{"id":285170,"date":"2025-11-26T23:03:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/285170\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T23:03:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:03:11","slug":"its-looking-good-we-can-be-on-the-start-line-in-barcelona-bas-tietema-very-confident-of-historic-tour-de-france-debut-for-unibet-rose-rockets-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/285170\/","title":{"rendered":"“It’s looking good! We can be on the start line in Barcelona” \u2013 Bas Tietema “very confident” of historic Tour de France debut for Unibet Rose Rockets in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bas Tietema<\/a> says he is \u201cvery confident\u201d that Unibet Rose Rockets<\/a> will receive a wildcard for the 2026 Tour de France<\/a>, describing the team\u2019s chances as \u201clooking good\u201d as ASO prepares to make its final selections.<\/p>\n

What seemed impossible 12 months ago now appears firmly within reach \u2014 and Tietema believes his young project is on the cusp of an extraordinary milestone.<\/p>\n

Tietema spoke during the live theatre show De Laatste Etappe in Utrecht, in quotes collected by Wielerflits<\/a>, where the 2026 Tour was discussed by Jip van den Bos, Stef Clement, Jose De Cauwer and Tom Dumoulin. When the subject of a wildcard arose, Eurosport commentator Van den Bos made it clear she sees the team as a strong contender, saying there is \u201ca very big chance\u201d the Rockets will be invited.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Pressed directly on whether his squad will start in Barcelona next summer, Tietema struck a careful balance between formality and excitement. \u201cThe formal answer is that we still have to wait and see,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s looking good, so I\u2019m very confident. I hope we can be on the start line in Barcelona. And I hope we can say that in three years we have gone from the Ster van Zwolle to the Tour de France. That would be an enormous reward.\u201d<\/p>\n

A wildcard suddenly within reach<\/p>\n

The dramatic shift in circumstances over the past year has opened the door for the Rockets in ways few predicted. Their French licence, the disappearance of Arkea-B&B Hotels, Cofidis having a guaranteed wildcard, and a UCI rule change allowing Grand Tours to award five invitations instead of four have all tilted the odds in their favour. What once felt like a long-term dream has turned into a realistic short-term ambition.<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, the team has spent months preparing financially and competitively to prove they can field a credible Grand Tour line-up in 2026. High-profile signings<\/a> such as Dylan Groenewegen<\/a>, Wout Poels<\/a> and Victor Lafay<\/a> underline that intent. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to be there just to take part,\u201d Tietema said earlier this year. \u201cWe also want to win the stages that suit us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether the final decision lands in their favour now rests with ASO \u2014 but Tietema\u2019s confidence, the team\u2019s strengthened roster, and the shifting wildcard landscape all point to a once-unthinkable Tour de France debut edging ever closer.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bas Tietema says he is \u201cvery confident\u201d that Unibet Rose Rockets will receive a wildcard for the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[116081,4985,116079,101,6549,56,116082,54,55,116080,110039],"class_list":["post-285170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-bas-tietema","tag-cycling","tag-dylan-groenewegen","tag-sports","tag-tour-de-france","tag-uk","tag-unibet-rose-rockets","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-victor-lafay","tag-wout-poels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}