Dutch professional cyclist and successful YouTube video creator Bas Tietema is launching
a UCI Continental team, with international bookmaker Unibet 🌝 on board as a sponsor.
The
TDT-Unibet Cycling Team is set to be registered in the sport's third tier for 2024, 🌝 but
the management harbours lofty ambitions for its future.
"Our mission is to progress to
the Pro Continental cycling level and 🌝 ride the biggest cycling races in the world,"
Tietema said in a recent video.
A former BMC Development Team rider turned 🌝 popular
YouTuber, Tietema's channel has amassed over 24 million views and more than 150,000
subscribers in a matter of years.
Alongside 🌝 showing their zany interactions with the
sport's top riders, the Tour de Tietema channel has also documented its creator's
return 🌝 to the pro peloton with Belgian ProTeam Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB.
Tietema will
be racing as part of his own TDT-Unibet 🌝 team in 2024, while Briton Harry Tanfield
(Ribble Weldtite) is among five riders who have reportedly also signed with
them.
Former 🌝 Dutch national track coach Hugo Haak will be the team's manager, while the
race programme is expected to be predominantly 🌝 based in Belgium and the
Netherlands.
"We are extremely proud to work together with Tour de Tietema. Their
dedication combined with 🌝 their boldness to do things differently is a big inspiration,"
said Lennart Kessels, Dutch general manager of the Kindred Group, 🌝 the online gambling
operator which owns Unibet.
"It's an honour to help make their long-lived dream to
start a cycling team 🌝 a reality. Besides, the cycling world is not new to us as Unibet
previously sponsored a cycling team back in 🌝 2006 and 2007. We are therefore convinced
that we can fuel the ambitions of this new cycling team."
That ill-fated foray 🌝 involved
legal battles as ASO refused to allow Unibet in its races, citing anti-gambling laws.
Rigoberto Urán, Frank Vandenbroucke, José 🌝 Rujano and Baden Cooke all raced for the team
that collapsed in 2007 amid the weight of the battle between 🌝 the UCI and ASO.
This
project has the potential to give a behind-the-scenes insight into the workings of a
cycling team, 🌝 as well as the highs and lows.
There are parallels to be drawn with other
sports and YouTube teams. In football, 🌝 the British team Hashtag United was created in
2024 as an outfit of friends playing exhibition matches. It has snowballed, 🌝 going on to
compete in the FA Cup and gain a following of more than 600,000 subscribers on the
video 🌝 platform.
This summer, Tietema and his collaborators were delivering pizzas to
the Tour de France peloton on the Champs-Élysées. In the 🌝 not-so-distant future, their
team could be the ones handing out a beating in the sport's most prestigious race.
