Geraint Thomas has suggested that the "people around" Tom Pidcock do not help him, after the latter had an apparent fallout with Ineos Grenadiers' management.
On the eve of ll Lombardia, Pidcock took to Instagram to reveal that he had been "deselected" by Ineos ahead of the final Monument of the men’s WorldTour season. Pidcock had previously been down on the provisional startlist.
"Just as things were on the up after a turbulent end to the year I am deselected for Lombardia tomorrow," Pidcock wrote on Instagram. "I am in great shape and was really looking forwarded to it! Good luck to the boys, I guess off season starts early. Thanks for everyone’s support even in the tough times."
Thomas discussed the tense situation with his Ineos teammate Laurens De Plus in a clip shared by Eurosport after the race - which was won by Tadej Pogačar - and said he knew little about the reasoning behind the move.
"I don’t actually know what has gone on," Thomas said. "It’s obviously a really c**p situation. He’s not happy, the team’s not happy. How has it got to this point? I don’t know."
"People around Tom I don’t think help," he added. "It's the fact he had a great chance of performing today. I saw that Zak said it’s a management call, it’s not a performance call. So I certainly don’t know anything about that… It’s just not good is it? All the bulls**t aside, he’s a great talent."
Ineos Grenadiers have largely remained silent since the news of Pidcock’s deselection broke. Cycling Weekly reached out to the team for a comment.
DS Zak Dempster spoke to Cyclingnews before Lombardia to discuss the situation, acknowledging that the decision looked "strange" and confirmed that it was a call from the management and not a performance-based decision. Just a few days previously Pidcock finished second to Pogačar at the Giro dell’Emilia.
"I mean, these are Tom's words. Obviously, I'm not stupid - it does look strange, but, the reality is that the team has the right to select the team they feel fits it," Dempster said.
"That's all the information I have at the moment. it was a management decision on the final team, that's their right and here we are without Tom.
"We have a process in place where we have a long list of riders and then those final seven names that go on the list - it can be a performance decision, and in this case, it was a management decision."
There has been speculation surrounding Pidcock's long term future throughout the summer. He has been heavily linked with a move away from the team and this has been amplified in the wake of his social media comments.
It was reported recently that Q36.5 Pro Cycling are one of the teams chasing the Brit’s signature. Journalist Daniel Benson has since reported that several WorldTour teams, including Visma-Lease a Bike, are also interested in Pidcock.
On the eve of this year’s Tour de France, the 25-year-old told Cycling Weekly that he believed the team would be "better" without Steve Cummings, the team’s director of racing, at the French Grand Tour. At the Olympics, Pidcock said that transfer speculation surrounding his future at Ineos Grenadiers had left him mentally "frazzled". This came after he had successfully defended his mountain bike gold.
