Tour de France stage winner Marcel Kittel is returning to the sport for the 2026 season focusing on being a sprint coach for the Unibet Rose Rockets squad.
Kittel, who counts 19 Grand Tour stages, including 14 at the Tour de France, among his 89 pro victories, will not only concentrate on the sprints, but coach the whole team and help build a more professional structure.
"I'm going to make a sort of comeback next year with Unibet Rose Rockets. I'll be working there as a sprint expert and will be part of the team,” Kittel told NOS.
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"The focus is on the sprints, of course. But also on coaching the entire team and building a top-level sports structure. We definitely need to raise it two more levels, towards the WorldTour. That's very clearly the ambition.”
As is normal for the team, which has built itself organically from little more than a YouTube channel, Kittel’s arrival was announced on the team's social media channels.
But the squad is far more than just an online presence. Beginning life as recently as 2023 as a Continental-level team with 13 riders, by last season, they had progressed to ProTeam status, their 27-man roster always riding aggressively.
They bagged five wins and a host of other top results. Despite their youth, the team are targeting a Tour de France wildcard for 2026.
For next year, not only do they have a German bike brand, Rose, on board as a title sponsor, but they’ve also shown intent with some big signings. Notable among those are climbers Wout Poels and Victor Lafay, both of whom have Tour de France stage wins to their name, and who they hope will strengthen their Grand Tour ambitions.
Also joining is Irish road champion, Rory Townsend, fresh from his maiden WorldTour win at the Cyclassics Hamburg last summer.
However, much of the project is built around a lead-out for their highest-profile addition, Dylan Groenewegen, the 32-year-old joining on a two-year deal.
Like Kittel, the Dutchman has Tour de France wins to his name; however, he has struggled recently, winning only three second-tier races in 2025, and the Dutchman clearly needs some help to return to winning ways.
"We're going to work with Dylan to identify exactly where there's room for improvement,” Kittel explained. “That will be a great process next year. For Dylan, but also for the lead-out team. It's crucial that we develop a common thread that prepares the team for WorldTour level and, for example, the Tour de France.
"Certainly not everything will work right away next year. We're going to try a lot of things, but that's also top-level sport: many things go wrong, and you lose very often. But the moments when you win are particularly valuable and important.”
Over 12 seasons in the pro peloton, Kittel rode for Giant-Alpecin, QuickStep Floors and Katusha-Alpecin, and since retiring, he has never been too far from the sport, working for NOS, among others, as a pundit and analyst.
