Walking through the corridor of the team hotel, you might hear a chirpy and loud Yorkshire accent talking away to his teammates – well, you’re in luck, you’ve stumbled across Bjorn Koerdt.
Reflecting on 2025
It’s been a whirlwind of a few years for the young British rider who until 2024 was riding at the club level with the well-established CC Étupes in France before becoming a stagiaire with Team Picnic PostNL later that year. He then joined the Men’s program full-time in 2025, riding some of the biggest races on the WorldTour calendar, including a Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta a España.
Looking back on that first year with the team, Bjorn says that the main thing he has taken from it is “to have a lot of trust” in everything and everyone around him.
“It’s a lot more of a team environment than I was used to, so working with each other, trusting your coach and trainer, trusting your teammates in the race. Even if you have an off day, you know that you have put in the work and that you’ll be good again soon.”
That hard work resulted in Bjorn lining up for the Vuelta in Torino towards the end of last season, and on stage three of that race he took a strong ninth place in the uphill kick to the line, while also impressing in other stages too.
“That first Grand Tour was always going to be special. Obviously the top ten was a highlight but also on some other days when maybe the results don’t show so much, I could also feel like I have really developed – I was pretty surprised on some days with my climbing.”
Making the next steps
A “grafter” as people in the UK would say, Bjorn isn’t afraid of putting in the hard yards to achieve his goals and aid his development as a rider; with a big step-up in his training since joining the team.
“I noticed a big difference in my training, just with the load and everything you have to do at this level as the races are a lot longer and harder. But I think the team eased me into it really well and we’ve continued to make small steps, and it seems to be paying off well.”
It’s particularly interesting because up until the end of 2023, Bjorn didn’t have a power meter equipped on his bike for when he was training or racing – something that happens a lot more regularly than you might think, despite the seemingly hyper-professionalisation of junior racing.
But just how do you go about recruiting and developing a rider that maybe misses the “normal” path to professional cycling? We caught up with Team Picnic PostNL Data Expert, Sjors Groot, and Trainer Coordinator, Steve Benton to find out how that whole process worked.

