"A similar format to last year" - Picnic PostNL confirm Briton Max Poole returns to Giro d'Italia and reveals Tour de France leader
Cycling
Team Picnic PostNL managed to save their World Tour license into 2026 and had a breakthrough summer with Oscar Onley who finished fourth at the Tour de France. The Dutch team got back on its feet but the loss of the Briton poses an massive hit to its abilities of performing in the Grand Tours this year. However, its main cards will be played, and the team has revealed how it will split them.
"In 2026, we want to continue to be competitive in the most important races on the calendar and in events where the route suits our strengths," DS Rudi Kemna said in the team's media day, as reported by SpazioCiclismo. The plan is ultimately going to be almost the same with the team's leaders that stayed with the team. The team can no longer rely on Oscar Onley, as well as Tobias Lund Andresen who departed to Decathlon CMA CGM Team; and Romain Bardet who retired in June.
"We have a group of talented young climbers who can continue to grow and who have been strengthened by some experience, but we also want to further develop our sprint train, which brought us success at the Giro d'Italia and earned us praise from the peloton at the Tour de France."
Hence, the overall plan has been outlined. In 2025 Casper van Uden has won a sprint stage at the Giro d'Italia and Max Poole finished 11th in the overall classification; both riders will return to the Corsa Rosa in order to try and improve on their results from this season.
Max Poole rode a strong Giro d'Italia, but did not manage to crack the Top10 in Rome
"The Giro d'Italia will follow a similar format to last year, where we'll aim to improve on the eleventh place we achieved in the general classification with Max, and we'll return to the race with stage winner Casper to once again target the sprints".
Tour de France and Vuelta a España
"The Tour de France will be all about stage wins, and we'll look to further strengthen our strong core of sprinters who helped us secure several top-five finishes last year, with Pavel Bittner returning eager to move up the order," he revealed. The Czech sprinter finished twice on the Top5 of sprints at the Grand Boucle last summer, and a win would make Picnic PostNL's race.
"Likewise, we'll be carefully analyzing the route to look for opportunities in the more hilly and mountainous stages." Afterwards, few decisions have been made over the Vuelta a España, but Briton Max Poole will race his second Grand Tour of the season, with his ambitions to be decided only when the time comes. Fabio Jakobsen in the meantime does not yet have a plan for the Grand Tours, and this will depend on his level throughout the spring.
"At the Vuelta, we'll see how Max has handled the Giro d'Italia and decide whether to return to the general classification or focus exclusively on stage results. In any case, it will be a good opportunity for some of our young talents to experience the thrill of a three-week race, or for others to make further progress, while also looking for our chances every day to achieve the best possible result".
"Beyond the three-week races, we believe our group can achieve victories throughout the season in a variety of different races, whether it's daily results in stage races or even showing off in one-day races".
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- Sepp Kuss Vuelta 2023.Lozza13-11-2026
- they have no expertise with classics, they have no leaders in classics. the classics is dominated by the few Fuori Classe riders where other riders are left with scraps. the Hiring , the salaries dont make sense at all. Same problem as Man Utd. over paid players, egos, very little performanceabstractengineer13-11-2026
- Contract year means you gotta win, at least collect UCI points, helping be damnedabstractengineer13-11-2026
- Arensman is their best rider and he is paid very less in comparisonabstractengineer13-11-2026
- I'm not trying to argue with you but if you didn't see Del Toro struggling in the Tour I'll pay for some glasses for you lol. He struggled so much that Tadej missed winning stage 15, Tadej also dropped the pace along some stages to help Del Toro hold onto the podium. Now he may have been sick, that is a possibility, but he definitely struggled. You have a nice weekend as well brother.awp13-11-2026
- Im not copmaring him to jonas palmares...but current level of power and again like you even pointed out 19sec difference and on other ocassions del toro dropping him. Its evidently their close and based on both their different trajectory its self explanatory...where we are next year.And Del Toro didnt struggle if getting a podium in his first TDF at 22 year old is struggling you sure dont know how to be objective haha. But have a good weekend this is so dumb to discuss as its not even a discussin in reality as facts speak for themselves of what were actually speaking of - and self explanatory.miguel13-11-2026
- fingers crossed. my son has a poster of wout and mathieu battling each other at the beach at ostend up in his room. would be great to see them again there!Ketterechts13-11-2026
- This Giro is very strange in it's circular route. If you were to have stage starting in Trieste and ending atop Monte Zoncolan (end stage 20) you'd get a stage only 145 km long
Rafionain-Glas13-11-2026 - When Thomas gets the bullet from INEOS he can get a job as a comedian.
Senna196013-11-2026 - Right on. The more the merrier.Occam13-11-2026
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