Lukas Kubis wraps up stellar year with Unibet Tietema Rockets in style: "Told you back in January in Spain"

Lukas Kubis's debut season with Unibet Tietema Rockets has come to an end. The Slovakian once again confirmed his talent in the Tour of Holland, finishing second in the overall classification behind Christophe Laporte (Visma | Lease a Bike). Kubis looked back on his year in Arnhem with IDLProCycling.com.

We first spoke to Kubis in Albir, Spain, in mid-January. At the time, he had a string of good results at continental level and solid performances at the Olympics and European Championships under his belt in his first year as a pro. We asked him, “What are your goals?” and, in perfect English for a Slovakian, he gave us a good answer.

“I would like to become Slovakian champion again, that seems like a good goal to me. I would also like to be part of the team for some of the big races we are going to ride, but I will have to work hard for that. And if I can achieve some good results here and there, that would be a bonus,” Kubis said at the time.

The winner of the youth classification in the NIBC Tour of Holland more than lived up to those words. After a good start in the Tour de la Provence, he finished in the top ten in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, and Le Samyn. This was followed by a professional victory in France, the Slovakian championship, and numerous places of honor up to the Tour of Holland.

He finished second in that last race. “I'm happy with how it went. As a team, we did a great job and I think the way we raced here shows how we are developing as Unibet Tietema Rockets. Take the ride with the VAM mountain: we had a plan, stuck to it, and then you see what it brings.”

“After the finish, I was so sad because I couldn't finish it off properly. I wanted to drop those guys from the early breakaway because they had been on our wheel for twenty minutes without leading. That made it quite a challenge for us. I went early, but my legs were done too.”

Kubis won't linger too long when he opens his ProCyclingStats page for 2025 one of these days. "I told you back in January that we had already done some great things with the Performance descent during the winter. In that sense, I'm not really surprised, but I'm especially happy with how it all went. Right up to this last day of racing."

This winter, Kubis will sit down with his team again to prepare for an even better performance in the spring of 2026, when he will be 26 years old. “The team sees that I have even more potential, and we definitely want to demonstrate that in the coming season. I’m curious to see how far I can go, but first I’m going to enjoy my off-season.”

We'll conclude with a excerpt from the January interview, when we asked Kubis the question, “And your long-term ambitions? It's okay to dream.” When I spoke to Julia (Soek, ed.) about my transfer, she told me that the team would like to compete in the Tour de France in the long term. So that's my dream, no, my goal. I'm very enthusiastic about it. The Tour is my big dream. It's the toughest race, but also by far the most famous. You can compare it to soccer: everyone wants to play in the Champions League or the World Championship."

And that dream could become reality within nine months.