Who will lead Picnic at Tour? Poole's participation ruled "impossible" while Bittner's injury is the cause for "quite a few concerns"

Team Picnic PostNL is having a horrendous 2026 campaign, currently placed 29th in the UCI team ranking, sitting mid-pack among ProTeams as a WorldTour formation. This is not a great news as on the background, the Dutch team is looking to secure its future with WorldTour license provided only for this season by UCI last winter.

"Things aren't going smoothly. No, they're fighting against the wind," Curvers admits to WielerFlits. “That is a given at times, and you have to find a way out of it. And believe me, we are working hard on that internally. But if you look at what our list of injured riders and sick guys looks like, it is understandable why things aren't going smoothly for us."

Things are for sure not heading in a good direction on sporting side after a Giro d'Italia with merely two stage finishes (Casper van Uden in stage 6 and Warren Barguil in stage 11) at the far end of top-10 as the team's only note-worthy showings. However things are even worse when looking at the team's infirmary.

"At some point, you have to try to remain calm and, first and foremost, ensure that those guys are competitive again as soon as possible. On the other hand, we try to make and execute plans as best we can with the rest of the guys who can still cycle. That hasn't always yielded what we had hoped."

Since February, Picnic PostNL is anxiously awaiting the racing return of its GC leader Max Poole. The young Brit was expected to pick up the baton from departing Oscar Onley, however he's only completed the Volta ao Algarve before taking a forced break from racing. The team had hoped the 23-year-old would recover in time for Tour de France, but that seems unlikely at this point:

"Max Poole is on the right track after a virus, but unfortunately, he is still not race-ready," Curvers revealed. "For him, we have to conclude that the Tour is going to be very difficult, actually impossible."

Without Poole available, the responsibility for result shifted fully towards the team's sprinter Pavel Bittner who rode a consistent spring, but without a stand-out result. And then, yet another small disaster struck the team at Classique Dunkerque where Bittner crashed in the finale and injured his ankle, forcing him to miss several key training blocks ahead of Tour.

"And then Pavel Bittner crashed in Dunkirk. That looked really serious with his ankle. He is making progress in the right direction now, but that is the question again: will it be good in time for the Tour? So there are still quite a few concerns," Curvers commented.

Whilst Bittner might eventually get in a feasible enough shape for the Tour, there's only as many sprint stages where he can hope to succeed. What's the plan for the remaining two thirds of the Grande Boucle?

"We haven’t drawn that conclusion yet. But for now, you do have to start thinking about different scenarios. Even if you get Pavel fit in time for the Tour, in the sprint stages he is someone you know will normally be competing for the podium. But the Tour has fifteen other stages. You have to make a plan and look for goals for those fifteen stages as well. That won’t change."