Are the Rockets the wildcard team the Tour de France needs? After a strong Giro, they certainly think so!

The tension was palpable from hundreds of metres away. Anyone who joined the Unibet Rose Rockets team behind the finish line in the closing stages of the Giro d'Italia saw nervous faces. The team was desperately hoping for a stage win with Dylan Groenewegen, but he came to the front a little too early and finished fourth. And with that, the Rockets came away from their first Grand Tour without a victory.

Groenewegen arrived at the team in the winter as the big leader, and together with Marcel Kittel the team built a sprint train from the ground up. That already brought four one-day race victories in the spring, so the Rockets were entitled to dream of success on the biggest stage when the team received a Giro wildcard in February.

For months, the hope had been that the Tour de France would send an invitation to the Unibet Rose Rockets, but team boss Bas Tietema saw that pass them by. A shame, because the 2026 Tour route is even better suited to sprinters. Still, the Rockets committed themselves from day one in the Giro, which began in Bulgaria in early May.

On the opening day there was already a chance to win a stage and take the pink jersey, but Groenewegen was caught up in a mass crash in the finale. On stage three, the sprint train finally had its first real outing. The lead-out was impressive, but Groenewegen may have come to the front just a touch too early, chose another wheel anyway and finished a narrow third.

The most impressive lead-out of the Giro was undoubtedly in Naples, where the Rockets controlled the finale completely, but a crash on the freshly wet cobbles in a U-turn 300 metres from the line ruined that chance too. To make matters worse, what had looked like an almost certain sprint chance in Milan also disappeared, according to many because of the role of the motorbikes.

After the finish in Rome, where Groenewegen crossed the line in fourth place, Tietema counted only two sprints in which his leader really had a chance to win. “These guys ultimately did not get that many real sprint opportunities in this race, with the finales in Naples and Milan. Every time they had to survive for days just to get another sprint chance.”

“The focus then is on doing that as well as possible,” said the Dutchman, who also saw an active team on the non-sprint days. “We wanted to get Wout Poels to the highest level, together with our sprint train. That worked very well, and we also finished with eight riders. Everyone showed they can get through a Grand Tour.”

The Giro ending did put some pressure on the final day, but even that did not work out ideally because of a late move from Filippo Ganna of Netcompany INEOS. “Then a race like that is quite difficult, and fourth is not bad. In all our sprints this year, we have shown that Groenewegen is back among the world’s best, and we simply had to do it with this Giro as our Grand Tour.”

Tietema was referring to the fact that they had so wanted a wildcard for the Tour in 2026. There are more sprint opportunities there. “Maybe we can qualify ourselves directly for next year, but that will not be easy. Otherwise I hope we have shown enough good things to be considered,” the team boss said hopefully.

“It was promising, even though it was our first Grand Tour. I hope we have shown that we are very good in sprints and classics.”

Bram van der Ploeg ( X: @BvdPloegg | email [email protected])