Longtime Coach Defends Pidcock from Critics: 'If You See What He's Won, How Can You Say It's Not Enough?'

Tom Pidcock has defied being pigeon-holed since the start of his professional cycling and that’s not changing now as he pedals into an ambitious spring campaign in his move to start-up Q36.5 Pro Cycling.

This week, Pidcock is facing his next challenge in the new chapter of his career with the five-stage Ruta del Sol.

Starting Wednesday, it’s another opportunity to prove everyone wrong again.

After leaving the star-studded Ineos Grenadiers, doubters still question whether the head-turning move with pay off when it really counts in the season’s major dates.

Speaking exclusively to Velo, his longtime coach and mentor Kurt Bogaerts says he cannot understand comments from the occasional “haters” about the quality and potential of his star pupil.

“I read things about Tom, and you see the palmarès and then people say sometimes, ‘yeah, nice, but we expected more.’ Then I say what? What do you expect?!’” Bogaerts told Velo. “If you see what he wins until now, it’s quite insane — double Olympic champion, world champion in two disciplines, winning some quite big races on the road like Strade Bianche and an iconic stage at the Tour de France — and I started with a kid of 18 and then when he’s 25 he’s done all this?

“How is that not enough”? Bogaerts asked. “In today’s current atmosphere, not everyone can win the Tour de France at 20 years old.”

For Bogaerts and everyone inside the Q36.5 bus, there’s the feeling that Pidcock’s already prodigious and young career is just starting.

Ruta del Sol is the next test ahead of an ambitious spring calendar.

Full road pivot has already started

When Velo sat down with Bogaerts for an extensive interview at the team’s recent camp along Spain’s Mediterranean coast, there was already a buzz about Pidcock’s arrival after his stunning late-season decision to jettison from Ineos Grenadiers.

And almost immediately came the questions, the hype, and the pressure.

The success in Saudi Arabia helped take the edge off — with two stage wins and the GC — but Bogaerts has no doubts but Pidcock’s ability to surpass expectations.

And why not? Bogaerts said Pidcock’s full road potential remains untapped.

“What he has shown on the road is just the tip of the iceberg. People who are close to Tom know this,” he told Velo. “I’m 100 percent confident in that. Tom has had pressure since he was 16 years old.”

Also read: Will the Pidcock gamble pay off?

Bogaerts is the mastermind behind Pidcock’s meteoric, multi-disciplinary rise that includes huge wins in mountain bike, cyclocross and road racing.

He’s tagged along with Pidcock in the blockbuster transfer to leave Ineos Grenadiers, a team that helped usher in the modern era of cycling, to Q36.5, a team built on the DNA of the former Qhubeka WorldTour team.

Bogaerts said he and Pidcock considered their options once the decision was made to leave, and Q36.5 offered all the same tools and resources as any WorldTour team in the peloton.

“I don’t feel it as a step back. It’s definitely a team with potential for growth. That’s the goal. I think we have similar goals. Tom wants to progress in his career and the team wants to progress,” Bogaerts said. “Our ambition is to compete with the best riders in the world on certain days, and I think that’s a healthy ambition.”

What the other teams didn’t offer was a chance for Pidcock to settle into a team that he could call his own. He gets that in his three-year deal with Q36.5.

“Tom is a winner. He has the physical and mental capabilities to win the biggest races on the calendar, and that’s what we need to go after,” he said. “That’s what Tom wants and that’s what the team wants.”

Major goals: Monument glory and longterm GC

After Pidcock confirmed his spring 2025 calendar last week, Bogaerts revealed to Velo that the overriding target is to win a monument. Whether that happens this spring or not remains to be seen.

So far, Pidcock’s won some big stuff, but a monument — one of the five iconic one-day races sprinkled across the calendar — has so far avoided his grasp.

“Yes, winning a monument is a top priority. Milan-San Remo has been close in the past, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège is a great opportunity—he was second there before and is strong at that time of year,” Bogaerts said.

Also read: Pidcock hits record power numbers in GC win

“Last year, he won Amstel Gold Race, so we know he can go the monument distance,” he said. “We weren’t able to do Il Lombardia, but he was second in Giro dell’Emilia just before that. He has the ability to be in contention for every monument he races.”

Working as both a coach and mentor, Bogaerts will continue to tinker with Pidcock’s engine. So far, the results are encouraging, with Pidcock confirming he set new personal power records at the recent AlUla Tour.

Will it be enough to battle the likes of Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar in six-hour-plus efforts of the monuments? Bogaerts cautioned not to sell Pidcock short.

“When we say we want to win a monument, that means consistently finishing in the top five or top three—if you’re always there, you can also win.”

Grand tour ambitions: Two in 2025?

With an eye toward the future, Bogaerts hopes Pidcock will race not just one, but two grand tours in 2025 in a statement of intent that reveals the depth of the ambitions of both Pidcock and Q36.5.

Everyone inside the organization is waiting on eggshells for the grand tour invitations to be doled out.

They’re usually out by now, but the major grand tours are wrangling to try to get extra space for more teams, all good news for Q36.5.

Also read: How the Pidcock-Q36.5 deal came together

Incredibly, at least for a team that’s not raced one grand tour yet, it hopes to race two in 2025.

“I think it’s quite simple. We focus on what we know we can do,” Bogaerts said. “Beyond that, we’ll see what opportunities come our way.

“This is a three-year project, hopefully longer. In the benefit of his career, it would be amazing if he could ride two grand tours this year,” Bogaerts told Velo. “The Giro would allow him to target key stages. There’s a Strade Bianche-style stage that suits him, plus high-mountain stages.

“Later in the year, the Vuelta is another option, and of course, we have the world championships to consider. “

In an ideal world, the team races both the Giro and Vuelta this year, and secure a treasured invite to the Tour de France in 2026.

“We don’t want to rush GC ambitions, but two grand tours this year would be great preparation for the future,” Bogaerts said.

“I’m confident that if we get invited, we won’t disappoint the organizers. Tom is a special talent, and we want to show what he can do.”

MTB, CX still on the horizon

Bogaerts also confirmed that mountain biking and cyclocross will remain part of Pidcock’s racing future, though road racing will take the front seat in the next few seasons.

If there were hiccups in his road progression in 2024, it was partly because defending the gold medal in Paris became an obsession for Pidcock last season.

“Paris was a massive goal. We actually succeeded too early. We didn’t expect to win in Tokyo, we were just hoping for a medal, but he won,” Bogaerts said. “Becoming a double Olympic champion was incredible, and I think in four years, the Olympics will still be a major goal for him. Winning three Olympic gold medals would be unique, and if the opportunity is there, we will go for it.”

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At the same time, Bogaerts acknowledges that Pidcock’s off-road ambitions have slowed his development as a road rider, but they have also made him the athlete he is today.

“The Olympics took time away from his road development, but it’s Tom’s life, Tom’s career, and I think that was the right attitude,” Bogaerts said. “He had to go for his dreams and, and he succeeded in them and at the same time he he delivered on the road already, but I think we can definitely improve his results on the road.”

Bogaerts said there will be space on his calendar for both mountain biking and cyclocross, which will be back on the winter schedule for 2025-26.

“There will always be a place for off road,” he said. “Mentally it’s something he likes and I think also physically cyclocross and mountain bike bring enough benefits to keep doing it. I think soon we will know more about the real calendar we have, and then we can make a plan and yeah, I’m not too stressed about that.”

There are plenty of other things to stress about in the meantime.