![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/lukaskubis-67a3a644084bf.jpg@webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“I feel free, without restrictions. Fun is king here and that doesn\u2019t stop me from being professional and ambitious. That\u2019s what I was already looking for as a rider,” Kittel assures.<\/p>\n
More than just Groenewegen<\/p>\n
Of course, the main attraction of the French\/Dutch team is their star sprinter backed by Kittel. But there’s many talented young riders he tries to help in their growth with just as much enthusiasm as he puts into the Groenewegen-project. There are promising all-rounders with fast finish in Luk\u00e1\u0161 Kubi\u0161 and Maty\u00e1\u0161 Kopeck\u00fd. There are also young speedsters Tobias M\u00fcller, Karsten Feldmann and Ronan Aug\u00e9. All under Kittel’s supervision.<\/p>\n
And the German makes it clear that he was keen on getting to know closely every single one of his co-workers upon arrival to the team: “I wanted to know the factors influencing their well-being, their personal goals, and how to align them with those of the team.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Slovakian champion Lukas Kubis was in the spotlight several times in 2025<\/p>\n
Sprinting is art<\/p>\n
Even though Kittel is no longer in the saddle himself, he still follows every bunch sprint with great interest. In the age of data, sprinting remains for him an unpredictable art.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s not an exact science: it\u2019s raw power meeting confidence, instinct, and reading the movements of teammates and opponents. Today, we talk a lot about the aerodynamics of the bike, the rider, nutrition\u2026 Certainly, all of that develops physical performance, but take Jonathan Milan: he\u2019s not the most aerodynamically inclined, and yet he keeps winning.”<\/p>\n
The start of the season has been pretty decent for Unibet’s sprinter department. In particular thanks to Groenewegen who rediscovered his killer instinct and already won three one-day races. “I’m very happy with the first eight weeks. We mustn’t forget where we’ve come from; we’re a developing team. Our ambitions are high, and everyone is committed. Right now, we can’t ask for more,” says Kittel.<\/p>\n
Giro debut is still far down the road<\/p>\n
After the disappointment of not being selected for the Tour de France, the team received an invitation to the Giro d’Italia. It’s not precisely what the team hoped for, but a Grand Tour invitation is still priceless. The plan of action had to adjust a bit, but Groenewegen will remain in center of attention.<\/p>\n
And before that, a bunch of other races. For a team strongly tied to Benelux, the spring classics are maybe just as important of an objective. “We have to focus on our current situation, on the upcoming races. We also have goals for the Classics. Nevertheless, the Giro will be a great opportunity to show where we stand,” Kittel concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “I feel free, without restrictions. Fun is king here and that doesn\u2019t stop me from being professional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":849106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,88915,184466,79,16,195532,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-849105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-dylan-groenewegen","10":"tag-marcel-kittel","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-unibet-rose-rockets","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116289350503723344","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}