Scandal in cycling: the Picnic PostNL cycling team accused of being a dictatorship and favoring the culture of fear

Within the peloton and the cycling environment, rumors had been heard for some time about the particular work methodology of the Picnic-PostNL cycling teamsuspicions that a priori have now been confirmed after the investigation carried out by ‘NOS Sport’ and ‘In De Waaier’.

This field work took place over several months this year and during it both media spoke with 71 employees of the cycling team, most of whom expressed their opinion anonymously.

The report details many complicated situations, such as the one suffered by the retired professional cyclist. Martijn Tusveldafter he criticized the team’s lineup in the 2020 Giro d’Italia, which the Briton would end up winning Tao Geoghegan Hart. According to the Dutch cyclist, Rudi Kemna He accused him of creating a negative atmosphere within the team. The situation degenerated to the point that Tusveld confesses that he began to feel anxious and that “I even thought about harming myself.”

The team’s words surprise Tom Dumoulin’s former coach. Adrian Helmantel He assures that the triumph of ‘the Maastricht butterfly’ in the 2027 Giro d’Italia changed the team’s way of working, but in a negative sense, to the point that the team’s top managers “began to become paranoid” and that the team “became a dictatorship.”

The team management also lacked the knowledge of how to treat riders as Nicolas Rochewho was “pushed to leave the team” due to his “excessive influence on the runners.”

Given the great impact that the publication of the report has had, the team has come forward to address the accusations detailed in it, ensuring that they are going to open an internal investigation into the matter, since “if there are people who have felt unsafe within our organization, or who have perceived that they did not have enough opportunities to express their concerns, we want to understand how something like this could have happened.”

This report comes to light at the conclusion of a season in which the team Team Picnic PostNL has not shined especially, in fact it only has three victories and there is even a rumor that the Dutch team could resign next year from the World Tour category due to economic problems