Team Picnic PostNL: We’re not going to put the pressure of a relegation fight onto the riders 🧺 🥊
XDS Astana are closing but Matt Winston believes that his riders have what it takes to avoid the drop
Max Poole and Romain Bardet's return from injury was a welcome boost for Team Picnic PostNL at the Tour of the Alps this week, and the riders have responded with strong performances as they battle for stage wins and the GC.
But while the presence of two talismanic riders is a huge boon for the squad, there’s no denying that the Dutch outfit is in a relegation battle. Less than 1,400 UCI points currently separate them (18th) from XDS Astana (19th), with the Kazakh team having a phenomenal season after two years of massive underachievement and poor results. Only the top 18 teams are secured for WorldTour licences in 2026.
It’s fair to say that a large part of Picnic PostNL’s plight can be traced back to injuries this season. They have been ravaged by illnesses, crashes, concussions and broken bones, with Bardet, Poole, Fabio Jakobsen, Tim Naberman, Julius van den Berg, Kevin Vermaerke, and John Degenkolb either currently out or just returning from the treatment room.
According to the team’s most prominent coach, Matt Winston, the team are still focusing on maximising every possible result and not pushing the panic button or adding additional pressure onto the remaining riders who are still fit and ready to race.
“We’ve had our fair share of bad luck through the spring, and some performances where we needed a bit more fire. When we look back, I think that we can be honest and say that, but we always struggle a bit in the spring campaign with those cobbled Classics. Obviously, we had some really nasty injuries with John and Julius. We've had Kevin with a concussion, and Romain and Max also crashed hard. That’s held us back a bit in the last two months,” Winston told us at the Tour of the Alps.