Tom Pidcock will continue to ride a Pinarello in 2025 despite the two-time Olympic champion’s high-profile move away from Ineos Grenadiers, though the British rider will only turn to the Italian brand for off-road riding.
Following a two-month, will-he-won’t-he transfer saga that began in mid-October, when Pidcock was ‘deselected’ from Ineos’ Il Lombardia squad, the 25-year-old has signed a new deal with the second-tier Swiss team, Q36.5 Pro Cycling, having left Ineos by mutual consent.
The Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team has a deal with Scott until the end of 2025 and, honouring that deal, Pidcock will ride the Swiss company’s bikes on the road when he joins in January.
However, Pinarello – Team Ineos’ bike supplier since the British outfit's formation in 2010 – has now confirmed that Pidcock will continue to use the brand’s bikes for off-road racing, through the course of his new three-year contract with Q36.5.
Scott for road, Pinarello for off-road
Scott, the bike supplier to Q36.5 since the team's formation in 2023, has a well-earned reputation for producing elite-level mountain bikes, including the Scott Scale hardtail and Scott Spark full-suspension machine, used by ten-time world champion and long-time Scott rider, Nino Schurter.
But, with Q36.5 Pro Cycling operating as a road team, and with no pre-existing off-road sponsorship agreements seemingly in place, Pinarello has followed Pidcock to Q36.5 to support his multi-discipline aspirations in a rare arrangement that'll see Pidcock on two bike brands in 2025. Q36.5's billionaire owner, Ivan Glasenberg, has had a controlling stake in Pinarello since June 2023.
On the road, Pidcock will wave goodbye to the Dogma F, Pinarello's aero-lightweight race bike, and will have the Scott Foil aero bike and new Scott Addict lightweight bike (if it doesn't fall foul of the UCI's weight limit) to choose from with Q36.5. In time trials, he'll ride the Scott Plasma.
Pinarello will remain part of the Pidcock picture off-road, having worked closely with the crossover star to develop its range of off-road bikes in his time with Ineos. Indeed, Pidcock had to be patient to get his hands on a Pinarello mountain bike after first joining Ineos in 2021, such was Pinarello's focus on all things road at the time.
When Pidcock won his first Olympic XC title in Tokyo in 2021, he did so on an unbadged BMC Fourstroke, because Pinarello didn’t have a relevant mountain bike in its range.
However, when Pidcock returned to the Olympics to defend his title in Paris in 2024, he won on Pinarello’s Dogma XC, while his Ineos colleague, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, won the women’s race on the Dogma hardtail.
Pidcock and Ferrand-Prévot have helped re-establish Pinarello as an elite mountain bike brand, and Pinarello, with Glasenberg's interest, is no doubt keen to continue that success with three more years of backing for Pidcock, despite the presence of Scott at Q36.5.
Dogma XC, Crossista F and Grevil F
According to Pinarello, the Dogma XC will remain Pidcock’s mountain bike of choice through 2025, with the Crossista F – the bike Pidcock won the 2022 UCI Cyclocross World Championships on – available for CX racing and the Grevil F on standby should Pidcock choose to race any gravel events.
“Working with Fausto and the team at Pinarello over the past four years has been a privilege, and a really enjoyable experience. I am so happy I get to stay working with them on everything off-road moving forwards,” said Pidcock.
"So far, we have developed three cyclo-cross and XC MTB frames together and all of them exceeded expectations from the moment I sat on them, I could not have asked for more. I felt so confident on them that I was able to race and win after the first couple of rides.”
Pinarello’s president, Fausto Pinarello, added: said: “We’re thrilled to confirm Tom will continue racing on our cyclo-cross, cross-country mountain bike and gravel bikes. He is an amazing rider with phenomenal technical skills and it’s been a pleasure working with him on the Crossista and Dogma XC, both models in segments where we hadn’t had bikes for a long time."
