{"id":220680,"date":"2025-10-23T16:36:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T16:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/220680\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T16:36:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T16:36:10","slug":"i-still-love-suffering-in-the-mountains-veteran-dutch-climber-wout-poels-signs-for-likely-final-season-of-career-with-unibet-rose-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/220680\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I still love suffering in the mountains’ \u2013 veteran Dutch climber Wout Poels signs for likely final season of career with Unibet Rose Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran Dutch climber Wout Poels (XDS-Astana)<\/a> is set to join the fast-growing Unibet Rose Rockets<\/a> squad in 2026, strengthening the Pro team’s mountains firepower in what is likely the final year of his career.<\/p>\n

Poels, 38, has had a stellar career of success in the mountains, stretching from a victory on Spain’s hardest ascent, the Angliru<\/a>, back in the 2011 Vuelta, through wins at the 2016 edition of Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge<\/a> \u2013 at the time, the long-sought first Monument for Team Sky \u2013 and a stage of the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 to a triumph in the Tour de France in 2023. His most recent win was a stage and the overall in the 2025 Tour of Turkiye.<\/p>\n

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His move mirrors that of another top Dutch veteran, Dylan Groenewegen<\/a> (Jayco-AlUla), to the same squad, to strengthen their options in the sprints in 2026.<\/p>\n

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A former racer with Sky, Bahrain Victorious and Vancansoleil amongst others, Poels said in a team press release that despite his career kicking off way back in 2009, he’s still feeling that he is motivated to continue racing for another season.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m not here to wind things down. I\u2019m here to give everything I\u2019ve got for one more full season. I still love racing, I still love suffering in the mountains, and I still get that same fire when the road goes uphill,” said Poels.<\/p>\n

“The Rockets\u2019 energy is exactly what I was looking for: one more year to go all-in and enjoy this sport at the highest level.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWout didn\u2019t join us to take it easy. From the first talk, it was clear he wanted to go all-in, not just show up for one last lap. That mentality fits us perfectly,” added team owner Bas Tietema.<\/p>\n

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For the Pro Team formed in 2023, Poels and Groenewegen \u2013 also a repeat Grand Tour winner \u2013 both fit in the same goal of building towards a first-ever participation in the Tour de France. At the same time, the idea is they will provide Unibet with experienced, successful figures both as leaders in their own right and as team captains who can help their younger riders find their feet in the sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran Dutch climber Wout Poels (XDS-Astana) is set to join the fast-growing Unibet Rose Rockets squad in 2026,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-220680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}