Picnic PostNL confirmed off their new colors and new Lapierre bikes at their January coaching camp in Calpe, Spain, marking the beginning of their 2025 season and their future plans.
The Netherland-registered group is locked in a UCI rating factors battle however hope to safe a spot within the 2026-2028 WorldTour as their younger riders present their abilities and progressively take over from the veteran leaders.
Picnic PostNL’s long-established overarching construction positioned them among the many pioneers in having an built-in and profitable ladies’s squad, in addition to a improvement group that nurtures younger riders and helps them step as much as WorldTour degree. The males’s group gained a complete of twenty-two races in 2024, 18 of which got here from graduates of their long-established improvement programme. All the group’s riders are at present collectively in Spain for a significant January block of coaching. Only those that are driving the Tour Down Under have been absent as they travelled to Australia.
The Dutch group loved a memorable 2024 season, with Romain Bardet profitable the opening stage of the boys’s Tour de France to take the yellow jersey for the primary time in his lengthy profession, whereas Charlotte Kool pulled off the same feat within the Tour de France Femmes a couple of weeks later.
Pfeiffer Georgi renewed her title as British National Champion and completed third at Paris-Roubaix, fourth on the Amstel Gold Race and fifth on the Trofeo Alfredo Binda. Unfortunately she later fractured a neck vertebrae through the Tour de France Femmes.
Oscar Onley gained the Willunga Hill stage of the Tour Down Under and was second total within the Tour of Guangxi, Bardet was second at Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Frank van den Broek gained the general classification of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Türkiye – the place he and Tobias Lund Andresen gained 5 levels. Max Poole went near victory on three levels on the Vuelta a España after which gained the Le Tour de Langkawi.
Sprint chief Fabio Jakobsen gained only one race in his first season with the group however believes he and Picnic PostNL have labored out what is required to extend his strike price. The Dutchman has been engaged on his endurance relatively than his sprinting energy, and is 4 kilos lighter than in 2024, thereby guaranteeing he can deal with the pattern for more and more hilly race profiles and nonetheless produce his dash end.
Jakobsen will start his 2025 season on the AlUla Tour after which go onto the UAE Tour, a race he describes as the most important dash showdown of the season.
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Bardet, John Degenkolb and Jakobsen stand out as group leaders however youthful riders are growing quick. Onley, Poole and Frank van den Broek are studying stage racing from Bardet, whereas Degenkolb is highway captain and a job mannequin. Jakobsen is barely 28 however is aware of he faces inner competitors for dash management from 23-year-old Casper van Uden, 22-year-old Tobias Lund Andresen and 22-year-old Pavel Bittner.
Bardet will retire after the Critérium du Dauphiné in June however remains to be motivated for a shot on the Giro d’Italia. He can be joined by Poole, whereas Onley, van den Broek and Jakobsen will goal stage victories on the Tour de France. Poole will return to the Vuelta in 2025 as Picnic PostNL additionally race to attain the UCI rating factors wanted to remain within the WorldTour in 2026 and past.
The males’s group has seen simply three rider modifications in its 28-rider roster, with younger abilities like Onley, Poole, Van den Broek, the USA’s Kevin Vermaerke all anticipated to step-up a degree as Bardet, Warren Barguil and former Paris-Roubaix winner John Degenkolb attain the ultimate years of their careers.
Vermaerke was fourth on the San Sebastian Klasikoa and third total on the Arctic Race of Norway, scoring over a thousand UCI factors for the group in 2024. He will seek for his first skilled victory in 2025 as his development from 2019 U23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner continues.
Team targets
“In 2025, the group will proceed their method to racing with a give attention to two completely different pillars all through the season, with the GC and dash group,” head coach Rudi Kemna mentioned of the boys’s group targets, revealing the Grand Tour leaderships.
“At the Giro d’Italia we can have Romain Bardet who’s collaborating in his final Grand Tour as knowledgeable and Max Poole as our finishers for these difficult mountain days. Casper van Uden is deliberate to make his three-week debut and can be supported by an excellent lead-out prepare to seek for these day leads to the sprints.”
“Topping 2024’s Tour de France can be exhausting, however we’ll as soon as extra head to the race with a spotlight totally on going for stage outcomes. In the extra hilly and mountainous terrain we can have a robust group of attacking choices such because the likes of Oscar and Frank. We wish to take some steps ahead with Fabio within the earlier a part of the season after which intention to move to the Tour de France feeling assured.”
Charlotte Kool, Pfeiffer Georgi, Franziska Koch and the USA’s Megan Jastrab lead the ladies’s Picnic PostNL group.
Kool has proven she is likely one of the finest sprinters on the planet and might solely get higher. Georgi is now again in coaching and talked to Cyclingnews with enthusiasm about her return to racing and focusing on the Classics and particularly Paris-Roubaix in April.
“In 2025 we wish to additional construct on the foundations we have now made in earlier years, focusing on success within the sprints the place we have now the most effective lead-outs and dash teams within the ladies’s peloton”
“Alongside our good dash group, we have now a robust classics core the place we will compete for prime outcomes over the cobbles within the Spring; with the likes of Pfeiffer and Franziska, Megan or Charlotte if issues come all the way down to a quick end. In these races we actually imagine in our energy throughout the board and wish to use our numbers; racing well as a group.”
Young stage riders Nienke Vinke, Francesca Barale and Eleonora Ciabocco can be joined by Marta Cavalli, who’s progressively engaged on her return to racing after two crash and injury-hit years. Yet the 2022 Amstel Gold and La Flèche Wallonne Femmes winner refused to present in to her fears and instructed Cyclingnews of her willpower to return to her finest.
“We welcome the very proficient Marta to the group and by working intently collectively along with her we hope that she will return to the higher echelons of the game with us. the concept is to move to the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France; nevertheless, we additionally want to permit the time for her to settle into her new environment and reset a bit bit,” Kemna defined.