Tom Pidcock has officially become an Ineos Grenadier. A day after finishing fourth at the Cyclocross World Championships, the British WorldTour team unveiled their latest rider in his new team kit on social media.
The 21-year-old Yorkshireman was the marquee name to put pen to paper with the Ineos Grenadiers this winter, joining a raft of new statement signings along with Adam Yates, Richie Porte, Laurens De Plus and Dani Martinez.
Pidcock had initially agreed to join the men’s WorldTour from 1st March, however decided in January to bring forward his transfer to 1st February following the cyclocross Worlds, in which he just missed out on the podium of the elite men’s race, finishing fourth some 90 seconds down on eventual winner Mathieu van der Poel.
The decision to bring Pidcock’s signing forward means that we will see him debut in an Ineos team kit this month after he revealed his race schedule to the Laterne Rouge Podcast last month.
‘I’ll be racing. I’m [racing] Mediterranean Epic the mountain bike race first, then [Volta ao] Algarve and Opening Weekend [Kuurne-Brusselles-Kuurne and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad]. I’m not having much of a break, I’m going straight into the road,’ Pidcock said.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus situation, the Volta ao Algarve has been postponed until May meaning Pidcock’s Ineos debut is likely to now fall on opening Classics weekend at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
After opening weekend, the former junior time-trial World Champion will turn his attention to Strade Bianche, followed by a series of mountain bike races in June and then the Tokyo Olympics in the summer. Following that, Pidcock is down to make his Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta a Espana.
One race missing from Pidcock’s first-year pro on the road, however, is Paris-Roubaix – which he has already won at junior and U23 level.