Building for the future - Picnic-PostNL 2025 verdict

Picnic-PostNL achieved 22 victories in 2024, their highest tally for a decade after the team won 41 races in 2014 with the likes of Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb leading the team. Among those victories was Romain Bardet’s stunning victory on the opening stage of the Tour de France, achieved alongside Frank van den Broek, and a maiden Grand Tour stage for Pavel Bittner at the Vuelta a España.

However, despite the team’s high tally of victories, they ended the season 16th in the UCI rankings and in the UCI’s three-year WorldTour cycle, they sat 17th, under 3,000 points clear of safety. This meant that the Dutch team could not rest on their laurels if they wanted to maintain their WorldTour status for 2026.

In terms of transfers, the core of the squad would remain the same, with three riders in and three out. There was a focus on youth in terms of incomings with Juan Guillermo Martinez, Robbe Dhondt, and Bjorn Koerdt, all of whom were 20 or younger at the start of the season. Meanwhile, the experienced duo of Patrick Bevin and Martijn Tusveld retired, and Emīls Liepiņš moved to Q36.5. The team were also anticipating the retirement of Romain Bardet, which would come midway through the season at the Critérium du Dauphiné.

When it came to expectations, the team had plenty of younger riders, leaving a feeling of excitement to see how they could progress. The likes of Oscar Onley, Tobias Lund Andresen, Pavel Bittner, Max Poole, and Casper van Uden had all shown signs of their glowing potential, but it remained to be seen whether they could make the next step up in 2025. Meanwhile, the experienced heads of decorated riders such as John Degenkolb, Warren Barguil and Fabio Jakobsen still served as valuable members of the team.

Wins: 4
UCI Ranking: 17th
The Verdict: 3.5/10

Picnic-PostNL ended 2025 with four victories, a significant decrease from the previous campaign, and a one-position drop in the UCI team rankings to 17th. Tobias Lund Andresen took the team’s first victory at the end of January in the Surf Coast Classic in Australia. However, overall, it was a shy start to the season for the team, with only two victories ahead of the Grand Tours, albeit one of those victories was a memorable one for Nils Eekhoff at the Danilith Nokere Koerse. Ultimately, the Dutch team were slowly being pulled into a relegation battle, especially as XDS-Astana were having a flying start to the campaign 

May to July was the crucial period for Picnic-PostNL. At the Giro d’Italia, Casper van Uden stepped up to take his first Grand Tour stage win, in a fine team effort with Bram Welten dropping his teammate off in the perfect position to launch his sprint. In the GC, Max Poole narrowly missed out on the top 10, finishing 11th, but it was still a career-best performance for the British rider across three weeks. Romain Bardet also enjoyed a combative final Grand Tour of his illustrious career, narrowly missing out on a victory on stage 17, finishing second to Isaac del Toro. 

The period following the Giro d’Italia saw the emergence of Picnic-PostNL’s shining light of the season, Oscar Onley. The British rider battled to a fine third place at the Tour de Suisse, taking a stage win along the way after a strong battle with João Almeida. Onley would build on this performance significantly to finish 4th at the Tour de France, the team’s best result since Tom Dumoulin finished runner-up in 2018.

This period was enough for the team to pull away from any major threat of relegation, and while the final part of the season was quieter, Onley’s performance gives the team something to be excited about and expand on in the years to come. There was a dearth of victories in 2025, but the team will take assurance from the youthful nature of their squad, and the signs of progress from a number of these riders who have plenty more room to grow.

We had seen moments of magic from Oscar Onley in his previous two seasons in the WorldTour, but after finishing 9th in the UCI rankings in 2025, the 23-year-old has firmly established himself as one of the best riders around. Onley started his campaign in good form, finishing fourth at the Santos Tour Down Under, and second on the stage to Willunga Hill. The British rider showed his consistency in a GC capacity to finish 5th at the UAE Tour before 9th at Itzulia Basque Country. Onley also managed 12th at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the team’s best monument position of the season. 

It was the Tour de Suisse where Onley kicked things up to another gear. After an enthralling battle with João Almeida, the British rider outsprinted the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider to take the stage win. In total, Onley achieved five stage podiums in Switzerland en route to finishing 3rd overall. This performance gave Onley big confidence ahead of his second Tour de France, but few would have anticipated what he was about to achieve in July. 

The Tour’s hilly opening week in Northern France saw Onley shine, consistently making the key selective front groups. This left Onley in 7th place at the end of the opening week. However, instead of fading in the high mountains of the remaining weeks that many would have expected with a lack of GC experience, Onley continued to grow stronger as the race grew older. In the end, after a hard-fought battle with Florian Lipowitz for the third and final spot on the podium in Paris, Onley finished a stunning fourth, becoming the eighth British rider to finish in the top 10 of the Tour de France.

Following his standout Tour, Onley would go on to finish fourth at the Lloyds Tour of Britain and have top 20 finishes in races such as the Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa, GP de Montréal, and Il Lombardia. Overall, Onley’s performances throughout 2025 have illustrated that he is worthy of being the gem that the Dutch team build around for the 2026 season.

Without doubt, seeing Oscar Onley finish fourth at the Tour de France stands out as a highlight of Picni- PostNL’s season. Despite Onley’s excellent form in the build-up, the team placed little pressure on the British rider’s shoulders in what was only his second ever Tour. Despite the lack of experience racing GC across three weeks, Onley looked natural in the role of GC leader, and his performance and the manner in which he conducted it suggest that this won’t be the last time we see him lead a successful GC performance.

Bjorn Koerdt showed this season that he has what it takes to be a strong WorldTour rider. The 21-year-old British rider grew into the season nicely, with performances at the British criterium championships and the Arctic Race of Norway standing out. This culminated in a debut Grand Tour appearance at the Vuelta a España. Here, Koerdt finished 9th on stage 3 in an uphill sprint, before featuring in a couple of breakaways in the second week. Following a strong debut Vuelta, Koerdt ended the season on a high, featuring in the breakaway at Il Lombardia, illustrating his combative nature, and establishing himself as a rider to watch for the future.

Casper van Uden had the most race days (84) for Picnic-PostNL in 2025, riding the Giro d'Italia and racing from the Alula Tour in February until the Tour of Guangxi in October.

• Alpecin-Deceuninck
• Arkea B&B Hotels
• Bahrain Victorious
• Cofidis
• Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale
• EF Education-EasyPost
• Groupama-FDJ
• Ineos Grenadiers
• Intermarché-Wanty
• Lidl-Trek
• Movistar
• Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe
• Soudal Quick-Step
• XDS-Astana