Unibet Rose Rockets misses invitation to 'mini Tour de France'

Unibet Rose Rockets hopes to make its debut in the Tour de France this year but will not compete in the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (June 7-14) in the lead-up to La Grande Boucle. The French team with Dutch roots did not receive a wildcard for the 'mini Tour de France'.

Unibet Rose Rockets has already been fortunate in recent weeks with invitations to prestigious races, including Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, and—for the first time—the Tour of Flanders. However, a first participation in the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (formerly the Critérium du Dauphiné) is out of reach for the team featuring riders like Wout Poels and Victor Lafay.

The organizers have awarded the wildcards to Caja Rural-Seguros RGA and TotalEnergies. Tudor and Cofidis—being the two best-performing ProTeams—were already guaranteed a start spot. Additionally, all eighteen WorldTeams will, of course, take part in June.

Although Unibet Rose Rockets will not be at the start of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes—perhaps the most important preparation race for the Tour—the team would need some serious misfortune to miss out on a wildcard for the upcoming Tour de France.

Pole position for Tour wildcard 
In recent months, WielerFlits has published multiple articles detailing how the cards are laid out. Now that the Giro d’Italia is ready to award the freed wildcard to a Spanish ProTeam, the path seems clear for the ASO to realize the dream of Bas Tietema, Josse Wester, and Devin van der Wiel come true. Unless the ASO decides to issue one less wildcard, The Rockets seem to be in pole position.