{"id":807992,"date":"2026-10-19T22:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T22:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807992\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T22:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T22:36:09","slug":"why-were-voices-like-mine-left-out-of-the-investigation-john-degenkolb-hits-back-at-picnic-postnl-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807992\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Why were voices like mine left out of the investigation?’ – John Degenkolb hits back at Picnic-PostNL criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Paris-Roubaix winner John Degenkolb took to Instagram on Monday to rebut allegations that his team, Picnic-PostNL, operates in a ‘culture of fear’<\/a> and an ‘unsafe working situation’ following a damning report by NOS Sport and De Waaier.<\/p>\n

Writing in German, Degenkolb said in his ten years with the organisation out of 16 years as a pro cyclist, he had never experienced a “culture of fear” either in his first stint with the team when it was Argos-Shimano from 2012 to 2016, or “after my deliberate return to the team in 2022”.<\/p>\n

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“Critical voices must be heard and taken seriously. However, for a fair and balanced assessment, all relevant perspectives should be considered,” Degenkolb wrote.<\/p>\n

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“Our team consists of around 160 employees, including approximately 60 riders per season. Over the team\u2019s 18-year history, it is certainly possible to find 71 individuals who have had negative experiences – but are their experiences exclusively negative?<\/p>\n

He then tagged the journalists who reported the story, Thijs Zonneveld and Nando Boers, asking, “Why were voices like mine – and those of many others – left out of the investigation?”<\/p>\n

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Zonneveld replied, thanking him for the comments and stating, “We cannot tell you who we spoke to exactly – because we will always protect our sources. But I can tell you that we spoke to 71 riders, ex-riders, staff and former staff. And if we keep counting the (former) employees we spoke to after the publication, it would be even more.<\/p>\n

“I respect your point of view … but there are a lot of people who had a different experience than you.”<\/p>\n

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The report included comments from Tom Dumoulin’s former coach Adriaan Helmantel, who said the team’s culture went downhill after Dumoulin’s Giro d’Italia victory in 2017.<\/p>\n

“They started becoming paranoid” of riders “calling the shots” if riders and coaches became too close. “It became a dictatorship,” Helmantel said. Nicolas Roche described being “pushed toward the exit” because he had “too much influence on the young riders”.<\/p>\n

The team issued a response, stating that they would start an independent investigation into the allegations; they refused to engage with the two journalists during their research.<\/p>\n

After the report was published, head coach Rudi Kemna said he was devastated<\/a> by the accusations, telling Wielerflits, “The only reaction I can give is that I am deeply upset. That I sympathise with all the people we have apparently traumatised\u2014I don’t know what words are being used. I am astonished by it, but it touches me too.<\/p>\n

“And it also hurts me that we are portrayed this way as a team, and personally Iwan [Spekenbrink, team owner] and I too… We try to lead the team as well as possible, especially regarding safety.”<\/p>\n

The road season might be at an end, but Cyclingnews isn’t slowing down. Subscribe for unlimited access to our comprehensive news coverage, industry-leading CN Labs testing, expert columnists, and so much more. Plus, the Cyclingnews app means you can stay up-to-date wherever you go! Join today<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Paris-Roubaix winner John Degenkolb took to Instagram on Monday to rebut allegations that his team, Picnic-PostNL, operates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-807992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807992","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=807992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}