Unibet Rose Rockets will ride a Grand Tour in 2026 as Giro d'Italia names teams and wildcards

The Giro d'Italia organisers have announced the 23 squads for this year's race, which starts on May 8 in Nessebar, Bulgaria and finishes in Rome on May 31, most notably granting a Grand Tour debut to Unibet Rose Rockets.

The 18 WorldTour squads automatically qualify for the event, but the five teams from the ProTeam league had yet to be revealed by the Giro, the last of the three Grand Tours to publish their full line-up for 2026.

The three top ProTeams from 2025 are automatically invited to all WorldTour events this year, but Cofidis appear to have turned down their invite to the Giro, meaning there was an extra wildcard spot available, which have been hotly contested across the Grand Tours in 2026.

The stand-out name amongst the Giro's three wildcards is undoubtedly Unibet Rose Rockets. Despite having multiple Grand Tour stage winners in their line-up, Unibet were not selected by the Tour de France last month for the 2026 Grande Boucle – a decision which brought mixed reactions – with Spanish team Caja Rural-Seguros RGA getting the nod instead.

However, the ProTeam will get a Grand Tour start this May, meaning riders like top sprinter Dylan Groenewegen and veteran climbing ace Wout Poels will get the chance to shine in front of Italian fans early this summer.

More unsurprisingly, two longstanding Italian-registered ProTeams, Bardiani-CSF 7 Saber and Polti-VisitMalta, are both present in the 2026 race, whilst Swiss-based teams Tudor and Pinarello-Q36.5 both accepted their automatic invitations as the top-ranked ProTeams. All four squads were already present in the 2025 Giro d'Italia and whilst Tudor had a big stage win in 2024 with former World Champion Julian Alaphilippe, Polti were also successful back in 2023 with Davide Bais on the well-known ascent of Gran Sasso.

Whilst those teams are all proven at the Giro, the Rockets are yet to race a Grand Tour of any kind, and after the disappointment of missing out on the Tour spot, they were full of excitement at being welcomed to the Giro.

"We are very grateful for the opportunity to ride our first Grand Tour. The Giro d’Italia is one of the most iconic races in cycling, and to be there with the Unibet Rose Rockets is a milestone for our entire project," team founder Bas Tietema said.

"This wildcard is a recognition of the work of our riders, staff and partners, and it gives us the chance to present ourselves to an even larger international audience on the highest stage of the sport."

Several-time Grand Tour stage winner Dylan Groenewegen will be key in the sprints, whilst Wout Poels has the chance to complete the set of Grand Tour stage victories. Victor Lafay is another strong new signing for 2026 who should be able to compete in the hardest stages, so the team have plenty of opportunities for success beyond traditional breakaways, even if they don't have an out-and-out GC rider.

"We are not going to the Giro just to participate: we are going there to compete," Tietema affirmed. "Our clear objective is to win a stage, and naturally the first stage stands out as a sprint opportunity with the pink jersey at stake. From day one, we want to be visible, race offensively and make an impact."

Giro d'Italia 2026 teams

• Alpecin-Premier Tech (WT)
• Bahrain Victorious (WT)
• Decathlon CMA CGM (WT)
• EF Education-EasyPost (WT)
• Groupama-FDJ United (WT)
• Ineos Grenadiers (WT)
• Lidl-Trek (WT)
• Lotto Intermarché (WT)
• Movistar (WT)
• NSN Cycling (WT)
• Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe (WT)
• Soudal-QuickStep (WT)
• Jayco AlUla (WT)
• Picnic PostNL (WT)
• Visma-Lease a Bike (WT)
• UAE Team Emirates-XRG (WT)
• Uno-X Mobility (WT)
• XDS Astana (WT)
• Pinarello-Q36.5 (PRT) – automatic invitation
• Tudor Pro Cycling (PRT) – automatic invitation
• Bardiani-CSF 7 Saber (PRT) – wildcard invitation
• Polti VisitMalta (PRT) – wildcard invitation
• Unibet Rose Rockets (PRT) – wildcard invitation