Picnic PostNL's jersey design has changed little for 2026, but the Netherlands-based WorldTour team begins a new era and faces new challenges after Oscar Onley bought out his contract and moved to Ineos Grenadiers.
Picnic PostNL have lost their Grand Tour leader and key UCI ranking points scorer, and yet there was the usual sense of laid-back enthusiasm and ambition at their Calpe training camp as riders and management spoke about their plans for 2026.
Onley's decision to leave is a blow, but life goes on, and Picnic PostNL roll on, just as they have done after losing other headline team leaders.
Romain Bardet also retired during 2025, but the team see opportunities amongst the significant change. Max Poole has recovered from Epstein-Barr syndrome and will target the GC at the Giro d'Italia and perhaps become the next revelation for the team.
Fabio Jakobsen has recovered from his Ilian artery problem and is keen to rebuild his sprinting prowess, quietly convinced he can again be a sprinting contender.
The loss of Onley creates more freedom and opportunities for sprinters like Pavel Bittner and Casper van Uden, who won a stage at the 2025 Giro d'Italia.
Frank van den Broek will have more stage race opportunities, and it will be fascinating to follow Mattia Gaffuri after he finally turned professional after riding for the innovative Swatt Club team in Italy. Warren Barguil and John Degenkolb remain as veteran road captains and role models.
Picnic PostNL were the first WorldTour team to invest in a development programme and are convinced new riders will emerge via their proven system and protocols. Nobody at the team would reveal details of Onley's transfer fee, but he and Ineos Grenadiers reportedly paid close to €6 million. That money will be spent carefully in the years to come.
"We remain ambitious and trust in our ability as a team to continue producing world-class riders and be competitive with the talent that we have in the years ahead. We expect to return to full strength quickly," the team said when Onley's transfer was confirmed.
Losing Onley was a blow for multiple reasons. The 23-year-old Scottish rider came through the development programme before turning pro in 2023, and his fourth place at the 2025 Tour de France was a huge result. The UCI points he scored ensured the team secured a WorldTour place, and he could have surely done even better in Grand Tours in the years to come.
Yet Picnic PostNL accepted the deal, and team manager Iwan Spekenbrink signed the agreement to let Onley go. Fortunately, his sponsors also accepted the deal and the logic of focussing on other future talents.
"On a personal level, when it happened, I had three or four days of saying 'shit', this is not what we wanted," Spekenbrink admitted when speaking to Cyclingnews and Daniel Benson's Cycling Substack in Calpe.
"When you build something, when you have success, and when there is a really good connection, it's always hard. Oscar has integrity; he is an honest guy, he gives his all for his job, so it was nice to work with him.
"But if you leave that aside, if you constantly build teams, and if you look at what we do, we're good at recruiting riders and at rider development. Two years ago, few people knew about Oscar. We have a way of finding talent, and we invest a lot in it.
"What happened with Oscar is not a result of working poorly; it's a result of working well. It's a confirmation of work."
"When you are successful, a lot of riders can do well. It's like in soccer, when you do a good job, a lot of people are successful, and you have to make choices. That happened with Oscar, and we had to put the best interests of the team first."
Spekenbrink is convinced professional cycling needs new, stringent rules to regulate rider trading and transfers. He wants the UCI to act, just as he hopes the UCI will act on race safety, governance and the long-term future of professional cycling.
Poole's contract will soon be up for negotiation, and Spekenbrink is determined to include a significant buy-out clause and fee to protect his team from predatory moves from rival teams and rider agents he describes as 'cowboys.'
"We need a transfer system like in football," Spekenbrink said, admitting he is in favour of riding trading despite losing Onley and other riders over the years.
"In football, you can change teams, but you have to agree to a transfer fee. Now, too many games are being played in cycling, especially by agents. It's chaos.
"Whether we like it or not, we need to have a system in place where if you have a contract, then there's also an agreed-upon fee. For that fee, you don't have to even negotiate; you can go. But if the fee isn't paid, the rider has to stay and respect the contract."
