{"id":190034,"date":"2025-10-10T08:35:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T08:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/190034\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T08:35:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T08:35:14","slug":"picnic-postnl-boost-2026-squad-with-british-climber-james-knox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/190034\/","title":{"rendered":"Picnic-PostNL boost 2026 squad with British climber James Knox"},"content":{"rendered":"

Picnic-PostNL<\/a> have made their first three confirmed signings for the 2026 season, with longstanding British climbing domestique James Knox <\/a>(Soudal-QuickStep) one of a trio of new names inking a contract with the Dutch squad.<\/p>\n

Apart from Knox, team trainee Dillon Corkery and Picnic-PostNL’s development team rider Oliver Peace will also be forming part of the team in 2025.<\/p>\n

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Knox turned pro in 2018, and although never taking a win to date, has become well-established as a leading support rider in the mountains, with nine Grand Tours in his palmares to date, all bar one completed. He most recently raced the Giro d’Italia<\/a> in 2025, finishing 19th.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat drew me to Picnic-PostNL is the opportunity to join a team with a proven track record at the highest level, and to work with talented young riders like fellow Brits Oscar Onley<\/a> and Max Poole,” Knox said in a team press release.<\/p>\n

Knox will be joined by fellow Briton Oliver Peace in the men’s senior squad. After two seasons in the team’s development program and a racer in the Tour de l’Avenir <\/a>with the GB national squad, the 20-year-old all-rounder is expected to boost the WorldTour team’s stage racing presence. He has already done that in the recently completed Tour de Langkawi,<\/a> where he took part in a break of over 100 kilometres on the last stage.<\/p>\n

“Oliver is gifted both in climbing and time trialling, a combination that gives him the tools to grow into a GC rider over the coming years,” Picnic-PostNL’s head coach Rudi Kemna added.<\/p>\n

“Initially, he will play an important support role in stage races, but we will give him every opportunity to continue developing the endurance, racing craft and consistency needed for the WorldTour.”<\/p>\n

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Ireland’s Dillon Corkery, the third signing announced by Picnic-PostNL<\/a> for 2026, already has considerable experience racing at amateur and continental levels in France. Riding for St Michel-Preference Home – Auber ’93, the 26-year-old has scored some top ten finishes in 1.1 and 1.Pro races this year, prior to making his debut at the Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen as a trainee for Picnic-PostNL this September. Next January, he’ll be racing for the squad full-time.<\/p>\n

“I’m especially excited to play a role in races I\u2019ve dreamed of since I was a kid, like the Classics and maybe even a Grand Tour. I would describe myself as a punchy rider who loves a fast finish and can support our sprinters when it counts,” Corkery said.<\/p>\n

Kemna added: “Dillon is a rider who has developed a little later, but his instincts for positioning and timing in a sprint are exceptional and immediately strengthen our Classics and lead-out group.<\/p>\n

“We believe he has the raw qualities to become a key part of our sprint train while we help him explore the harder one-day races and discover exactly where his strengths can shine.”<\/p>\n

The three signings are the first confirmed new contracts for Picnic-PostNL for 2025. Those no longer present with the team include Romain Bardet<\/a>, who retired mid-season, Kevin Vermaercke, set for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, and Tobias Lund Andresen, racing at Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Picnic-PostNL have made their first three confirmed signings for the 2026 season, with longstanding British climbing domestique James…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-190034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}