In a world filled with time-bound races, epic wins, and gut-wrenching losses, there is something traditional about the sport of cycling. The sport that has such a deep-rooted history and relevance to culture in the previous century is facing the threat of change. Amid all the ruins stands a bright and shining light, Bas Tietema. A YouTuber turned cycling team manager, he is keen to transform the cycling world and give it a brand-new look.

Bas Tietema and the evolution of cycling as a sport

Ushering a fresh wave of thought, Tietema believed that the sport needed to leverage the use of social media to its advantage. He gave the example of F1 and ‘Drive to Survive,’ explaining how the sport adopted a different route from the routine manner of attracting fans and sponsors through silverware only. How he got the inspiration for the idea is an interesting story to listen to.

“The culture and most of the teams is to set up a roster and try to win races. They then think that because they are winning races, they will get fans and sponsors attracted to the team,” said Tietema.

“I think that’s how it was back in the day when newspapers and TV stations were the key point of media value. Nowadays, the world has transformed quite a lot, especially on social media platforms. You see it in Formula One with Netflix, new media platforms are coming into the sport.”

The idea germinated from his experience and revelation during the 2019 Tour de France. Tietema and two of his friends recorded themselves handing out pizzas to the primary group of riders and shot hilarious pranks with the fans present at the race. They uploaded the video on YouTube and the clip of Tadej Pogačar and Wout van Aert, eating Domino’s pizza, reached over half a million people.

The Midas touch

The amount of buzz the video generated was a signal that Tietema was onto something special. His channel now has over 175,000 subscribers and the Dutchman has made quite the name for himself in the content creation ecosystem. Today, he has his very own ProTeam with a squad of 20 talented and enthusiastic cyclists and about 50 employees in his organization.

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His ultimate goal, however, is to take his team TDT-Unibet to the tallest of highs, attempting to make an appearance in the Tour de France 2026. Tietema’s idea four years ago was about giving the viewers a story they can resonate with. If TDT-Unibet pulls off participation in the 2026 season, their story of triumph will be nothing but spectacular.

It will be quite the turnaround from handing out pizzas in 2019 to sharing shoulders with them during a race. While it may sound far-fetched, Tietema’s style of recruiting riders into the team may make the dream possible. Working with a statistical analyst, he identified raw talent by focusing on their Strava segments and recovery rate after every race.

All these methods sound unorthodox and off-beat, but such is his style and persona that it instills belief in his doubters, too. He is as confident as ever and believes that his style will reap the rewards when the time is right.

“We are diving into the highest ranks of the cycling industry where everyone is chasing the win. Of course, we are trying to win, but nobody cares about UCI points. We care about media value. When we held the premiere of our documentary, there were two thousand people coming to a theatre to watch it. Not many other teams could achieve that. Keeping that balance between performance and media value will be a challenge, but I’m proud we are a unique project in cycling.”

Only time will tell, where cycling will stand as a sport in the coming years and where will TDT-Unibet be competing. It certainly promises to be an exciting journey.

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