Tom Pidcock reflects on Ineos exit: ‘Probably the best decision I’ve ever made’

The Briton walked away at the end of 2024 despite having a contract through 2027, before joining Q36.5 for the following season. The departure itself, he says, was already more or less decided. Finding the right team to continue his career with took considerably longer.

“At the time, my departure from Ineos was pretty much certain,” Pidcock told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “But choosing the team to join was a long process. It took a lot of thought and time to reach a decision.

“Now I can comfortably say that, yes, it was probably the best decision I have ever made in my career.”

Asked whether he felt his time at Ineos had simply run its course, Pidcock was brief.

“We both thought it was better to separate.”

The move has allowed Pidcock to continue pursuing the unusually broad programme that has defined his career.

He is a former cyclocross world champion, a two time mountain bike world champion and a two time Olympic champion in the discipline. On the road, he has won Strade Bianche, Amstel Gold Race, Milano Torino and a Tour de France stage on Alpe d’Huez.

His third place at the 2025 Vuelta a España added another dimension, showing that he could also compete for a Grand Tour general classification.

That versatility is again on display this month. Less than four weeks after winning the mountain bike world title in Val di Sole, Pidcock has switched back to the road and is preparing for another shot at a rainbow jersey.

He admits the transition is not straightforward.

“The second transition is more difficult,” Pidcock said when asked whether switching from road to mountain bike or the other way around was harder.

“After the Tour it was difficult. It took me a long time to feel comfortable on the bike again in training. It is also difficult to keep the motivation high when I do not feel good.”

His participation in the mountain bike World Championships was not even certain in the weeks after the Tour.

“After the Tour, we left the decision about the mountain bike World Championships open for three weeks,” he said.

“Then I started to feel better and began doing more intense training, and we said, ‘OK, we can try.’

“It went really well, but now going back the other way is harder. That is why I raced in Italy and then the Canadian races before the World Championships.”

Pidcock returned to road racing with a win in Larciano, but the bigger target is the World Championships.

He does not consider himself the leading favourite, pointing instead to Remco Evenepoel, Isaac del Toro and Paul Seixas.

“I am not the favourite,” Pidcock said. “I think that role belongs to Evenepoel, Del Toro and Seixas. But I’ll fight for it.”

Pidcock has already shown this season that he can challenge the biggest names on the road. At Milan Sanremo, he stayed with Tadej Pogačar through to the finish before losing out in the sprint. Even so, he said the previous edition had left him with more regret, after a crash prevented him from following Mathieu van der Poel, Pogačar and Filippo Ganna on the Cipressa.

“Maybe I was more disappointed the year before,” he said. “I think I could have stayed with them. Then, of course, this year I came really close.”

The world title is one of the races Pidcock wants most. After winning the mountain bike rainbow jersey in Val di Sole, he said that if he could choose just one more road race to win in his career, it would be the World Championships.

Mountain bike remains part of his plans as well. Pidcock intends to target a third consecutive Olympic title at Los Angeles 2028, although he has yet to decide whether he will also contest the road race.

“Yes, that is the plan,” he said. “I do not know if I will combine it with the road race. We will see.”

First, there is Sunday’s road race and another chance to add a world title on the road.