Bold claim: Opening Weekend didn’t tell the full story about Tom Pidcock’s season-start. The images and results this past weekend in Belgium challenged a month of upbeat narrative, leaving many wondering what really happened. By Saturday at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Pidcock sat 48th and wasn’t shaping the decisive moves. The gap between expectations from his late-January form in Spain and what unfolded in the cold Belgian wind was striking.
The explanation, at least from within the squad, leans more on physiology than tactics. Fred Wright, Pidcock’s teammate at Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling, gave a blunt read to IDL Pro Cycling: the Chile camp had seemed promising, but fitness and adaptation collided with the Belgian onset of winter weather. Wright recalled how they were joking about Europe’s snow and rain in Chile, only to hear a very different joke when Saturday arrived:
“We were laughing at us on Saturday.”
The Chilean camp factor
Pidcock and a small group of teammates chose altitude training in Chile at the start of the year, swapping winter mileage in Spain for warmer climes and higher-altitude stimulus. Early signs looked positive. Pidcock finished runner-up at Clásica Jaén and won the final stage of Andalucia, finishing third overall.
Belgium presented a harsher reality. “I really suffered in the cold,” Wright admitted about Omloop. He’s generally strong in winter conditions, trained through the chill in recent seasons, but Omloop felt genuinely grim that day.
Pidcock described a “beginner’s mistake” with clothing and endured a mechanical and a bike change after the race had already split. By the time critical selections formed, he found himself back on the back foot with little chance to rebound.
For Wright, the issue wasn’t a dramatic drop in form but a mismatch of adaptation. “The altitude camp’s effect is really good because I feel great in training,” he noted. “An altitude camp ahead of the classics is nice because it means you’re strong in the races you actually want to be strong in.” That last line carries extra weight.
A promising start to 2026
Despite Opening Weekend’s hiccup, Pidcock has already shown he can deliver when it matters most. The road ahead features Strade Bianche and Milano–Sanremo, with the Ardennes in the pipeline. Early results in Spain indicated the engine is still there.
Wright laughed about Pidcock’s late-season heroics on the Ruta del Sol, suggesting that kind of front-running is exactly what you want to see from a racer of his caliber. “If you’ve got a guy like Tom, you love riding on the front when he does things like that,” he said, expressing genuine anticipation for the rest of the season.
The shift at Q36.5 goes beyond race results. Wright highlighted a mental refresh: the altitude camp didn’t drastically change training load, but it offered a novel experience that re-energized the team. Physically they’ve moved forward, and mentally they’ve reset as well.
This season’s narrative mirrors the broader story at Q36.5: Tom Pidcock sits at the heart of the project as the team seeks freedom and fewer constraints, aiming to race with less pressure and more joy all year.
Opening Weekend may end up being more of a temperature check than a verdict. The tough miles endured in altitude and warmth must now translate to damp, European February conditions. If the Chilean block pays off—whether on the gravel of Strade Bianche or the classic avenues of San Remo—the memory of being laughed at in Flanders could fade quickly. For Pidcock, the spring story remains unfinished, with chapters still to be written.
