Picnic PostNL boss explains decision to accept Ineos’ Oscar Onley offer

Onley still had two seasons left on his deal, but interest in the 23-year-old surged after his surprise fourth place in last summer’s Tour de France. 

Spekenbrink told Wielerflits that the offer arrived suddenly. “That came up all of a sudden, right at the very end of 2025,” he said. “For us, that was unexpected. We want to go for the podium in the Tour and ultimately also win. I was knocked off balance for a few days by this offer.”

He does not hide what it means to lose a rider after years of shared work. “That is something you do not want,” he said. “We have worked intensely with Oscar, who has the same passion for the sport that we have. He has our DNA. Everything he does is built around making himself a better cyclist. Oscar is a good and very honest person. We have made history together. Then you are disappointed that you can lose someone. But cycling has changed in recent years. Where contracts used to be seen out, the reality now is that we are moving toward a situation we know from football.”

Spekenbrink describes the choice he put in front of Onley, and the trade offs behind it. “When a rider goes through accelerated development, he can choose to stay. Oscar got the best guidance with us, had the most protected position in races and could have gone 100% for sporting success here. Or he chooses to cash in his performances for economic gain and perhaps slightly less good overall conditions, such as being team leader less often.” 

The destination mattered too, with Spekenbrink acknowledging that Ineos was Onley’s childhood dream team, though he added that the timing was disruptive for planning. 

“I do not deny it, right before the new year. You do not want that. You make plans for when you want to bring riders in or might lose them. We would have played it perfectly if Oscar had left us at the end of 2027. But then you no longer get the top price. Now that was possible on very short notice.”

Behind the discomfort over the timing of the transfer is a colder calculation about value and sustainability.

“I do have the best interests of our team at heart,” Spekenbrink said. “We want to grow. I see it mainly as a revenue model, otherwise we would not have done this. I am not going to deny that. We invest a lot of energy and manpower and therefore money in the development of our athletes. On this way, it always pays off. Either riders bring us great results, or they bring us this income. That is called return.”

The comments of Spekenbrink feel even more telling when you place them next to a recent Domestique interview with SEG owner Martijn Berkhout, who points out the irony of how the transfer debate has swung full circle.

“I read that Iwan Spekenbrink [CEO of Picnic PostNL) is now talking about introducing a transfer system,” Berkhout said. “I looked it up, because in 2014 I had a discussion with him on Dutch radio where I argued for it, and he was against it.”

Twelve years on, Spekenbrink is speaking from a different seat at the table: with Picnic PostNL under financial pressure, the system he once rejected can now function as a survival tool to plug the gaps that need filling.