Unibet Tietema Rockets is looking for a potential wildcard for the 2026 Tour de France and other big races, and this winter has seen a big bet on some strong and popular Dutch riders. After the signing of Dylan Groenewegen, Wout Poels is now also joining the ProTeam.
Considering they were 30th in the 3-year long UCI rankings charts, it is possible for them to be invited, whilst the team puts a lot of focus on its social media and fan interaction to boost their chances. Poels, winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2016 and stages in the Tour de France and Vuelta a España, won the overall title in the Tour of Turkey and a stage this season.
The 38-year old veteran has signed a one-year deal, after completing a one-year deal with the XDS Astana Team where he got freedom to chase his own results throughout the year, although finding increasing difficulty in a peloton that does not stop evolving in the mountainous terrain.
About a decade ago however, the Dutchman himself was close to the top, and for many years served as Chris Froome's right-hand man in many of his Grand Tours wins - besides the results he would achieve for himself.
The highlights of Poels' career
Wout Poels has enjoyed a distinguished career in professional cycling, with wins and podium finishes in top-level events. His best results include his victory in the Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2016 and the overall classification of the Vuelta a Andalucía in 2022.
He has also achieved stage victories in the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana, both in 2023, as well as in Tirreno-Adriatico (2015), Volta a Catalunya (2016), Paris-Nice (2018), Critérium du Dauphiné (2019), and the Tour of the Basque Country (2014). He has also won stages at the Tour of Britain in four editions (2010, 2015, 2016 and 2018) and won the overall title at the Tour of Turkey in 2025.
Wout Poels on the Alto de l'Angliru. @Sirotti
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- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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😳 We needed special techniques... HERE IS WOUT! 🚀 It’s true. @WoutPoels is a Rocketeer.
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