Jakobsen suddenly faces three (!) sprint rivals in his own team: Who are they, and what does Picnic-PostNL plan to do with them?

In cycling, tensions often rise when two sprinters compete for a single spot in the biggest races. But in 2025, Picnic-PostNL takes it to another level. The Dutch team’s 28-rider roster now includes no fewer than four (!) sprinters, and the team has confirmed to IDLProCycling.com that all of them will get their opportunities. How will this work in practice? Sprint coach Roy Curvers explains, with Fabio Jakobsen adding his perspective.

When the team (at the time known as Team DSM-firmenich PostNL) unveiled its roster for 2024, Fabio Jakobsen was the standout name on the list. The 26-year-old sprinter made the bold decision to leave Soudal-Quick Step at the peak of his career to join a new project in his home country. Unfortunately, the move didn’t yield the desired results in his first year.

Jakobsen’s struggles in 2024 have been well-documented, with just one victory to his name. Meanwhile, three younger teammates overshadowed him with a string of wins. Casper van Uden (23, Netherlands) opened his time with the team with a stage win at the AlUla Tour in January, later adding victories at Rund um Köln and two stages of the ZLM Tour.

Tobias Lund Andresen (22, Denmark) racked up six wins: three in Turkey, two in Denmark, and one in Croatia. And that's not all, because Pavel Bittner (22, Czech Republic) bounced back from a tough start to claim stage wins in the Tour of Burgos and two victories in a highly competitive Vuelta a España. Together, the trio of youngsters contributed 13 wins, compared to the team’s total of 22 victories in 2024.

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Pavel Bittner won two Vuelta stages in 2024

Picnic-PostNL already saw the breakthroughs of Andresen, Van Uden and Bittner coming

For Van Uden, Andresen, and Bittner, 2024 marked their first professional victories. When those happened, they surprised much of the cycling world — but not Picnic-PostNL. Sprint coach Roy Curvers said he knew the team’s potential. "I actually expected this, yes. We knew we were signing a top-level sprinter with Fabio, but we also had a lot of talent coming through."

"They just weren’t ready to lead the way in 2024," explained Curvers, a former lead-out specialist for Marcel Kittel. "But in part thanks to Fabio’s expertise, these guys each made significant progress last year. They just kept developing. I was hoping for this outcome a year ago. You always anticipate that one or two might not get there, but we’re fortunate that all three have developed well."

Timo Roosen, who joined the team in 2024 as a lead-out man, witnessed the progress firsthand. "There’s no friction between them. That’s not an issue. They push each other to a higher level. Watching them sprint against each other in training is incredible, they all want to win. That’s not always fun for me, though, when I have to do my own sprints during training, haha! They're all super fast and they push each other."

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Casper van Uden after his stage victory in the 2024 AlUla Tour

Who is Casper van Uden?

Of the three younger sprinters, Van Uden was perhaps most affected by Jakobsen’s arrival in 2024. He’s a typical sprinter, just like his Dutch compatriot Fabio, Curvers acknowledged. Van Uden, a homegrown talent, joined Picnic PostNL’s development program in 2020 before moving up to the WorldTour squad in 2022.

As the winner of races like Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and a stage in the Tour de l'Avenir at the U23 level, expectations for him were high. In 2023, he began to fulfill those expectations with some strong podium and top-10 finishes, but in 2024, he also started winning races. This progress has earned him a spot in his first Grand Tour in 2025. "Casper will have opportunities in the Tour of Algarve and Tirreno, and in principle, we aim to prepare him for the Giro. As a sprinter and for his overall development, he is ready for that step," said Curvers.

In the Giro, Van Uden will have the chance to prove that he can be a serious rival to Jakobsen, as he is already regarded as such. "If you look specifically at our riders, Tobias Lund and Pavel are guys who lean more toward the classics, the type of sprinters who can handle tougher courses. Fabio and Casper are more the pure sprinters, so in that sense, you can create a solid program where all four of them get their opportunities and can perform at their best."

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Andresen (right) next to his 2024 target leader Jakobsen (center)

Who is Tobias Lund Andresen?

In 2024, Andresen suddenly began to secure victories, but his potential was already evident in previous years. The Dane was promoted to the WorldTour squad a few months after Van Uden and immediately made an impact, finishing second in the Profronde van Drenthe, twice in the Tour of Norway, twice in the CRO Race, and in the Brussels Cycling Classic. That’s six times where he came very close to victory.

Andresen took the step to winning in April 2024, at the Tour of Turkey. Many of the race finishes turned out to be quite technical and challenging, which allowed the Dane to outperform his designated team leader Jakobsen on three occasions — though Jakobsen also won a stage. Andresen accompanied the Dutch sprinter to the Giro d’Italia, where he had one opportunity to sprint for himself and finished fifth. Later in the year, he added more wins in Denmark and Croatia.

"Tobias Lund, on paper, might not immediately look like a true sprinter physically," explained Curvers. "If you see him, he doesn’t have the muscle mass of someone like Fabio. But he has a knack for positioning himself in the right place, and with his weight combined with his explosiveness, he’s perfectly suited for finishes that go slightly uphill," Curvers said. "He can genuinely develop into a world-class rider in that area. I see him as more of a Magnus Cort or Michael Matthews type — that might be the direction for him."

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Pavel Bittner

Who is Pavel Bittner?

At Picnic-PostNL, they associate Andresen with races like the Cadel Evans Road Race, GP Quebec, Bretagne Classic, or Tour de France finishes with the final 500 meters uphill. For Bittner, the focus extends beyond sprinting... to the Flemish classics. Of the four sprinters, the Czech rider handles cobblestones the best, though a crash in the spring of 2023 prevented him from fully showcasing this strength.

Like Van Uden and Andresen, Bittner really saw things come together in 2024. After finishing second in the Grand Prix Criquielion and tenth in Nokere Koerse, he secured podium places in the Tour of Norway and the Tour of the Czech Republic. His real breakthrough came in Burgos and the Vuelta, where everything fell into place. "I always call Bittner a Degenkolb type. In his early years, John was strong in the classics but also fast in sprints," Curvers explained.

He continued: "With John, we never really knew what his ceiling would be, and it’s the same with Pavel. Where is his ceiling? The expectation is that he’ll develop into someone who can handle the tougher sprints and eventually win races like Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. He could follow a similar trajectory to Jasper Philipsen, in terms of what courses he should be able to handle."

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Fabio Jakobsen

Picnic-PostNL sees Jakobsen as the fastest sprinter

Van Uden is heading to the Giro, Andresen already began his season in Australia, Jakobsen will start in the Tour of AlUla at the end of January, and Bittner will line up in the Tour of Oman a week later. "We have four sprinters who each perform best in different types of races and all deserve opportunities at the highest level. The goal is to distribute those opportunities evenly and hopefully get everyone to reach a high level right away. It’s about making clear plans, distributing the workload at the front as effectively as possible, and creating clarity. Who do we expect to deliver where?"

Jakobsen has been given the chance by Picnic-PostNL, at least initially, to redeem his underwhelming 2024 season. "With Fabio, we want to bring back the old Fabio, the one who wins races. If that works, the Tour de France, starting in Lille, will be a great target to build towards. When Fabio is at his absolute best, he’s the fastest of the four sprinters in flat sprints. But this is a tough, high-performance world where things have to work out. We’ve talked to Fabio about this, and he isn’t afraid of that either."

"At Quick Step, this is what he was used to, always having another sprinter on equal footing next to him. A top-level Fabio is one of the fastest riders in the peloton, so he’ll continue to get opportunities," Curvers said. "In 2024, he had plenty of chances because he was the only top sprinter for both the Giro and the Tour. Now, we have more options. On the one hand, that’s the reality of elite sports, but for a rider like Fabio, it can also bring him peace of mind, as he can now be deployed in the races that suit him best."

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Picnic-PostNL in the Tour Down Under

Jakobsen is fine with focusing solely on the Tour de France

Jakobsen confirms that he has no issue with a slightly lighter race program in 2025. "If you’re not quite good enough in the really big races, you get punished hard. Last year, I raced both the Giro and the Tour, and that put a lot of pressure on my shoulders because you want to perform in both. Now, someone else will take on that responsibility, and I can focus more on my main goal, the Tour de France."

"There are plenty of talented guys here who can handle it. They deserve their chances too, so I don’t think the distribution is strange," Jakobsen emphasized. "In the past, I was used to sharing opportunities with the whole team. In 2024, the program looked good, but it didn’t work out. It’s always good when you can take the best lineup and make the best plan. I’m used to competing alongside multiple finishers."

Jakobsen isn’t worried about being overtaken by his younger teammates. "I think I’m at the top of the team when it comes to sprint wins and experience. There are many young talents here who might come close to me or even surpass me in terms of power and physical abilities, but they haven’t won much yet. Cycling isn’t just about data; it’s also about the decisions you make in a race: steering, positioning, reading the race, and understanding what’s needed."

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Jakobsen back in the Tour de France this summer?

Jakobsen not afraid of competition from younger teammates

A strong 2024 doesn’t mean the dynamics in 2025 will remain the same, Jakobsen emphasizes. "It’s inherent to the sport that they compete for your spot. Last year, I was pushed aside — not just within the team but also in the entire peloton. That’s how the sport works. But if you’re afraid of the sprinters in your own team, how scared should you be of the sprinters outside your team? There will always be competition, but you have to put it all in perspective."

Like Roosen, Jakobsen believes that the sprinters at Picnic-PostNL make each other better by training together in a fixed sprint group. "You push each other to a higher level, although the danger is that if you share too much with them, they might become better than you. But I don’t look at it that way. I was brought to this team to contribute to that sprint group. I enjoy doing it because these guys weren’t already winning ten races a year at the highest level. I don’t see myself as above them, but they’re certainly not above me."

"We do it together, and everyone is eager to learn. They’re great guys, and we have a good time together," Jakobsen concluded. "When it’s race time, we all want to win. And if they eventually take my spot, that’s part of the sport. I once took Mark Cavendish’s spot when he didn’t get to ride the Tour de France, and I did. Those guys have a lot of talent and have shown they can win, and I want to get back to that level myself.'

Curvers agrees: "We don’t operate under the assumption that maybe one or two of the four sprinters will rise above the rest. With Fabio, we have a top sprinter who has proven himself at the highest level, but he’s also very specific in his style." Or, as he puts it: "If a race isn’t ideal for one rider, we have another specialist. That creates competition internally, but it can also strengthen and motivate each other because they’re so different. It remains to be seen how they develop. If they all become world-class riders, then we’ll have a different (luxury) problem — but I don’t see that happening in 2025 yet."

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