GB's Pidcock to leave Ineos Grenadiers team

Pidcock won mountain biking gold at the Olympics in Tokyo and Paris

Great Britain's Tom Pidcock is to leave the Ineos Grenadiers team at the end of the season.

The 25-year-old has been with the team since 2021 and will depart despite having signed a new five-year contract in 2022.

Pidcock retained his Olympic mountain bike title when he won gold at the Games in Paris this year.

For Ineos, he won a stage of the Tour de France in 2022, while also claiming victory in the prestigious Strade Bianche and Amstel Gold Race one-day classics.

However, he failed to win a stage at this year's Tour de France and there was speculation over the rider's relationship with the team's management.

In October, Pidcock said he had been "deselected" for the Giro di Lombardia "just as things were on the up after a turbulent end to the year".

"So many amazing memories that will stick with me for a lifetime," said Pidcock following the announcement of his exit.

"I can't thank enough all the hard-working people in the team who brought so much and helped me achieve my dreams - thank you Ineos Grenadiers.

"Going to miss you boys. When one door closes another opens."

Ineos Grenadiers chief executive John Allert said: "We’re really proud of the work we've done with Tom to help him achieve some extraordinary and memorable moments.

"Together we've written a powerful chapter and shown how exciting and diverse professional cycling can be.

"Tom has some big multi-disciplinary goals and we believe this decision enables both of us to pursue our future ambitions with clarity, purpose and determination.

"We thank Tom for the last four years and wish him the best of luck for the future."

Analysis

Matt Warwick, BBC Sport

He was the next big British hero, for the big British team. And he was on a big contract.

Pidcock is a rider unlike previous Sky-era home heroes, such as Tour winners Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas - in physiology and character.

He is a self-confessed daredevil, who takes as much pleasure in throwing himself out of a moving speedboat as he does descending a mountain at 90km/h in the Tour.

And Ineos were perfectly happy for him to live that life, even if in recent times Thomas himself said of Pidcock's inter-team presence: "The people around Tom don’t help."

But what was harder to pin down was what kind of rider Pidcock was to a high-budget team expected to win the Tour de France for the first time since 2019.

Many hoped he would go on to challenge for the overall yellow jersey after his astonishing stage 12 victory on Alpe d'Huez in 2022, but it was becoming gradually acknowledged that he is more of a one-day specialist on a road or mountain bike.

Pidcock will go on to win big races on a big contract elsewhere. But he, like every other rider in the modern era, operates in the shadow of the mighty Tadej Pogacar, the reigning Tour champion.

And it is the next Pogacar that Ineos need in order to rediscover their status in a sport which is leaving them behind.