Inside the Rocket's Giro with Marcel Kittel - Domestique Hotseat Podcast

Nine stages into the Giro and the race has delivered chaos, crashes, and near misses. Marcel Kittel joins us on the rest day from inside the Unibet Rose Rockets camp to break down how the team has handled its first Grand Tour test, why stage 6 hurt so much, and what it really takes to build a sprint train capable of mixing it with the best. Marcel is now on the other side of the race, guiding the sprint group from the team car, and he walks us through the emotions of the Giro so far: the broken bus window in Naples, Dylan and Elmar’s crash in the final corner of stage 6, and why Unibet can still walk away with a stage win despite the chances slipping by. We also dive into the details behind a Grand Tour lead-out, why alignment, roles, and 30-page briefings matter, how Wout Poels could still find opportunities in the harder stages, and what Marcel has learned in his new role as a performance leader rather than a rider. 0:00 - Taking risks to win 2:45 - Team bus window incident explained 5:00 - Emotions surrounding stage six crash 9:01 - Analysing the crash and its causes 12:36 - Importance of rider safety discussions 14:34 - Team's learning curve in Grand Tours 17:51 - Aligning team goals for sprint success 19:40 - Young team's motivation and commitment 24:45 - Team performance rating and future goals 26:34 - Team's pressure to secure a stage win 28:45 - Importance of focusing on the process 31:50 - Discussion on team challenges 36:00 - Predictions for the Giro d'Italia podium 37:40 - Closing remarks and future episodes SUBSCRIBE and get notified when a new video drops: 👉 @DomestiqueCycling Get your cycling news and feature articles on Domestique: https://www.domestiquecycling.com/ Follow Domestique on Socials 🔗 👉 X: https://x.com/Domestique___ 👉 Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/domestiquecy... 👉 Instagram:   / domestique___   👉 WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBX... 👉 TikTok:   / domestiquecycling   👉 Facebook:   / domestiquecyclingcom   👉 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36bP23f...