Unibet Tietema Rockets will race their first Monument in 2025, introduced on Monday as one of many groups invited to Paris-Roubaix as a wildcard alongside Tom Pidcock’s new team Q36.5, Tudor and TotalEnergies.
Whereas ultimately racing the Tour de France stays the long-term objective for the workforce run by former pro rider turned successful YouTuber Bas Tietema, alongside enterprise companions Josse Wester and Devin van der Wiel, Roubaix is a big step in the fitting path additionally serving as their first ASO race.
“Receiving this wildcard is a dream come true for our workforce,” mentioned Tietema in a press launch. “Paris-Roubaix is a race with a wealthy historical past and immense challenges, and we’re able to embrace them with full dedication and ambition.
“We’ve been constructing in the direction of this second for the previous years, and it is unimaginable to see our efforts acknowledged by probably the most iconic one-day race of the calendar.”
Tietema himself has a historical past with the Monument and pavé or Northern France, having completed third within the under-23 occasion – Paris-Roubaix Espoirs – again in 2014 as Mike Teunissen took the victory.
Years later, after ending his racing profession after which coming again with Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB for the 2022 season after constructing his YouTube channel, Tietema was the final rider to reach on the fabled Roubaix Velodrome, multiple hour after winner Dylan van Baarle and out of doors the time restrict.
“The cobbles of Roubaix are unforgiving, however we will probably be ready mentally and bodily to face them,” mentioned Tietema.
“As we depend right down to race day, we stay dedicated to our mission: to encourage, push limits, and produce an electrifying vitality to the peloton. Driving Paris-Roubaix will probably be one of many hardest but most rewarding moments of their lives. The street to Roubaix will probably be powerful, however we’re able to trip it with willpower and keenness.”
The offseason noticed a change in title to Unibet Tietema Rockets and UCI licence, now driving as a French workforce to assist obtain that dream of the Tour going ahead. 2025 will probably be their second season at ProTeam stage after beginning out on the Continental stage two years prior.
Tietema’s workforce rode their first WorldTour occasion final season on the Amstel Gold Race, even that includes within the breakaway by means of Brit Zeb Kyffin In 2025, they will additionally debut on the WorldTour-level Omloop Het Nieuwsblad one-day race in March forward of their maiden look on the Hell of the North.
Racing a Monument was a giant objective the workforce had their eyes on, with Tietema telling Cyclingnews again in April that the Amstel Gold Race was “actually the objective for this yr – to get into our first WorldTour race… subsequent yr, first Monument.”
Additionally taking the beginning of the lads’s Paris-Roubaix in 2025 would be the three highest-ranked ProTeams, Lotto, Israel-Premier Tech and Uno-X Mobility, and the 18 WorldTour groups.
Beginning the ladies’s race will probably be all 15 Girls’s WorldTour groups, alongside the six new ProTeams, EF Training-Oatly, Cofidis, Arkéa B&B Resorts, Winspace Orange Seal, St Michel – Desire Residence – Auber93, VolkerWessels and three extra invited groups from the Conti stage, Lotto, Coop-Repsol and DD Group.
