{"id":1781577,"date":"2026-02-20T05:15:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T02:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1781577"},"modified":"2026-02-20T05:15:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T02:15:47","slug":"pioneering-youtube-team-rebounds-from-tour-de-france-snub-to-earn-giro-ditalia-wild-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1781577","title":{"rendered":"Pioneering &#8216;YouTube Team&#8217; Rebounds from Tour de France Snub to Earn Giro d&#8217;Italia Wild Card"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-VLAB.jpeg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-wrap fp-contentTarget\">\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<div class=\"mb-base-loose flex flex-wrap gap-(--spacing-base)\"><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"flex items-center justify-start gap-(--spacing-base-tight)\"><span class=\"font-utility-2 font-bold text-primary\">Jim Cotton<\/span><\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><\/div>\n<div class=\"pub-date font-utility-2 text-secondary\">Updated February 20, 2026 07:50AM<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-base-loose\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Unibet Rose Rockets is bringing its pioneering content-driven vision of cycling to the 2026 Giro d\u2019Italia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"aspect-video\">\n<p>After a shock snub by organizers of the Tour de France, the upstart squad was handed a golden ticket to the <em>Corsa Rosa<\/em> for what will be the first grand tour in its very short history.<\/p>\n<p>With experienced winners like Dylan Groenewegen, Wout Poels, and Victor Lafay on the roster, the Rockets are expected to bring drama to the racing this May.<\/p>\n<p>But what the team\u2019s savvy squad of content creators does off the bike will be equally intriguing.<\/p>\n<p>Team owner Bas Tietema built the squad out of a YouTube project and has remained committed to a fan-focused, Instagram-friendly vision of pro cycling ever since.<\/p>\n<p>In a team statement and accompanying online video (of course), the Dutch-born, French-registered ProTeam outlined two goals for its first ever grand tour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith strong ambitions both on and off the bike, the Rockets aim to contribute to the race with aggressive racing and high-quality content that connects new audiences to the sport,\u201d read the note.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-placeholder-wrapper relative w-full border-t border-b border-border-light col-span-full my-3 md:col-span-10 md:col-start-2\">\n<div class=\"mb-[30px] min-h-[30px] text-center\"><span class=\"font-utility-4 font-medium tracking-[1px] text-neutral-500 uppercase\">ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"ad-placeholder -mt-[30px] mb-[30px] flex min-h-[250px] w-full items-center justify-center\">\n<div class=\"w-full \">\n<div id=\"in-content-leaderboard-I0-P0-CMI0\" class=\"flex justify-center text-left\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Long-running Italian teams Bardiani CSF and Polti-VisitMalta were also handed invites by organizers RCS on Friday.<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-embed\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">GIRO D\u2019ITALIAAAA!!! \ud83d\ude0d\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udf55 We\u2019ve received a wildcard for the @giroditalia. Andiamo! \ud83e\udd70 pic.twitter.com\/r2aKkxEcHL<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Unibet Rose Rockets (@rockets_cycling) February 20, 2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Unibet Rose Rockets promise racing and engagement: \u2018Fully committed to making an impact\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>The Rockets\u2019 invite to the Giro d\u2019Italia marks the high-point of a string of recent wild card call-ups.<\/p>\n<p>The team will also see racing through the classics, including at Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix after it was handed the seal of approval by organizing bodies.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s not always been easy for the Rockets.<\/p>\n<p>There was mass consternation when the team was overlooked by ASO for the Tour de France wildcard last month. The squad\u2019s online popularity and strong early-season results had made it seem a certainty.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Tietema vowed he wouldn\u2019t give up his grand tour dream.<\/p>\n<p>Now, three weeks later, The Rockets are now shooting for the sky \u2013 and the pink jersey \u2013 at the Giro d\u2019Italia.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-placeholder-wrapper relative w-full border-t border-b border-border-light col-span-full my-3 md:col-span-10 md:col-start-2\">\n<div class=\"mb-[30px] min-h-[30px] text-center\"><span class=\"font-utility-4 font-medium tracking-[1px] text-neutral-500 uppercase\">ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"ad-placeholder -mt-[30px] mb-[30px] flex min-h-[250px] w-full items-center justify-center\">\n<div class=\"w-full \">\n<div id=\"in-content-leaderboard-I1-P0-CMI0\" class=\"flex justify-center text-left\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe are not going to the Giro d\u2019Italia just to participate: we are going there to compete. Our clear objective is to win a stage, and naturally the first stage stands out,\u201d Tietema said on Friday. \u201cIt\u2019s a unique sprint opportunity where you potentially can take the pink jersey.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat prospect motivates the entire team enormously.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Giro\u2019s <em>Grande Partenza <\/em>through Bulgaria on May 8 offers grizzled bunch sprinter Groenewegen an outside chance at bringing Unibet Rose Rockets some <em>rosa<\/em> on debut.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom day one, we want to be visible, ride offensively and we will be fully committed to making an impact,\u201d Tietema promised.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<div class=\"mb-base-loose flex flex-wrap gap-(--spacing-base)\"><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"flex items-center justify-start gap-(--spacing-base-tight)\"><span class=\"font-utility-2 font-bold text-primary\">Jim Cotton<\/span><\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><\/div>\n<div class=\"pub-date font-utility-2 text-secondary\">Updated February 20, 2026 07:50AM<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-base-loose\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/unibet-rose-rockets-giro-ditalia\/&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-VLAB.jpeg&#8221;] Jim Cotton Updated February 20, 2026 07:50AM Unibet Rose Rockets is bringing its pioneering content-driven vision of cycling to the 2026 Giro d\u2019Italia. After a shock snub by organizers of the Tour de France, the upstart squad was handed a golden ticket to the Corsa Rosa for what will be the first [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1781577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1781577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781577\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1781577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1781577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1781577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}