"We Will Make A Final Start Decision At 08:00 On Sunday Morning" — Q36.5 Pro Cycling Confirm Tom Pidcock's Friday-Night Second MRI Scan Cleared Him Of New Damage But Reclassified The Three-Week Knee Issue As A Grade-One Ligament Strain, Placing Amstel And The Full Ardennes Campaign In Doubt
Saturday 08:45 CET from the Q36.5 Pro Cycling team hotel in Valkenburg. The Swiss ProTeam issues a 120-word press release that reframes the biggest Ardennes question of the weekend. Tom Pidcock underwent a second MRI scan at the AZ Sint-Maarten hospital in Mechelen on Friday night at 22:15, two hours after the 26-year-old finished fifth at the Brabantse Pijl at fourteen seconds. The scan was clear. But the team's medical interpretation reclassified the three-week knee issue the 26-year-old has been quietly managing since the Volta a Catalunya as a grade-one medial collateral ligament strain in the right knee.
"We will make a final start decision at 08:00 on Sunday morning." Team manager Doug Ryder's single operational line in the Saturday-morning release is the line that moves the Amstel Gold Race startlist the most since the Pogačar absence was confirmed. Pidcock is still on the Sunday startsheet. A team soigneur confirmed that the number-three start number is laid out alongside the race kit in Pidcock's hotel room on Saturday afternoon. But Ryder's 08:00 line is unambiguous: any recurrence of the knee pain during the Saturday evening test spin or the Sunday morning warm-up and Pidcock does not roll out of the Vrijthof at 10:30.
The three-week pre-history of the injury matters for the Ardennes campaign picture. Pidcock first reported tightness in the right knee on the stage 2 transfer of the Volta a Catalunya on 25 March, two days after Evenepoel's pothole crash on the Stage 1 descent. An initial scan at the time of the March injury was clear. Pidcock raced on, finished Catalunya, skipped the cobbled classics, took two weeks at home in Andorra, and returned to racing at the Brabantse Pijl on Friday. "I did not expect to be dropped on the Schavei," Pidcock told reporters in the Overijse finishing pen on Friday evening. "When the pain started at 18 kilometres to go I knew something was not right. The MRI tonight will tell us." The Friday-night MRI delivered the ligament-strain reclassification.
The structural question now reaches past Sunday's Amstel Gold Race. Pidcock was scheduled to race Amstel Gold Race on Sunday 19 April, La Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday 22 April, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday 26 April — the three-race Ardennes sweep he had targeted as his standalone 2026 season defining block. Q36.5's internal 2026 strategy has Pidcock scoring WorldTour points across the Ardennes to secure the team's 2027 WorldTour licence bid. The team medical staff now confirm that a full three-race Ardennes campaign on a grade-one MCL strain is "not recommended." Ryder: "We will manage race by race. Sunday is not yet decided. Wednesday we decide on Sunday night. Next Sunday we decide on Thursday."
The tactical picture at Amstel Gold Race if Pidcock does not start on Sunday changes materially for the second-tier favourites. Pidcock's absence converts Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) into the clearest single threat to Evenepoel, with Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) as the co-favourite third tier. Q36.5's broader Sunday squad around Pidcock — Raúl García Pierna, Damien Howson, Mark Donovan and Matteo Sobrero — were briefed on Saturday morning to race for the top ten if Pidcock does not start, rather than against Evenepoel for the win.
The Pidcock injury update is the fourth major Ardennes question-mark of the week. Del Toro's thigh MRI cleared on Thursday and the Mexican remains a Liège starter on Sunday the 26th. Mikel Landa's post-Itzulia MRI cleared on Wednesday (see Landa update). Evenepoel's own post-Catalunya recovery has been Bringing the Belgian to his best spring form since 2023 (see Brabantse Pijl analysis). Pidcock is the only pre-race favourite whose Ardennes campaign now faces active, day-by-day medical review.
Pidcock himself spoke briefly to reporters as he walked from the Q36.5 team coach to the hotel lobby at 09:10 on Saturday morning. Four questions, one answer each. On the MRI reclassification: "I was not surprised. I have felt it for three weeks." On the Amstel Gold Race start: "I do not know yet. I will test the knee at 16:00 this afternoon. Doug will tell me on Sunday morning." On a full Ardennes campaign: "I have come to Valkenburg to race all three. I will race as many as the knee lets me." On Evenepoel's favourite status: "He is the strongest rider in this race by a distance. Whether I start or not does not change that."