“Oscar Onley leaving is a big loss for the team” – Warren Barguil on how Picnic PostNL revolved around British leader before blockbuster INEOS move

Oscar Onley leaving Team Picnic PostNL is not just another transfer. It is the removal of the rider who defined what the team became in 2025.

Fourth at the Tour de France, the Scot was the clear centre of gravity around which the season turned. Tactics, training blocks and race calendars were built around making his breakthrough year work. Now he is gone, heading to INEOS to chase Pogacar and Vingegaard, and Picnic PostNL are forced into a reset, whether they wanted one or not.

Inside the team, that reality is not being softened. Speaking to Cyclism'Actu at the Dutch squad’s media day, Warren Barguil summed it up simply: “It is a big loss for the team.”

That sentence alone explains how deep the change runs.

In 2025, Picnic PostNL were built around one rider. Barguil explained that his own season had been shaped almost entirely by that reality. “It was very much built around Oscar and Franck, and that was a new role for me which I really enjoyed this year,” he said. “I think we did a great job around Oscar all season.”

That focus came at a personal cost. Barguil accepted fewer chances for himself because the team’s priority was clear. “Obviously you get fewer results yourself, but that’s not what the team was expecting from me either.”

That trade off paid off when Onley finished fourth at the Tour de France, a result that changed both his career and the team’s profile.

But the success also made his departure harder to absorb. “It’s a big loss for the team,” Barguil said bluntly when asked about Onley leaving. “It was his wish not to stay and on that point the team handled it really well.”

He stressed that Picnic PostNL could have forced Onley to stay for another season, but chose not to. “They could have kept him and then he does one more season but he’s not happy. That wasn’t the goal.”

That decision now leaves the team facing 2026 without the rider who carried their biggest results.

Barguil does not pretend that replacing a fourth place at the Tour is simple. But he believes the absence of a single dominant leader will open doors for others. “I think we have lots of young riders coming through who worked a lot for Oscar and who might now be able to show themselves this year.”

He pointed specifically to Franck van den Broek, who spent 2025 riding in service rather than for himself. “If you look at his season in terms of points or results, he could have had a much better season, but he was in Oscar’s service.”

In 2026, that changes. “Next year he will be able to play his own card, and I’ll be the one protecting him.”

That is the core of Picnic PostNL’s rebuild. Not replacing Onley with another star, but turning former helpers into leaders.

Barguil’s own future is tied to that shift. He is no longer being judged primarily on his own results. “At some point in your career you have to make a choice. Either you can’t ride for others and then it’s better to stop, or you are ready to give your experience.”

He has chosen the second path. “I think that’s what I’ve tried to pass on as much as possible to the young riders in the team.”

His job now is to protect, guide and teach. “We have young guys who can really hope to win or finish in the top five, and that motivates me to support them as well as possible and protect them as much as I can.”

The team, he says, values that role. “It’s a role that suits me well and the team was really happy with my work at the Tour.”

Barguil’s own calendar reflects how open the future is. He listed an early season built around Figueras, the Tour du Var, the Boucles Drôme and Ardèche, followed by Strade Bianche, Tirreno Adriatico and the Ardennes classics.

On the Grand Tours, nothing is fixed. “With Oscar leaving this winter, it changed my programme a bit,” he said. “Normally I was really focused on the Tour, so now it’s open, maybe I’ll do two Grand Tours.”

Even his presence at the Tour de France is undecided. “We don’t know if it will be Giro and Tour, or just Tour, or just Giro. It’s still quite open.”

That uncertainty runs through the whole team. Without Onley, nothing is automatic anymore.

For Picnic PostNL, 2026 will be the first season defined not by what they built around Oscar Onley, but by what they become without him.

Barguil does not hide the scale of the loss. But he also sees what it creates.

Young riders who spent a year sacrificing their own chances now get to show what they can do. Experienced riders like Barguil become guides rather than focal points. The team stops being “Onley’s team” and starts searching for its next identity.

Onley’s departure closed one chapter. What follows will decide whether Picnic PostNL can write another that matters just as much.