History
The team was founded in 2008 when Iwan Spekenbrink founded a small second division professional team under the name Team Skil-Shimano. Thanks to aggressive strategies during Paris–Nice in 2008 and 2009, the team was awarded a wildcard for the 2009 Tour de France, making it their first appearance in a Grand Tour.
In 2010, Team Skil-Shimano added a Women’s program. Operating under the same umbrella and within the same structure; the idea of equality was paramount with the focus on one organisation. Around the same time, the team became an ambassador of Trees for All: and became the first in the peloton to compensate towards the CO2 emissions generated by its operation.
In 2011, the team took its first Grand Tour win with sprint success on stage seven of the Vuelta a España, as Marcel Kittel delivered after an impressive lead-out from the team. This can be recognized as the starting point for the team’s reputation as becoming one of the best sprint trains in the peloton.
After losing its sponsors at the end of 2011, the team adopted the name "Project 1T4i", standing for "team spirit, inspiration, integrity, improvement and innovation", [3] until a new sponsor was secured. Ahead of the Tour of Flanders on 1 April 2012, the team became Team Argos-Shimano following the announcement of a three-year naming rights contract with the Argos North Sea Group, an oil company based in the Netherlands. [4] [5]
In 2012, the team received their second wildcard invitation to the 2012 Tour de France, along with three French-registered teams: Cofidis, Team Europcar and Saur–Sojasun. [6]
In December 2012 it was announced that the team would compete at the World Tour level for the 2013 season. [7]
Two years after the team’s first Grand Tour win, they achieved their first major success in the Tour de France. Following an impressive lead-out and sprint to the line, Marcel Kittel took the team’s first Tour de France stage win at the opening stage on the island of Corsica, and with it the famous yellow jersey.
In September 2014 German shampoo manufacturer Alpecin announced that they would co-sponsor the team alongside Giant for the 2015 season. [8] In December 2014 Sunweb (a Dutch-owned international tour operator) was announced as a new major sponsor of the team, signing a 2-year deal. [9]
In 2015, the team created history by winning its first cycling Monument with John Degenkolb at Milano-Sanremo. Following on from success at Milano-Sanremo, the team collected their second Monument in as many months after winning Paris-Roubaix, otherwise known as the Hell of the North.
On 23 January 2016 during training in Spain, six members of the team (John Degenkolb, Warren Barguil, Max Walscheid, Chad Haga, Fredrik Ludvigsson and Ramon Sinkeldam) were hit by a car that was driven by an English tourist, who turned the wrong way into on-coming traffic. [10] For a time there was serious concern about some of them not only returning to ride in the 2016 season, but whether or not the accident might end their careers. Fortunately everyone recovered. [11]
On the first rest day of the 2016 Tour de France, the team announced that Sunweb would become a named sponsor of the team for the 2017 season, and the team would move their registration from the Netherlands to Germany. [12] [13]
At the beginning of 2017, Team Sunweb launched its Development Program alongside its Men’s and Women’s programs with the goal of sourcing and developing young international talents, bringing them up to the WorldTour. By 2025, the Development program has already promoted its 22nd talent to the pro’s.
In 2017, Team Sunweb won its first Grand Tour: the 2017 Giro d'Italia with Tom Dumoulin. At the 2017 Tour de France, the team won four stages and two major jerseys: Warren Barguil won the Mountains classification and Combativity Award while reaching 10th overall, and Michael Matthews won the Points classification. In September that year, the team collected three world titles in Bergen, Norway. On the 17th of September, both the Men’s and Women’s programs become team time trial world champions. 3 days later, Tom Dumoulin writes history once again as the first Dutchman ever to become a world champion in the individual time trial.
In 2018, the team continued to push for a cleaner sport and becomes the first WorldTour team with an additional and independent anti-doping program, in cooperation with the Dutch National Anti-Doping agency (“Dopingautoriteit”). In 2018 the team rode in support of Tom Dumoulin, who finished second in both the 2018 Giro d'Italia and the 2018 Tour de France.
From the 2021 season, DSM took over title sponsorship of the team, [14] with the name changing to Team dsm-firmenich in response to a company merger shortly before the 2023 Tour de France.
In 2024, PostNL joined dsm-firmenich as title partner. At the 2024 Tour de France, Romain Bardet claimed the first yellow jersey of the race by winning the opening stage after a two-man breakaway with teammate Frank van den Broek, a Development Program graduate who made his debut at the biggest race in cycling.
From the 2025 season, the online Dutch supermarket Picnic replaced dsm-firmenich as title sponsor. The official teamname became Team Picnic PostNL. Dsm-firmenich however remained a important partner of the team.
