Professional cyclist Mark Donovan has said the signing of world class rider Tom Pidcock is a massive boost for his Q36.5 team.
Donovan, a former Keswick School student from Penruddock, has competed in the Swiss outfit’s colours for the past two years and previously rode for Team Sunweb (formerly DSM).
The 25-year-old recently penned a two-year extension to his contract which will keep him with Q36.5 for 2025 and 2026. They are currently attached to the UCI Pro Series — the second tier of men’s elite road cycling competition.
Donovan has appeared in two Grand Tour events — the legendary Tour de France in 2021 and, the previous year, the Vuelta a Espana. He is continuing to make excellent progress and in September he finished fourth overall in the Tour of Britain, bettering his fifth place of 2023.
Currently based in Andorra, Donovan is back on the bike preparing for another year of competition after a short break.
“It’s all been pretty good so far, smooth sailing,” he told the Herald. “I’ve been back on the bike for about a month now, training well and just building up slowly but steadily. It’s still quite a while until the first races so I don’t want to get carried away and do too much, too early.
“It’s just about building a good base at the moment. I’ll be off to a training camp pretty soon, and then another in January. Hopefully I can start the season and first races going well.”
In the meantime Donovan is digesting the recent announcement that multi-talented Pidcock, a former Olympic mountain biking gold medallist and cyclo-cross world champion, will join him at Q36.5 next year after leaving Ineos Grenadiers.
“It’s definitely a bit of a surprise,” admitted Donovan. “Normally big signings like this aren’t done as late as December. There have been some rumours for a while now.
“It’s massive for the team and I think it’s going to put the team in a new light and really show what we’re capable of.
“I’ve known him for a long time actually. We grew up racing cyclo-cross together — he was pretty good! He was the guy to chase down. Hopefully now that we’re team-mates it’s going to be really nice.
“He’s one of the best riders in the world. He also does it across classics, climbs and off-road, mountain biking, everything. Very few riders can say that.”
Yorkshireman Pidcock has confirmed on Instagram that he will not compete in cyclo-cross this winter, opting instead to prepare for road racing in 2025.
“It’s definitely nice to have another Brit in the camp,” said Donovan. “We’re an English-speaking team anyway so it doesn’t change so much with that. It’s the first time actually I’ve ever had a British team-mate — even on DSM I was always the odd one out. It’ll be a good time.”
