Bas Tietema and his friends have an annual tradition at the Tour de France. They wait until the final stage, fill up a car with Domino’s pizzas, and hand them out to riders after the race on the Champs-Elysées. It’s always a warmly welcomed gesture – some riders get their orders in early on Instagram – and the subsequent video on YouTube is usually their biggest of the year, gathering 270,000 views this summer, and almost half a million in 2023.
As he collected his pizza this July, Picnic PostNL’s Sean Flynn issued a throwaway comment: “Maybe soon you guys will also be here riding.” Flynn then smiled and rode away, but his words, in hindsight, now seem less far-fetched. A lot less. In fact, many might say it now looks likely that the team Tietema founded, the Unibet Rose Rockets, will make their debut at the Tour next year.
Set up in 2023 off the back of the YouTube channel, the Rockets have enjoyed a rapid rise through cycling’s ranks. They made their name attacking into breakaways at the Tour of Britain in their first year, and then leapt from Continental level to ProTour, from third tier to second tier, in 2024. This season has been even bigger still; a Paris-Roubaix debut, five UCI wins, and a late flurry of points that saw them finish 26th in the UCI teams rankings – well within the top-30 needed to be considered for a Tour de France wildcard.
Let’s start with the external factors. Last March, the UCI increased the number of teams allowed in a Grand Tour from 22 to 23: the 18 WorldTour teams, the top two ProTeams, and three wildcards chosen by the organiser – in the Tour’s case, ASO. Q36.5 and Tudor Pro Cycling appear to have banked the two ProTeam spots, but due to the merger of Lotto and Intermarché-Wanty, and the collapse of Arkéa-B&B Hotels, all the other teams, including the Unibet Rose Rockets, have moved up the pecking order.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
If we assume that French stalwarts Cofidis and TotalEnergies, both ProTeams next year, will be on the start list, that leaves one final spot. The six contenders are: Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, Burgos Burpellet BH, Equipo Kern Pharma, VF Group Bardiani-CSF Faizanè, Polti-VisitMalta and the Rockets. Tietema’s got a few tricks up his sleeve.
The first trick came in 2024, when he swapped the team’s racing licence…