Dylan Groenewegen and his Unibet Rose Rockets teammates survived the Pila mountain stage on Saturday and are now focused on their big Giro d'Italia goal: winning a bunch sprint. They know that Sunday in central Milan is a great chance, with next Sunday's last stage around central Rome their final shot.
"If you want to sprint in Milano, then you had to survive the mountain stage. So that was our goal," team owner Bas Tietema told Cyclingnews, who also praised Wout Poels for again going in the breakaway.
Unibet were given a wildcard invitation to the Giro after missing out on a place in the Tour de France. They have ruffled the feathers of some bigger rivals with their innovative, fan-friendly video and social media strategy but have also got results, especially in sprints and one-day races.
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Groenewegen has won four sprints this year, including the Ronde Van Brugge WorldTour race. Unibet are on track to secure automatic invitations to all WorldTour races in 2027 and so ride the Tour de France in 14 months' time.
Unibet hoped to win the first stage of the Giro in Bulgaria and so take the first maglia rosa but Groenewegen was caught up in the late mass-crash. He was third in Sofia behind Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) and Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), and the team impressed with their leadout on the stage to Naples, only to slide out on the last cobbled corner.
They hope to create a similar leadout in Milan so that Groenewegen can use his power on the long straight finish on the Corso Venezia boulevard.
"I think our Giro is going really well, especially in the stages where we targeted the sprints," Tietema told Cyclingnews with pride and his usual optimistic look on life and cycling.
"I think we have been quite dominant in the leadouts in the sprint but a bit unfortunate with the outcome. There have been some medium sprint stages that have been crushed by the peloton over the hills so that made it more difficult in week two.
"We have two shots left to achieve our Mission Giro'. We still have a full team of riders in the race and so we're happy. Let's see if we can win in Milano and Rome. It'd be amazing."
Rinse and repeat in the sprints
Tietema is hoping the team can repeat the way they dominated the leadout into Naples.
"To see the team taking the lead of the peloton and then doing that all the way to the final corner against some of the best teams in the world, was quite a surreal moment for us, a wild card team. We will try to do exactly the same in Milano and then Rome, to bring Dylan in the best perfect position towards the finish."
Unibet are on a steep learning curve and the Giro is helping them improve.
"It's our first time being on the road for three weeks," Tietema pointed out.
"There are a lot of things you don't understand when you start doing this, but on the other hand, we've had good performances in the sprints, with Wout in the breakaways and even with Niklas Larsen, who was tenth in the time trial.
"We're publishing daily videos about the racing and behind the scenes. It's really cool to see they're getting 100,000 views every single day.
"People from all over the world are starting to follow what we are doing. We popped up in Brazil the other day, so now we have a lot of fans from Brazil supporting the team. That kind of thing only happens in Grand Tours and that's cool to see. We love being on the Giro."
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