Unibet Rose Rockets has presented the necessary signings in recent weeks, but the French team with Dutch roots has also been working behind the scenes to extend expiring contracts. This includes the contract of Odd Christian Eiking: the 30-year-old Norwegian has signed a new one-year deal.
Eiking was known as a talented stage racer during his under-23 days. In his first two professional years at FDJ, the Norwegian puncheur posted strong results in both the Tour of Norway, the Tour of Poland, and the Tour Down Under. However, his contract was not renewed. He then raced for the next four seasons at Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert and its predecessors.
There he experienced his best period with stage wins in the Tour de Wallonie and Arctic Race of Norway. He also recorded short-value results in many other (stage) races, but the talent he showed as a young rider did not fully materialize with the Walloon team. Until the Vuelta a España in 2021. After joining the breakaway on the tenth stage, the Norwegian seized the red leader’s jersey. He held it for six days. Eiking ultimately finished eleventh in the general classification.
Eiking previously wore the red leader’s jersey at the Vuelta - photo: Fotopersburo Cor Vos
The Norwegian converted his strong Vuelta performance into a financially attractive transfer to EF Education-EasyPost. There, he continued to deliver solid results, but the real breakthrough was missing. His contract was again not extended, after which he was picked up by Uno-X Mobility. After one season, however, Eiking moved on to his next team: Unibet Tietema Rockets.
Odd Christian Eiking| Year | Team |
|---|---|
| 2026 | |
| 2025 | |
| 2024 | |
| 2023 | |
| 2022 |
In his first year with the ambitious squad, the Norwegian achieved short top-10 finishes in the Tour du Jura (7th), Tour of Hungary (9th), La Route d'Occitanie (8th), and the Sibiu Cycling Tour (3rd), earning the ProTeam a fair amount of UCI points. This was enough for a contract extension, which has now been announced — accompanied, as usual for the team, by a playful video.
There is still work to do, Odd… 😅
🥰 We’re looking forward to another year of high-quality content in our kit!
2026 • Odd Eiking ✍️ pic.twitter.com/T3B15ArdBZ
— Unibet Rose Rockets (@rockets_cycling) November 3, 2025
In 2026, Eiking will again race alongside familiar faces such as Hartthijs de Vries, Adrien Maire, and Lander Loockx, but Unibet Rose Rockets has also strengthened its squad with Dylan Groenewegen, Elmar Reinders, Matyáš Kopecký, Jannis Peter, Niklas Larsen, Wout Poels, and Rory Townsend. This is balanced by the departure of Axel Huens (to Groupama-FDJ).
