Dutch squad Picnic-PostNL are enduring a tough season with just one win to their name via Casper van Uden at the Tour of Turkey and a worrying 29th place in the UCI world rankings.
During the last three-year WorldTour ranking period, the team stayed in cycling's top division as Cofidis dropped out. But they're off to a bad start this time around, lying below all other WorldTour teams, a host of second-division ProTeams, and only just ahead of Thai Continental squad Roojai Insurance-Winspace.
Speaking to WielerFlits, Picnic-PostNL manager Roy Curvers admitted that the team has been struggling through the first six months of 2026.
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"Things aren't going smoothly. They're fighting against the wind. That's a given at times, and you have to find a way out of it," he said.
"Believe me, we're working hard on that internally. But if you look at a list of our injured and sick riders, it's understandable why things aren't going smoothly for us."
Two of the team's riders – Pavel Bittner and Juan Martinez – are currently out with injuries. Meanwhile, Max Poole, Nils Eekhoff, Timo de Jong, Timo Roosen, Gijs Leemreize, and Warren Barguil have also missed significant time so far this year.
Van Uden's win aside, the team's top results are Bittner's second place at Scheldeprijs and Henri-François Renard-Haquin's second on Monday's second stage of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
Van Uden led the team at the recent Giro d'Italia, but numerous crashes early in the race, and an illness affecting key lead-out man Sean Flynn later on meant that the team couldn't pull off a repeat of his 2025 stage victory.
"He is a very important part of the sprint train, but in a sprint group, three or four men are supposed to do the job in those finales. That is why you shouldn't just look at Casper himself.
"For our attackers with the greatest potential – Warren Barguil did show himself, Frank van den Broek too, in that last week. But he fell hard in the first week and hasn't fully recovered since. Those guys are showing signs of getting back on track.
"I think that in principle we did a lot of things right, but we just didn't have the level. If you are 2 or 3% less strong in the Giro, you get nothing out of your investment."
Curvers admitted that it's "painful to read and hear" the team's current ranking – and the fact that they finished last in prize money and UCI points at the Giro. However, he said that they are "working very hard to get everyone back fit" to fight on through June, the Tour de France, and beyond.
Several injured riders are back in action, though promising Grand Tour racer Poole, who finished 11th at last year's Giro, is unlikely to be ready for the Tour de France after suffering a virus which has kept him out of action since the Volta ao Algarve.
"Unfortunately, he is still not race-ready. For him, we have to conclude that the Tour is going to be very difficult or impossible," Curvers said.
"Then Pavel Bittner crashed in Dunkerque. 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?"
Curvers admitted that the team might have to make alternate plans for the Tour, with their top GC name and sprinter both looking doubtful for selection.
"We haven’t reached that conclusion yet. But for now, you do have to start thinking about different scenarios. The Tour has fifteen other stages. For those fifteen stages, you also have to make a plan and look for goals. That won’t change," he said.
"It's difficult to finalise the selections anyway, in the sense that for every race you ideally want seven or eight men who are ready to race, and that all seven or eight are in top form.
"It is already very difficult to achieve that in the biggest races like the Giro and the Tour, or in the Monuments this spring, let alone in the races that are a bit below that [level]."
