Tom Pidcock will be back at the Tour de France in 2026, but with his new team, Pinarello Q36.5, after they earned enough points last season to gain automatic invitations to all three Grand Tours and every WorldTour race.
It comes after the Brit took a big risk and departed Ineos Grenadiers early after a failed relationship at the end of 2024, and joined the Swiss team as their headline rider.
Pidcock went on to earn almost five times more points than any of his teammates and, mostly thanks to his Vuelta a España podium finish, led his team to finish 19th overall in the UCI rankings.
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With the work put in, a reward is a debut start at the Tour de France for the team, and a fourth appearance for Pidcock.
"The Tour de France is the biggest race in the world, the biggest bike race in the world. So yeah, to be able to go there and to try and perform the best you can is an honour," said Pidcock on the team's website.
"So I think that’s an exciting task for us as a team, to be there in the best shape possible. I think it’s really special that we’re going to the Tour de France this year.
"We have earned our place, the team, through our performances last year, that’s given us the right to go there and no one can take that away from us. So I think it’s a massive opportunity."
Pidcoc raced the Tour three seasons in a row during his time at Ineos, but with mixed success, the obvious highlight being his stunning descent and breakaway stage win up Alpe d'Huez in 2022, but he failed to win a stage in either 2023 or 2024, and his GC ambitions never really came to fruition.
What will be different when he and his teammates take the start in Barcelona, however, is that he won't be one of several co-leaders as was the case with his former team, but the main focal point and GC leader – buoyed by his maiden Grand Tour podium in September.
"I’ve had ups and downs in the Tour de France the last years, so it’s nice now, with this new team, to earn our own place there. It’s the biggest stage we have to race on," said Pidcock. "With that comes so much baggage but I think in this team they help me carry it all."
"I think personally, my biggest objective is to go there, enjoy the suffering, enjoy the intensity of the race, the media with the racing. I think if we can enjoy it and enjoy the suffering as a team, then the results will come from that.
"I think we’re a team that’s growing, so to have the opportunity to go and race the Tour is just one step along the way. Of course, where we want to go is to be at the Tour de France every year, racing every year for wins. So yeah, it’s another step on the ladder of where we want to get to, I guess."
Pidcock has most recently been training at altitude in Chile for an alternate route into his season debut at the Vuelta Ciclista a la Región de Murcia on February 13, before several big appointments at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Milan-San Remo and the Ardennes, before he builds up for the Tour.
