"I feel this year that the mentality has been a bit too weak" - Tobias Lund Andresen critical of Team Picnic PostNL as World Tour relegation looms

At the start of the year, the race for the final spot in the World Tour at the end of the current cycle looked like a straight up battle between Cofidis and the XDS Astana Team. With both of those teams showing strong improvement however, it's now Team Picnic PostNL that are suddenly most at risk of relegation.

In the standings, Cofidis have now got around a 500-point advantage over Team Picnic PostNL, who in turn have only a mere 1200 points over Astana with that gap closing all the time. "It’s always fun during good times, but right now things aren’t going very well," admits Team Picnic PostNL star Tobias Lund Andresen in an interview with Feltet.dk, not shying away from the negativity surrounding his outfit's start to the 2025 season.

"I feel this year that the mentality has been a bit too weak," the 22-year-old Dane continues. "A couple of years ago, we used an example with an African wild dog (a hyena, ed.) that always hunts in packs, and it’s the only animal that lions don’t attack because they’re always together. That’s what you want to represent on a bike. We didn’t talk about that at all last year... I think it’s a bit more up to the coaches to hold onto it."

Nevertheless, despite this criticism, Andresen remains hopeful that Team Picnic PostNL can arrest their slide and retain a position amongst the World Tour peloton. "I think we are on the right track. I think we’ve focused a lot in the last month on getting back into that mindset," he explains, looking to make a difference himself. "I think it’s very motivating to be able to turn it around and be one of the driving forces. I think I should be that if the team is to survive. So I’m looking forward to that."

"It’s also easier to create a culture if you’re one of the leaders of the team and create the results. It’s hard to be a helper and tell the leaders what they should do. So it’s always easier to create a culture if you’re winning your own races," he continues. "I haven’t done well enough in terms of leading. I’ve been flat the last month and trying to recover. It’s hard to come into a race and lead if you don’t have the confidence from home. If you don’t feel like you have your level, it feels embarrassing to expect much from others."

And alongside himself, the Dane sees two young Brit's that the team can rest their hopes upon for the future. "If we look at paper, Oscar Onley is one of the best in the world. And Max Poole has the potential to be that," he concludes. "If you have two of the biggest talents out there, they’re the ones you should build around."