"We’re a little surprised": Unibet DS turns page, as he is convinced that "we will get the Tour invite in future"

It's not like this every year, but in 2026, the teams which will be granted Grand Tour wildcards were kept in the dark until the very last day. For the biggest of them all, the Tour de France, Unibet Rose Rockets seemed to be the front-runners to join fellow French ProTeam TotalEnergies in a Grand Départ in Barcelona for the team's Grande Boucle debut. But on the very last moment, the narrative has suddenly changed and a Spanish ProTeam Caja Rural - Seguros RGA was invited instead.

Bas Tietema built his team for this season with the ambition to reach the Tour de France already in 2026 with the signigns of former Tour stage winners Dylan Groenewegen, Victor Lafay and Wout Poels. Palmares-wise and (on paper) quality-wise, the French-Dutch team certainly seemed to have more to offer than their Spanish counterparts, but Tour organizer ASO decided to prioritize the team that placed above Rockets (26th) in 2025 UCI ranking - Caja Rural (25th).

"We’re a little bit surprised, but we cannot do anything about it.
We have to really focus on what we can focus on, and that's the sporting side of cycling," Unibet Rose Rockets sports director Sverrre Dyngeland told cycling journalist Daniel Benson.

"To be honest, I think we would also be surprised if we were invited to the Tour. So, yeah, it's a little bit both ways," he adds.

However project doesn't stop now. The dream does not fulfill in 2026, but that gives all the more motivation to everyone behind the project to ensure that in 2027, ASO can no longer look past the bid of Rockets. Ranking among the three best ProTeams might be a tad bit too ambitious goal, but even a top-5 should provide them with enough leverage to meet the sporting criteria which seemed to have been ASO's main arguement against invitation.

"We have a really good race programme, after all, with all the classics, also some one-day races from ASO. We have to focus on that part of it, and then when it's time to go to the Tour, when we can show the sporting level is there, I think we will get the invite in the future."

On whether he believed that the team had done enough to secure an invitation, Dyngeland stated, "We are, of course, doing everything we can, but there are also other teams doing everything they can. It's up to the organisers to decide who's going to the Tour. It's not up to us to decide, and, yeah, we are focusing on what we can do and nothing more. That's being as good as we can from the sporting side."

"And of course, signing riders, maybe not hoping that this was going to bring us to the next level [immediately], but at least, yeah, bring us to the next level for the coming years. That's why we signed the riders we have."

Dylan Groenewegen already secured the team's first victory of the season in Spain, and the season has only begun.