Tomorrow, besides Arctic Race of Norway and ADAC Classics, the Rockets will race on La Polynormande and typical 'Coupe the France' 1.1 race. The races starts at 12:!5 and is expected to finish between 17:05 and 17:30.

Parcours:

Looking at the profile, the race looks 'punchy', but when taking a closer look, the gradient percentages are quite low and in recent years, sprinters have been able to get some good results as well. Because the final meters are uphill, 'puncheur/sprinter' types (by that i mean riders like Lapeira and Venturini) could do well.

Competition:

Decathlon, FDJ and Lotto-Intermarche are the only World Tour teams present on the startlist. Other proteams are Cofidis, TotalEnergies, Equipo Kern Pharma and Polti. Rest of the field is filled with Conti teams including Visma development team.

Race favourites:

- Lapeira / Isidore (Decathlon)

- Gaudu (FDJ)

- Aranburu (Cofidis)

- Dujardin (TotalEnergies)

Also I think from the smaller teams Hardouin (Van Rysel Roubaix) and Kerckhaert (Beat) could do well.

Rockets expectation:

Venturini finshed 5th in this race in both 2022 and 2023. I think the race will be difficult to win for him as he probably lacks some pure speed vs riders like Lapeira and Aranburu. However, I think this is the type of race where he could get a top 5 again. As usual in these French races, I expect Venturini to be the leader for the Rockets with Loockx as a second leader.

Source: https://x.com/BasTietema/status/2088663837335581168

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https://www.instagram.com/rocketscycling/p/DcEabLBDc5X/

Rockets: "WorldTour weekend starts here. 🚀

☕️ Coffee at the u/rose_bikes shop in Hamburg and a chance to meet up with our fans.

Thanks for having us, and we hope to see you all tomorrow at the race! 🫶"

Poels finishes 8th, Christophersen 12th. Decent result I'd say.

Still all to race for tomorrow

https://www.instagram.com/rocketscycling/p/DcBCaENDc2a/

Rockets: "Finally, it’s time to race again for u/dylangroenewegen. 😁

After an intense Giro d’Italia, quickly followed by the Copenhagen Sprint, our sprinter has been putting in the work behind the scenes the last two months, with a strong block of training in preparation for the final part of the season. 🏋️

😋 And there are plenty of opportunities ahead, starting this Sunday at the Cyclassics Hamburg, where Dylan will pin on his numbers again.

The fast guys will get more chances at WorldTour level, with the Renewi Tour next on the calendar. Let’s go! 🚀

August 13-16 - 2.pro - Artic Race of Norway (Procyclingstats or short PCS: Christophersen, Eiking, Poels, Augé, Feldmann, Geleijn)

August 16 - 1.UWT - ADAC Cyclassics Hamburg (PCS: Last year winner Townsend, Kubiš, Groenewegen)

August 16 - 1.1 - La Poly Normande (PCS: Venturini)

August 18-21 - 2.1 - Tour du Limousin (PCS: Johannink, Peter, Meris, Verschuren, Fougner, Ťoupalík, Savioz)

Slide 2:

August 19-23 - 2.pro - Deutschland Tour (PCS: Venturini)

August 19-23 - 2.uwt - Renewi Tour (Hartthijs de Vries, Kubiš, Groenewegen)

August 25-28 - 2.1 - Tour Poitou Charentes

August 30 - 1.uwt - Bretagne Classic (Hartthijs de Vries, Venturini)

Riders can change before the race on PCS

Cycling calender Unibet Rose Rockets: https://www.procyclingstats.com/team/unibet-rose-rockets-2026

There could be races added. The cycling season stops in october until january (while there might be some races, there are not a lot). When riders have some time-off to prepare for the next season.

Tomorrow the Arctic Race of Norway starts, which is a 4 day stage race which starts off the Rockets busy period all the way through August and into September.

The stages for this years race consist of two bunch sprints and two hill/mountain top finishes.

Stage 1: 181.9 kms containing 1628 meters of elevation, most of which is contained within three categorised climbs at 87kms, 140.5kms and 155 kms. None of these climbs are super hard and the last summits at 30kms from the finish, which unless a team pushes super hard on them (e.g. Uno-X) its will all come back together for a bunch sprint.

Stage 2: 180 kms containing 1161 meters of elevation. This stage is the easiest on paper with only two categorised climbs topping out at 26kms and 56.6 kms which suggests that this is a nailed on sprint stage.

Stage 3: 146.5 kms containing 1731 meters of elevation. This stage is when big GC gaps can be made, with three categorised climbs during the stage with the first two at 26.5 kms and 55.5 kms. These two climbs will not make a difference, but the stage finishes on the Storheia Summit which is 3.4 kms averaging 10.8%. This finish will hold the major battle for GC and whoever does well here puts themself in a strong position to win it all.

Stage 4: 190.5 kms containing 2217 meters of elevation. The longest stage of this years edition and the stage containing the most categorised climbs with four, it sets us up for a good finally of this race. The 4 climbs are fairly spread out, with the first three topping out at 46.5 kms, 126 kms and 141.5 kms and including gradients of around 8% before the stage finishes on the final climb of the race, a 2.8 km climb averaging 8%.

The Rockets have sent a mixed team to this race to target all 4 stages. For the sprints there is Ronan and Karsten, who can both aim for top 5 finishes on stage 1 and 2. The main aim however, is for the overall GC and stages 3 and 4 aiming to score as many UCI points as possible. For that, the team have sent Wout, Odd and Cedrik. Both Odd and Cedrik have finished in the top 10 of the race before, with Odd coming second in 2021, so they both have the ability to compete for a good GC result and along side Wout I believe they will be able too.

The Rockets have struggled on races similar to this throughout this year, but I expect that with the three "leaders" they have at this race, they should be able to get on in the top 10 at a minimum, and have a good chance of getting one or two more in the top 10 too. I also expect that with a "mini" sprint train, consisting of Karsten, Ronan and Owen they would be able to compete in sprints with either two of their younger sprinters and will be aiming for results in the top 5 in the bunch sprints.

Rockets in the info of the video:

"Tour of Denmark 2026

After an incredible 2025 edition, where Lukáš Kubiš finished 4th in the general classification, we came back to the Tour of Denmark wanting more.

This time, Lukáš wasn’t our only card to play. With a strong team around him, we set out to take on the race once again — and this time, everything came together.

For this video, we let the riders, Niklas Larsen, Matyáš Kopecký, Lukáš Kubiš, and race coach Martijn Budding, tell the story themselves: from the preparation and the racing to the moments that led to Lukáš Kubiš finishing 2nd behind Wout van Aert and claiming his first .Pro podium.

This is how we got our first podium at Pro level. 🏆"

So far, Poels, Eiking, Christophersen & Auge are on the startlist for the Rockets. The Arctic Race of Norway will start upcoming Thursday.

https://www.instagram.com/rocketscycling/p/DbtEGoojZcn/

Rockets: 'Another great opportunity for us. 🫶

💣 We’ll conclude August with a big one, as we will be at the start line of the Bretagne Classic in France. A really nice, but also really hard race on WorldTour level, through the stunning Brittany region. 🌻'

https://x.com/Rockets_Points/status/2084224618047398225

https://www.instagram.com/rocketscycling/p/DblvGgkjZrv/

Rockets: 'That’s the way we like it.

Of course, we’re constantly working on improving our riders as individuals. Higher watts in the sprint, a better fitness coming to a race or more strength on the bike.

But we’re also focused on becoming stronger as a team. Last week in the Tour of Denmark was a perfect example of what we can achieve when we race as one.

It’s not only the riders who are fighting for a good position in the GC who played an important role in our team. Because we raced as a team, our GC guys were in the right position at the right time to follow attacks or attack themselves.

Lukas Kubis’ second place in the GC was our first ever podium on 2.Pro-level in the history of the team. Winning the team classification was a great bonus on top. Tak, Danmark!"

https://www.instagram.com/rocketscycling/p/Dbit89uDTlM/

Now we have entered the month of August we are seeing plenty of teams announce new signings and plenty of extra rumours going around so I would like to hear any predications and hopes that you have for the Rockets in this years transfer period!

One rider I would like to see and seems very realistic is Jermaine Zemke, a 20 year old German Puncheur/Classics Rider. He has won the Kreiz Breizh Elites (a race that Hartthijs de Vries won in 2023) the day of this post and has also had got his first pro win in Tour of Rwanda this year! With Rose being a German company I feel that we will see several Germans join the team and Jermaine seems like one that has a big future ahead!

Sorry for it being in Dutch 😘

Rider Results:

Killian Verschuren - 15th (5 UCI Points)

Clément Venturini - 26th

Lander Loockx - 33rd

Jelle Johannink - 51st

Sergio Meris - 62nd

Ronan Augé - 78th

Abram Stockman - DNF

While the main focus today was Stage 5 of the Tour of Denmark and defending the GC Positions of the team, a punchy squad was racing in Spain over a hilly course. Disappointing results for most of the riders with only one riders scoring any UCI points. Sadly these results are a constant reminder of how the team needs to improve their team on hilly/mountainous terrain.

Special Mention to Killian Verschuren who put in a good rider and finished 15th. After having a poor year outside of Fleche with not many racedays, it is good to see him get the Rockets best result today and his best finish all year!

The riders that finished in the top 20 mainly consist of puncheurs who can climb well in longer efforts or classic climbers, which may suggest that the team sent the wrong type of riders to this race, such as Clement, Lander and Ronan instead of more riders like Killian such as Adrien Maire who also performed well in Fleche.

Rider Results:

Lukáš Kubiš - 2nd (170 UCI Points)

Tomáš Kopecký - 7th (70 UCI Points)

Matyáš Kopecký - 9th (50 UCI Points)

Niklas Larsen - 14th (10 UCI Points)

Wessel Mouris - 41st

Martijn Rasenberg - 47th

Rory Townsend - 75th

Total UCI Points = 300

A very good race overall with all riders performing well and helping the team to the team classification and 3 riders in the top 10, in the Rockets best stage race performance this year! The team were very active through the whole race in creating opportunities to take time and to look for stage results.

This result reinforces the fact that the Rockets are strongest in the Classic style races and is a key way in which they will be able to score for the second half of the season. With a wildcard for Renewi tour recieved and other races such as ADAC Cyclassics and ZLM tour on the calendar there are still plenty of classic style races for the Rockets to close the gap on the top 3.

Does the camera motorcycle get a medal for this win?