Tom Pidcock won his first race for Q36.5 at the second time of asking on Wednesday, sprinting to the top of the Bir Jaydah Mountain Wirkah finish at the AlUla Tour on stage two.
The 25-year-old, who joined from Ineos Grenadiers in the off-season, attacked powerfully up the steep finish, beating Rainer Kepplinger (Bahrain-Victorious), Alan Hatherly (Jayco AlUla) and Eddie Dunbar (also Jayco AlUla).
It might just be the early-season AlUla Tour, but every win is important, especially when Pidcock is starting out anew in 2025; it is just his sixth professional win.
The race was shortened to just one ascent of the last climb, and also neutralised briefly, due to concerns about the road surface, but came alive again for the final 5km. Inside the final 500m, Pidcock attacked from a thinning peloton, with Dunbar following, but the former was able to hold on to victory, five seconds ahead of Kepplinger. With bonus seconds, the Q36.5 rider leads the race overall by eight seconds.
"At the moment blood," Pidcock joked to the host broadcaster when asked how the victory tasted. "Today was super important for me. New team, all these great people, and I just wanted to do them proud. The team rode brilliantly, they had full commitment for me, and yeah I was highly motivated."
"I knew I was in good shape, but this year, I'm on SRAM, the power meter is different," he said when asked about his form. "Objectively, I'm in a good place. But after a winter where you haven't competed against anyone, you've done a lot of efforts on your own, you actually don't know. It's nice to get a bit of assurance."
"The first time I thought I'd test the waters a little bit," Pidcock said of his attack. "Today we just thought about winning the stage, it wasn't about GC. I felt the wind a bit and thought I'd wait a bit longer. We got to 500m [to go] and the road was going down to the left, the right was a bit higher, so I went right and used that section to attack. It was a little bit fast, the last 200m. I'm just super happy.
"Before coming here we said today was the day to win the race, it's easier to defend than take time later in the race. Now, hopefully, there's a bit of a buffer. It's still all to play for, but we're in a strong position."
