He probably wouldn't fit in many WorldTour teams, but seems to be flourishing at Q36.5.

"I feel really involved and part of the wider team, rather than just turning up to races and being a leader. That's something I also really enjoy," Pidcock says.

"I think I show leadership on the bike but also off the bike, helping to grow the team and helping to make decisions. There are definitely things I can be better at, but I enjoy leadership. It's where I naturally want to be."

The success of 2025 and learning to love Grand Tour racing at the Vuelta a España

Pidcock officially left Ineos on December 4 and confirmed he would ride for Q36.5 two days later with a provocative post on Instagram saying '2025 is about to get lit' as he struck a match, ending a moment of darkness.

Pidcock had joined Ineos in 2021 after racing on and off-road with the Trinity Racing team, his agent Andrew McQuaid built around him.

In 2019, he was the under-23 cyclocross world champion and won the under-23 Paris-Roubaix. In 2020, he dominated the under-23 Giro d'Italia. He won the 2022 elite cyclocross world title in Fayetteville and the stage to L'Alpe d'Huez on his Tour de France debut, sparking a significant boost in his Ineos contract as other teams realised his true talents.

He won Strade Bianche in 2023, but by then his relationship with Ineos was deteriorating, with some key details of tension at the 2023 Tour emerging in the Netflix 'Tour de France Unchained' series in June 2024.

Ineos was paying Pidcock to be a Tour de France leader, but he struggled to accept the season-long grind the role carries.

"There wasn't a specific moment; it was gradual," Pidcock said of the deterioration of the situation at the British team.

"Ineos is a fantastic team, they have their own motivations and their goals and how they want to achieve things. At the end of the day, what happened with me was business – it was nothing personal."

Ineos CEO John Allert simply described it as a matter of compatibility, and both sides seemed happy to have 'consciously uncoupled' even if there were reports that Ineos paid a substantial amount to end Pidcock's contract early.

Pidcock seemed to move on from his time at Ineos as easily as he pulled on his new blue and silver Q6.5 colours. He made his debut at the AlUla Tour in Saudi Arabia on January 28 and won stages 2 and 4 and the overall GC.

It was a dream start to the season, and the results continued to flow as Pidcock's smile and love for racing returned. He was second at Strade Bianche after bravely trying to go on the attack with Tadej Pogačar. He impressed at Tirreno-Adriatico and then targeted the Ardennes Classics, finishing third at La Flèche Wallonne behind Pogačar, and ninth at the Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Pidcock rode the Giro d'Italia, targeting stages but also tried to secure a good GC result, the two goals leaving him fatigued and frustrated in Rome. He won the European mountain bike title while everyone else was busy with the Tour and was immediately strong in the second half of the road season, taking second overall at the Arctic Tour of Norway.

The Vuelta was Pidcock's second Grand Tour of the season, and few expected him to gradually rise up the GC, stay there and finish third in Madrid. It was his Grand Tour epiphany.

He described it as the biggest performance of his career.

"I think I can be really happy, especially with the Vuelta…" Pidcock says of 2025 and especially the Vuelta, before Cyclingnews even begins to discuss his Grand Tour results and future plans.

Until this year's Vuelta, Pidcock had a love-hate relationship with Grand Tours. The Vuelta changed that.

"To be able to perform in a Grand Tour is probably the biggest single step I have ever made for my career. And I also enjoyed it…" Pidock adds, highlighting what is a huge factor in everything he does.

"At the Vuelta, I was racing to win stages from the lead group, rather than just suffering to keep up and trying to get a top 10. I don't really enjoy racing GC, but I do enjoy things that I'm successful in. That's why I'm a cyclist after all."

In a season of change, the Vuelta podium changed Pidcock's Grand Tour ambitions, perhaps forever. Before there was a sense of flight from the Tour, now there is a sense of fight.

"It definitely changes things in my own head regarding Grand Tours," Pidcock admits.

"Before, it was kind of a goal in other people's heads that I'd never fully got behind myself. Now it's a little bit different. I can see myself enjoying doing more Grand Tours, not just suffering for something that doesn't seem worth suffering for."

Of course, Pidcock will also ride the Ardennes Classics, race mountain bikes and dive down descents at speed in 2026.

Q36.5 have signed Fred Wright, Gravel world champion Quinten Hermans, Tom Gloag, Aimé De Gendt, Brent Van Moer and Xandro Meurisse for the cobbled Classics, and Eddie Dunbar and Chris Harper for stage races.

The Swiss-registered team is stronger and financially solid thanks to the backing of former mining and commodity billionaire Ivan Glasenberg. He owns the team, the Q36,5 clothing brand and 80% of Pinarello. The Italian brand is expected to supply bikes to the team in 2026 and has been listed as a title sponsor by the UCI.

Pinarello-Q36.5 have an automatic place in the Tour and will make their debut in the sport's biggest race. Pidcock will surely return to the Tour in 2026 as team leader.

However, he does not want to suffer and just fight for a top ten placing like in the past, so he may target stages and a spell in the yellow jersey.

"Let's see what happens," Pidcock says with logical caution.

"I didn't miss the Tour this year, but it'd be nice to go back, having earned our own place there. It gives a bit more meaning to it.

"I think that if you enjoy doing something, you do it a lot better," he says of his Tour reticence.

"There's an exponential difference if you're in better shape. If you're also enjoying it, then it makes a big difference. That's the story of my 2025, let's hope it continues in 2026."