Making light work: how Tom Pidcock's Q36.5 Tour kit is designed to beat the heat

Competing in the Tour de France for the first time is a major milestone for the Pinarello Q36.5 UCI ProTeam, which was only founded in 2023. It’s also the first time Tom Pidcock has ridden the Grande Boucle with the team, though he’s no stranger to the race itself, having memorably won solo on top of Alpe d’Huez in 2022. What can he do this year?

He was challenging for the win on stage nine but was thwarted by a freak mechanical problem with his shifter paddle in the final kilometres – a small piece of asphalt with bitumen had become lodged in the housing, preventing it from moving normally – meaning he had to sprint on the hoods and use the bonus button on top to change gear. He still finished an impressive third behind Mathieu van der Poel and Tobias Halland Johannessen.

In the meantime, his team’s title clothing sponsor is ensuring that nothing is left to chance as far as his kit is concerned: the premium Italian clothing brand decided to create a special limited-edition racing kit to be worn throughout the three weeks.

Replacing the dark blue-black fade jersey and black shorts of the regular kit is a lighter palette of light greys and blues that not only give the riders a fresher summer look, but is intended to more effectively reflect the heavy solar radiation the riders experienced in the scorching first week. Stage nine itself, from Malemort to Ussel in central France, was shortened due to a red-alert heatwave warning in which temperatures were forecast to climb to 41°C.

In the words of Q36.5’s creative director, Lodovico Pignatti Morano: “The use of lighter colours visually sharpens the detailed presence of Q36.5’s technology within the rider's garments, drawing attention to the body-mapped construction of the rider’s skinsuits as tones of blue change from panel to panel with the different yarns reacting differently to the printing process. Similarly, the Tarmac Grey Dottore Pro bib shorts, by using a lighter colour, draw attention to the integrated multiple densities of weave within the leg panels. The result is not just the most technically sophisticated skinsuit in the peloton but also the visually richest.” 

While the Dottore Pro Team skinsuit in the lighter colours is for the pro riders only at the moment, Q36.5 is releasing a collection comprising a separate jersey and shorts that are available to the public. 

The Gregarius Clima Pro Cycling Team Limited Edition Jersey is built around Q36.5’s advanced body-mapping approach using three different fabrics, including ultralight mesh materials across the chest and back, to support thermoregulation during high-intensity efforts in extreme heat. It also introduces a new 6mm ribbed aero sleeve fabric, a proprietary raglan sleeve design for adaptive fit, and a power mesh pocket construction that the brand says was developed to maintain breathability without compromising function.

Meanwhile the Dottore Pro Cycling Team Limited Edition Bib Shorts are, according to Q36.5, the latest expression of its woven bib-short technology. Developed around four-zone body mapping, the Dottore Pro bib shorts are designed to deliver comfort, support and thermoregulation over the longest and hardest race days.

The Dottore Pro bibs feature Q36.5’s proprietary two-layer Q LAB Air Chamois, which deploys silver thread for antibacterial and conductive advantages, and a light compressive fit designed to support muscle fibre alignment and chamois stability during the pedalling.

In a nod to tradition, there’s also the Pro Cycling Team Limited Edition Summer Cap, which Q36.5 says is a “ventilated reinterpretation of the classic cycling cap” in the same light blue finish.

Needless to say, the team’s Pinarello Dogma F race bikes get a special matching livery with gold decals.

Luigi Bergamo, founder of Q36.5 and head of R&D, explained before the Grand Départ what riding the Tour de France means for his brand: “From our humble beginnings in 2023 when we founded the team together with our partners with a naive dream of creating a professional ‘factory team’ to where we now sit, less than four years later, preparing for the Tour de France with this exceptional group of athletes and staff is incredible. I am very proud to have participated in the development of this team, and even to look at the difference between the level and breadth of our own supply in 2023 and today is a source of satisfaction. The kit we are providing to the team represents not just the pinnacle of what the company can do from a performance point of view, marrying comfort, aerodynamics and thermoregulation in an innovative way for elite competition, but is also a visual tribute to this milestone.”

Q36.5 itself was founded in 2013 by Bergamo and Sabrina Emmasi in the Dolomites. ‘Q’ is from the Latin quaerare – to query or research – while 36.5 is the temperature of a healthy human body in degrees centigrade. 

The Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team Tour de France Limited Edition kit launched just before the start of the race and is available in limited quantities via Q36.5’s website.