Continuing a GC, sprint and development focus for Men’s program
As in previous years, the team will approach racing with a focus on two different pillars throughout the season, GC and sprints, as they continue to hunt success and push each other to the next level.
Speaking about the Men’s program Team Picnic PostNL head coach Rudi Kemna expressed: “In 2026 we want to continue to be competitive in the biggest races on the calendar and in the events where the parcours suit our strengths. We have an exciting young group of climbing talent that can continue to grow, and has been reinforced with some experience, while we also want to further develop our sprint train that saw us take success at the Giro d’Italia and earn compliments from the peloton at the Tour de France.”
“The Giro d’Italia will follow a similar outlook as to last year, where we will aim to build on the 11th place we achieved on GC with Max, and we will return to the race with stage-winner Casper to go for the sprints once more.”
Kemna continued: “Our summer at the Tour de France will be one where we target stage success and look to further build on our strong sprint core which saw us achieve several top five results last year; with Pavel Bittner returning to the race and hungry to go a few steps higher. Likewise, we will also analyse the parcours well to look for opportunities on the hillier and mountainous stages.”
Rounding out the Men’s program Kemna said: “Ending the Grand Tour season at the Vuelta, we will see how Max has dealt with the load from the Giro d’Italia and decide whether we go for another GC bid or focus solely on-stage results. Nonetheless, it’s a good opportunity for some of our young talents to get the taste of three-week racing, or for others to further make the next steps, where we will also look for our chances each day to hunt for the best result possible.”
“Alongside the three-week races, we believe that the group we have can take wins throughout the season in a variety of different races, whether that be day-results in stage-races or showing ourselves in the one-day races too.”