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 group Q36.5, Tudor and TotalEnergies.
Whereas finally racing the Tour de France stays the long-term objective for the group run by former professional rider turned profitable YouTuber Bas Tietema, alongside enterprise companions Josse Wester and Devin van der Wiel, Roubaix is a big step in the proper route additionally serving as their first ASO race.
“Receiving this wildcard is a dream come true for our group,” 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 direction of this second for the previous years, and it is unbelievable to see our efforts acknowledged by essentially 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 outdoors the time restrict.
“The cobbles of Roubaix are unforgiving, however we might be ready mentally and bodily to face them,” mentioned Tietema.
“As we rely all the way down to race day, we stay dedicated to our mission: to encourage, push limits, and convey an electrifying vitality to the peloton. Using Paris-Roubaix might be one of many hardest but most rewarding moments of their lives. The street to Roubaix might be robust, however we’re able to experience it with willpower and keenness.”
The offseason noticed a change in identify to Unibet Tietema Rockets and UCI licence, now driving as a French group to assist obtain that dream of the Tour going ahead. 2025 might be their second season at ProTeam stage after beginning out on the Continental stage two years prior.
Tietema’s group rode their first WorldTour occasion final season on the Amstel Gold Race, even that includes within the breakaway via 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 an enormous objective the group had their eyes on, with Tietema telling Cyclingnews again in April that the Amstel Gold Race was “actually the objective for this 12 months – to get into our first WorldTour race… subsequent 12 months, 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 might be all 15 Ladies’s WorldTour groups, alongside the six new ProTeams, EF Schooling-Oatly, Cofidis, Arkéa B&B Resorts, Winspace Orange Seal, St Michel – Choice Dwelling – Auber93, VolkerWessels and three extra invited groups from the Conti stage, Lotto, Coop-Repsol and DD Group.
