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 manages, 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 nationality from that of his home country, the Netherlands, to France. It was a smart and intentional move; Grand Tour organisers tend to favour teams from their country – that’s why Spanish ProTeams Burgos and Caja Rural tend to always be at the Vuelta a España. The Rockets are the only French team of the six remaining Tour wildcard contenders.
Another factor that tends to sway the organiser’s vote is the calibre of the riders on the team. Take Tudor Pro Cycling, for example, who earned their first Tour wildcard this summer, in large part thanks to the presence of French sweetheart Julian Alaphilippe in their ranks.
Knowing this, Tietema and his Rockets co-founders Josse Wesster and Devin van der Wiel have set about building a squad of bona fide Tour legends. They secured the signature of six-time stage winner Dylan Groenewegen in August, recruited 11-time Tour starter Wout Poels last month, and just yesterday, announced the signing of Victor Lafay, formerly of Cofidis and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale.
Lafay’s signing, inconspicuous as it may seem, is significant, and could be the key that unlocks that final wildcard spot. Like Alaphilippe at Tudor, he’s a marquee French rider, one who stole hearts with his bold Tour stage win in 2023, when he tore off the front of the peloton and foiled the sprinters in San Sébastián. He hasn’t returned to the Tour since.
“I dream of getting good results again and of being on the start line of the Tour de France,” Lafay said in a Rockets press release. “I’ve never finished in Paris, and that’s something I still want to experience.”
It’s hard to ignore the confidence in Lafay’s comments that he and his new team will be at the race. It begs the question: does he know more than we do?
There were signs too at the Tour de France route presentation in Paris last month. Dressed up smartly at the Palais des Congrès, Tietema arrived with Wesster and Van der Wiel, as well as the team’s two best UCI-points-scoring riders, Lukáš Kubiš and Adrien Maire. New signing Groenewegen walked onto the stage as part of the presentation. It made fans wonder: why such a large delegation? “It shows that it’s important to us,” Tietema said on the night. The Rockets were forcing their seat at the table.
Of course, nothing at this stage is guaranteed. Tour organiser ASO is expected to announce its teams selection for the 2026 edition early next year, likely in January. The Rockets have got the points, the riders, and the drive – their YouTube and social media following is also a bonus – and fans know the Tour is a sucker for a good storyline.
“We started at the Tour de France in 2019, just making silly challenges, like wheelie contests and handing out pizzas,” Tietema told Cycling Weekly in 2023, explaining the origins of his YouTube channel.
At the time, he was the boss of a new Continental team, one that appeared to have more cameramen than riders. His ambition, nonetheless, was clear: “My ultimate goal is to bring the team to the Tour de France.”
Some might have ridiculed Tietema for daring to have the idea. But there was a belief in his voice that begged to be taken seriously. “It’s getting more realistic,” he continued, deadpan.
Seven years after those first YouTube videos, it could well become a reality.
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