Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets) beat Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) to win the Ronde van Brugge on March 25, delivering the team's first WorldTour victory. Behind the result stands Marcel Kittel, the former sprint star who retired in 2019 saying he had "lost all motivation to keep torturing myself on a bike," and who has now returned to the sport as the team's sprint coach.
The Brugge win was Groenewegen's fourth of the 2026 season and came at the end of a week in which he also won the Bredene Koksijde Classic and the GP Jean-Pierre Monseré. Earlier in the year, he took the Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana from a reduced group after crosswinds split the field. The run of form has coincided with Kittel's first months in a hands-on coaching role, and the results are the earliest evidence the partnership is working.
Kittel, who won 14 Tour de France stages during his career, was announced as sprint coach in late 2025. He has been open about why this team, rather than any other, drew him back. "I feel free, without restrictions," Kittel told WielerFlits. "Fun is king here and that doesn't stop me from being professional and ambitious. That's what I was already looking for as a rider."
Kittel retired at 30, burned out by the demands of elite sprinting. He stayed close to the sport as an analyst for Dutch broadcaster NOS but did not rejoin a team structure until Unibet Rose Rockets offered an environment he considered more sustainable. The team said Kittel wanted to join a project that was "building, moving forward, and giving him energy again," according to the team's own announcement.
His role is more than advisory. Kittel has described wanting to understand "the factors influencing their well-being, their personal goals, and how to align them with those of the team." He still sees sprinting as "not an exact science" but as "raw power meeting confidence, instinct, and reading the movements of teammates and opponents." This philosophy aligns with Groenewegen's recent wins in chaotic, wind-affected finales where positioning and timing mattered as much as raw speed.
From YouTube to WorldTour wins
The appointment comes in the context of how far the Rockets project has travelled. The team grew out of the Tour de Tietema YouTube channel, scaled through continental and ProTeam status, and adopted its current Unibet Rose Rockets identity in 2025. Kittel has said that the team's media-first approach and its ability to involve fans and partners were factors in his decision.
Groenewegen, 32, has secured four wins in 2026 within the new team structure. Winning three races in one week all in tricky largely flat Belgian races that ended in a sprint but were very difficult to negotiate. At Brugge, where crosswinds and crashes thinned the peloton before a final sprint, Groenewegen was calm and controlled. The team's sprint train kept him protected through the chaos and delivered him to near the front when the sprint opened. The former Dutch champion did have to do a lot of the work himself, though, with Philipsen already kicking hard, he had to come around a couple of riders before even being shoulder to shoulder with his Belgian rival. That alone goes to show where his, and potentially Philipsen's, form is right now.
Whether the sprint project can sustain this level through the deeper part of the season, against larger fields and stronger opposition, remains to be seen. The results following Kittel's return suggest he has found a structure that works for him, and the sprinter he is mentoring is winning races. The major test for Groenwegen, Kittel and the whole Unibet Rose Rockets squad will be their first Grand Tour, the Giro d'Italia, in May.
Cover image credit: Mark Green/SWpix.com
