"I was good enough for a top-5 at Giro despite a bad preparation": Max Poole aspires to fill Oscar Onley's shoes in 2026

The departure of Oscar Onley puts the whole Picnic PostNL, which only survived in WorldTour thanks to the Scots contribution, in an awkward spot. Without an outright leader for the years ahead, the Dutch formation will set their sights on Onley's younger compatriot - Max Poole, who has been around in WorldTour for three years now, which makes it easy to forget at times that the Brit is still only 22-years-old.

Those three seasons were quite a rollercoaster experience for Poole, who had to deal with physical (and mental) setbacks each year, slowing down his otherwise impressive progress as a GC contender.

See for yourself, Poole was 4th overall at Tour de Romandie 2023, 7th at UAE Tour 2024, 2nd at Vuelta a Burgos 2024 and won the Tour de Langkawi 2024. In addition, Poole rode the Vuelta a Espana twice in his first years in WorldTour with an impressive record in 2024 of four podium finishes. Only the elusive stage victory slipped through his fingers.

Naturally then, the hopes were sky-high heading to 2025, but it ended up being another year where Poole had to settle for less than his potential would indicate...

"I had some family stuff at the start of the year, then obviously my collarbone break at Strade Bianche really impacted the preparation for the Giro," he said at Cyclingnews.

Poole was not going to give up on his Corsa Rosa debut so easily, but time was not in his favor. "It made the timeline so tight, just to make the Giro was already touch and go, so then to be in good shape for the Giro was almost impossible."

Ultimately, Poole rode a solid race. And despite a large timeloss on gravel stage 9, he finished 11th overall with far from ideal run-in to the race. "I think I was at 85% after my fractured collarbone and disrupted Giro build-up. So there's a lot to clean up and improve on. In reality, I was good enough for perhaps fifth in the Giro, and that was with bad preparation."

Because of the Epstein-Barr virus, Poole's season ended early at the Tour de Pologne in August, but that gave him time to think about his goals for the future. "I think there's a lot more that I can get out of myself with help from the team."

Poole has a contract through 2027, so barring buy-outs and other unforeseen events, the 22-year-old could get two years of absolute leadership from the team after Onley's unexpected move to INEOS Grenadiers. Poole admits that he'll miss his colleague with whom they worked their way up the ranks of the Picnic PostNL hierarchy from development team days.

"Obviously, it's a shame to lose Oscar, but he's also my friend, and I'm happy for him. It's a move he wanted, and he deserved it. There's always a silver lining, and hopefully we can see some good performances from certain guys at Picnic PostNL, who maybe wouldn't have the opportunities with Oscar still being here."

Poole will start his season at Volta ao Algarve, followed by Paris-Nice. Other details to his schedule or not yet revealed, but it seems that he could return to both Grand Tours he's already familiar with; Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana. Tour de France will be for stage hunters and sprinters then it seems.