Dekker sees financial mess as a warning sign at Picnic PostNL: “The team is crumbling”

Onley has been part of the organisation since 2021, when he rode for the DSM development team, before stepping up to the WorldTour roster in 2023. After a couple of strong seasons, he enjoyed his breakthrough last year, with second overall in the Tour de Suisse and, above all, his standout performances in the Tour. According to Laurens ten Dam, the 23-year-old Scot simply could not be kept by the Dutch team.

Because financially, Spekenbrink doesn’t have much room to manoeuvre. “He had a contract through 2027, for €500,000,” Ten Dam explained about Onley on the Live Slow Ride Fast podcast (Spotify). “He finishes fourth in the Tour for €500,000 — that’s a bargain. You’ve done a great job as a team. But if you want to keep him, you’d have to pay him €2.5 million for four years. Spekenbrink couldn’t do that.”

So the Picnic PostNL boss had to think like a businessman and protect the bottom line rather than focus on sporting ambition. “Then you can either wait until the end of 2027 and he leaves for nothing, or you sell him now for €4 to €6 million to INEOS, who are looking for a homegrown hero. He’s worth a lot of money to them, and Iwan has managed to capitalise on that.”

Onley wanted to go to INEOS, but Dekker also believes things are going seriously wrong at the Dutch team. “They don’t have a choice. You can’t deny that kid a contract worth three million. He’ll be better supported there. There’s a serious lack of money. They haven’t brought in support for him in the mountains. Training will barely be optimal. The team is crumbling.”

Last year, Picnic PostNL finished 17th in the UCI team ranking, narrowly avoiding relegation. That should have secured WorldTour status for the next three years — but the UCI reportedly saw that the finances were in bad shape. As a result, the team received only a one-year WorldTour licence, after which a new assessment will follow.

Dekker fears the worst, and says he has some notable insider information. “We have to ask ourselves: will that team still exist soon? They have a serious budget deficit, and they’ve been granted one year of approval by the UCI — after that, everything gets evaluated again. I happen to know that PostNL and Picnic are sitting there for pennies. Those two names pay very little money: DSM is still behind it.”