🎥 Unibet Rose Rockets and Tietema’s media team shine: not just a transfer, but (again) a show-stopping announcement

Unibet Rose Rockets — the team led by Bas Tietema — were already enjoying a stellar transfer window with the arrivals of Dylan Groenewegen and Wout Poels. Now they’ve struck again, landing none other than Rory Townsend as their latest signing. A fine transfer in itself — but once more, the announcement video stole the show.

With Groenewegen and his trusted lead-out Elmar Reinders, Tietema’s squad had already pulled off a significant coup earlier this year. For the team’s Dutch core, Poels recently came aboard too; at 38, he makes the switch to the ProTeam-level Unibet Rose Rockets. With Townsend, the team has made its next big move.

The Irishman was one of the revelations of the ADAC Cyclassics Hamburg, where a late attack saw him hold off a charging peloton. It was the sixth victory of the 30-year-old’s career. Townsend joins from Q36.5 Pro Cycling. And beyond a fiercely ambitious cycling project, he also steps straight into a team with a top-class media unit — something he experienced right away.

The team continues to underline its ambitions. About the signing of Poels, Tietema said: “Wout is reasonably near the end of his career. We already knew him from the Tour de France. He was considering what he still wanted, and for him it was crucial to have something he could truly commit to. For us he is a very valuable addition.”

In what was until recently “a fairly young and inexperienced group,” Poels brings experience — and of course the same applies to Townsend. “At the same time, Wout can still win important races,” Tietema added of the Dutchman. The Unibet Rose Rockets roster currently stands at 21 riders, six fewer than in 2025, so there is undoubtedly more to come.

With all those fresh transfers, the team’s creatives have their hands full — including designing a national champion’s jersey. At the end of June, Townsend became Irish road champion for the second time in his career. He won’t be the only one in a special kit in 2026; Lukas Kubis was crowned Slovak champion in 2025.

In a brilliant video from the ProTeam’s media crew, those storylines are put to good use. Asked whether Kubis’ jersey is already finished, the answer is that they’re busy with something else — which, of course, turns out to be Townsend and his Irish kit. The result is a hilarious clip — chapeau!