"We already knew Wout from the Tour": how Poels’ transfer to Unibet Tietema Rockets came together

Using the hashtag #whereiswout, which Poels often uses, the pro-continental team announced last week that Poels would be joining them. “I'm not here to take it easy,” Poels himself said. “I'm here to give it my all for one more full season. I still love racing, and I still have that same fire and passion. The energy of the Rockets is exactly what I was looking for."

“Wout didn't come here to take it easy,” Tietema assured in the team's press release. “From the first conversation, it was clear that he wants to go all in. That mentality fits perfectly with us. It paints a clear picture of where we are going, now that we have someone with this experience and hunger in the team.”

So how exactly did this transfer happen? “Wout is pretty much at the end of his career. We know him, of course, from the Tour de France. He was looking at what he still wanted to do, and it was very important to him that he really wanted to make a difference,” explains the manager of Unibet Rose Rockets.

“He is a very valuable addition to our team. We have a fairly young and inexperienced group, but we are still lacking some experience. With Wout, we are getting a rider who can win great races,” says Tietema, referring to the Tour of Turkey, among others, which Poels won this year.

“The level is obviously very high in the WorldTour, and that's how we want to help the guys grow alongside Wout,” says Tietema. “We can have a lot of fun together, including with sporting achievements. We're going to take it year by year, and I think that's what suits him best at the moment. That's what he says, too: I want to give it 110%. And for us, that's perfect.”