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Follow us on GooglePicnic PostNL have had an undeniably difficult season. Multiple riders picked up injuries in the first half of 2026, and the team's first win of the year only arrived last week, at the Tour of Turkey, courtesy of Casper van Uden. Yet that win was a significant signal ahead of the Giro d'Italia — a race where everything could change for the Dutch squad.
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Picnic PostNL head to the Giro without their intended team leader Max Poole. The Briton is still recovering from two serious viruses, which means the focus in Italy will be on stage wins. Van Uden is the target for the sprint stages, but the team also has several interesting names for the mountains.
Frank van den Broek, Warren Barguil and Chris Hamilton all have climbers' legs. But it is Gijs Leemreize above all who is worth watching. The 26-year-old Dutchman is about to start his sixth Grand Tour, and his first Giro back in 2022 — then with Jumbo-Visma — was impressive.
That May, Leemreize got into the breakaway five times and came agonisingly close to a stage win on two occasions. He finished second once, third once — and on the other three attempts he also made it to the front group ahead of the peloton, delivering five top-ten finishes in all.
That knack for getting into the right move has stayed with him at every Grand Tour he has started since, including in 2024 and 2025 following his move to the team then known as DSM.
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Gijs Leemreize at the 2022 Giro, where he broke through as a climber.
Leemreize starts late, but with excellent legs
That Leemreize will make it into the break a few times at the Giro seems a near certainty. But the form he has shown in recent races suggests he can be more than just a passenger in the move. Which means the first part of 2026 could yet end on a high note — after Leemreize spent the entire first three months of the year away from racing.
The reason was a crash with a car on the final day of an altitude camp in Tenerife, in which he broke his collarbone. "Because of that, I did two altitude camps before the Tour of the Alps without racing," he told IDL Pro Cycling during the five-day stage race. "I didn't know exactly where I stood, but especially on the first day I felt great."
Leemreize was also well placed in a tough finale on stage two of the Tour of the Alps. Which raised a fair question: is he always this good after a period at altitude? "Normally, no. Although I did train really hard in the second camp. The first altitude block was in the build-up to the season, but because I started racing so late, the second one was genuinely tough."
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Leemreize was in the lead in Liège-Bastogne-Liège
Can a fresher Leemreize perform better than ever at the Giro d'Italia?
Those solid blocks of work in the second altitude camp sent Leemreize straight to a high level in the Tour of the Alps. And at Liège-Bastogne-Liège too he was right on form, riding well over 170 kilometres in the front group. That was another very welcome confirmation of what he is capable of. "The crash was frustrating, but I also knew that a broken collarbone doesn't take too long to come back from."
Leemreize turned a negative into a positive. "I had a long period of training, but I thought quite early on: this could actually work out well. Going into the Giro fresher doesn't have to be a disadvantage — particularly in that final week," said the Dutchman, who by that point already knew the role he would be heading to Italy in.
That role is as a free agent. Without Poole, Leemreize can throw himself fully into three weeks of racing. "I've put aside any thoughts of GC. Without Max, I can go for stage wins and save my legs in the grupetto on other days," he said, with a smile that said everything. Bring on the fight for stage wins — and maybe KOM points too.
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Bram van der PloegEditor-in-chief
Bram van der Ploeg (35) is the proud founder of In de Leiderstrui, IDL Pro Cycling's parent site, launched in 2018. Finally, he could create stories about the sport he had followed since childhood. He is the editor-in-chief on paper, but prefers to be with his recorder next to a rider, a team bus, or in the mud at a cyclocross race. Every year, from February to the end of May, Bram follows the entire Italian cycling season, from the Trofeo Laigueglia to the Giro d'Italia, with the grand finale in October in Lombardy. During that time, he lives in Tuscany, where he has since come to call Italy his 'home'.
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Latest Comments
- Eight riders told to go for stages, and nobody gets one—hard to know what the plan was there. It’ll be interesting to see whether they pick a clear leader next time.bikebuffj10-11-2026
- Was Bernal’s 20th place really their best GC result? I thought he might have finished higher. Either way, it sounds like a rough Tour for the whole team.gearguru3310-11-2026
- Five days in breaks with no stage win is a painful stat. The team had chances, but they need to turn those opportunities into results.julien10-11-2026
- The Onley Vuelta example makes sense: a team with someone to rally around often looks much more cohesive. Hopefully INEOS can build on that rather than expecting a quick return to the Sky years.cadencekingm10-11-2026
- Thomas is right about the ambiguity. Eight riders all chasing stages can end up pulling in different directions, even if nobody’s deliberately working against anyone. They need a clearer plan once the GC leaders are out.robert6510-11-2026
- What a mess. The report makes it sound as though nobody properly explained the decision, and that’s hard to defend.jennifer1910-11-2026
- I’m still learning the rules: does moving left in a sprint automatically bring a penalty, or does it depend on whether the other rider is blocked? It sounds like Brand wasn’t impeded here.patriciaw10-11-2026
- A final decision still needs a proper explanation. If the federation’s complaint goes nowhere, I hope the officials at least review how they handled the riders afterwards.michael5410-11-2026
- Fair play to Lucinda for saying Marie had won fair and square. That kind of sportsmanship matters, especially after such a controversial decision.raceready710-11-2026
- Schreiber beat Brand on the road, so the jury needed to explain clearly why that slight deviation warranted relegation. Being cut off before she could give her account sounds appalling.lindae10-11-2026