Er, sorry?’ I said. ‘Am I getting a warning now because I trained for an hour longer? – Nicolas Roche’s story adds to pressure on Spekenbrink
Cycling
Team Picnic PostNL, over the past few weeks, has been swarmed in controversy due to the now close to one hundred reports of a culture of fear within the team. The initial investigation was ran by Thijs Zonneveld, who was accused of conflict of interest by team boss Iwan Spekenbrink, but that hasn't resolved the situation.
The reports have come from all sides, with the initial report featuring 71 different individuals who provided testimony of their time with the team that ultimately led to the investigation quickly blowing up.
Overnight, riders and team staff were asked about the matter, with some later on publicly defending it; whilst others confirmed their insight of the time within the team.
Zonneveld is also the owner of BEAT Cycling, a team which has developed Frits Biesterbos - the World Tour structure's top sprinter this year.
However, Zonneveld has refuted the idea that the investigation featured conflict of interests, as Spekenbrink said in an interview with De Telegraaf published earlier this week. This was the Picnic PostNL manager's first public statement regarding the situation.
Team Picnic PostNL is under fire over reports of abuse within the team
Zonneveld responds to conflict of interest accusation
"I don't know a single rider who would choose, or has chosen, BEAT over Picnic PostNL," Zonneveld wrote on a Substack post. At the same time, he has confirmed the number of reports has grown to almost a hundred.
"We have also spoken to many current riders and employees. We just don't say who. Protecting sources is essential, especially because those sources fear the consequences."
There have been plenty riders from both men's and women's teams, as well as staff, who have reaffirmed their point of view on what they believed to be far from an ideal working environment.
Team Picnic PostNL riders raise serious issues
But Zonneveld's main issues comes with the fact that to this day, Spekenbrink remains silent on the questions he has asked directly to him:
"Because so far, not a single question has been answered, and not a single question has been discussed. Even in the article in De Telegraaf, it's about the form, not the substance."
Nicolas Roche called the management unsuited to cycling, providing an example of how the staff were rigid with the training schedules:
“They literally said: ‘We don’t care whether you do more or less, but you do what you are told.’ ‘Er, sorry?’ I said. ‘Am I getting a warning now because I trained for an hour longer? What the fuck?’ That was when I realised it was going to be a tough year.”
Female rider Esmée Peperkamp's public words were even more worrying, regarding the riders' personal health: She revealed her menstruation wasn't taken into account, she was not allowed to change her bike fit even due to pain, and she had to eat the nutrition products the team provided her even if she could not digest them:
“My health is still deteriorating because I still don't produce enough hormones,” she said of current day. “If you don't produce enough hormones, your immune system deteriorates, making you more susceptible to infections".
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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