TOUR: Bas, you will be competing in Paris-Roubaix for the first time on 13 April 2025 with your little-known team Unibet Tietema Rockets. What does that mean for your project?
Bas TietemaStarting at Roubaix - that's monumental for us! We are a young team with big dreams. And now we're starting in the place that literally stands for suffering and glory in cycling. That sounds crazy to me personally, who grew up watching Paris-Roubaix - it's just surreal.
TOUR: What do you expect from the ride through the so-called "Hell"?
Bas Tietema I was there myself as a racing driver. So I know what this race means: pain, drama, shattered dreams - and perhaps a small miracle.
A YouTube channel becomes a professional team
TOUR: You started the team project via a YouTube channel. Many fans know your contributions from the Tour de France. What is the story that you tell from the "Hell of the north" want to tell?
Bas Tietema Of course, we will offer the complete storytelling like at the Tour de France with mobile cameras: pure emotion, Josse hugging our racers, Devin with a camera in his hand and the fun conversations among us. We want to take people into this crazy world. The cobblestones don't lie - no matter what story emerges. And we show this on our YouTube channel @rocketscycling. We have three episodes of our documentary series "We Are The Rockets" online. If you're not familiar with our story, you need to check it out!
TOUR: Part of the third racing season of your own racing team has already been completed. What is your impression - your riders have celebrated three victories...
Bas Tietema: I am just incredibly proud. I started this journey with Devin and Josse. With wild dreams and a YouTube channel. And now we've won three races in just a few weeks and are about to start our first Monument (one of the five big one-day races in cycling; editor's note). Simply crazy! But it's not just about winning and starting in big races - it's about how we drive the races, how we win. I like our aggressive driving style, our fighting spirit, when the racing drivers give everything, even though everything is against them. That's the DNA of the Rockets. We want to offer fireworks, to entertain.
"We want to go to the Tour de France - by 2027 at the latest"
TOUR: Take us on a brief journey with you. You've had a racing team since 2023 - which has had a Professional Continental Team licence since last year and can therefore take part in the world's most important cycling races. How did that come about?
Bas Tietema: In 2019, the three of us, Josse, Devin and I rode the Tour de France for the first time - it was really like: let's do it once and then go back to our normal jobs. But we already realised on that first tour that there was a market. We not only reached the cycling community, but also people who simply like sport. That's how we got out of our niche - and quickly went from zero to 50,000 subscribers. In the meantime, it has become a media company. We are a company with more than 85 people. Now the three of us are still together, have a professional team and want to take it to the Tour de France. By 2027 at the latest.
TOUR: Do you have any figures on the growth of your channel?
Bas Tietema: In terms of media data, we are certainly one of the best teams - I think well above the standard at World Tour level. We have more than 150,000 subscribers. Our videos are viewed between 100,000 and half a million times. But it's important to emphasise: Cycling is a niche. We can't compare ourselves with the biggest YouTube channels in Holland or even the whole world. But the numbers are good for cycling. We want to focus on this community, keep it close to us and build on it.
TOUR: If people search for you personally on the internet, they find out that you were a successful cyclist yourself. You were third in the U23 Paris-Roubaix race ...
Bas Tietema: Yes, I was semi-professional. I started cycling late after I stopped playing football because of an injury. I was always enthusiastic about cycling and it seemed easy. But it wasn't that easy. But as a junior and in the U23 class, I had some good results like at Paris-Roubaix. I was in the same age group as Mathieu van der Poel, I was on the national team with him.
TOUR: Why didn't it work out for you to have your own professional career?
Bas Tietema: I don't think there's just one reason. I was good in my first U23 year - but things got worse and worse after that. And then I broke my collarbone and had a lot of problems with allergies after the operation. But the most important reason is probably that although I'm quite good at cycling, I have even more entrepreneurial spirit. The lifestyle of a professional cyclist is quite simple. You train, eat, sleep - and this cycle repeats itself over and over again. But I get a lot of energy from doing other, varied things. In short: I'm in a better place now than I would be as a professional cyclist.
TOUR: You have now invested a lot of money in your own professional team ...
Bas Tietema: The three of us are the owners of the team. It's an unusual concept. I already had this idea during the YouTube project. Normally, a professional team starts with a business plan, then you get a lot of money, can hire better racing drivers and hope to build up a following. But we had no money, no big sponsor. But we had a fan base through our channel. And I believed that these people would go down this path with us. It's super interesting to tell this story in the media. Now we're even slightly ahead of our plan. We've reached the second-highest team level. We rode our first World Tour races last year. Step by step, the circle is closing - from video shoots at the 2019 Tour de France to the point where we want to ride the Tour de France with our own team.
The Unibet Tietema Rockets want to set off fireworks
TOUR: Your team is called Unibet Tietema Rockets. How did you come up with the name Rockets?
Bas Tietema: Last year, our racing bikes were yellow and red - very colourful. In Holland we have an ice cream flavour called "Raket" - rocket. It has exactly the same colours as our team bikes. That's why we thought of this name first. Our fans had already been calling us that anyway. The idea for the name also came from US professional sport. This name will stay - even if the sponsors change. Tietema is still part of the name because of the past and the fan base. But there could also be another sponsor name. Cycling still lives from sponsors. But our fan base plays a big part in ensuring that the project has value. Perhaps the fan base doesn't generate money directly, but indirectly.
TOUR: You talk about the team's identity. What should this look like?
Bas Tietema: We want to be colourful, do things differently, with all due respect for the sport. We are available 24/7 for the fans. This sport is extremely conservative. We always want to ask ourselves: why are we doing things this way - and couldn't we do them differently? One thing is important to me: we want to get people to ride their bikes and have fun.
Andreas Kublik
Editor
