"At the finish I got questions from the police" - Paris-Roubaix director doubles down and explains Bas Tietema criticism
Cycling
Thierry Gouvenou is the director of Paris-Roubaix and course designer at the Tour de France. Hence, it was an unusual sight for him to criticize a rider and current team owner Bas Tietema on the days leading up to a race where his team Unibet Rose Rockets is at the start. He explained the comments as well as the women's shorter broadcast in 2026 as the Paris-Roubaix Femmes collides with the men's race.
“It’s true, we have a shorter broadcast, but on the other hand, there will be a much bigger audience, with everyone who was watching the men’s race," Gouvenou said in an interview with Cyclingnews. There will be around hour and a half of live broadcast from the women's race, as this year the race are taking place on the same day, with the women's being the latter finish.
Gouvenou explained that this was because there were calls to not have the race start at eight-nine in the morning, whilst it can be argued that the race could struggle having the same visibility if it clashed directly with the men's race - only one could be on TV screens live."And audiences are notably better on Sundays. We have fewer minutes, but more eyeballs. We compensate one with the other, but I think women’s cycling is winning".
The necessity to close the roads of northern France for two days in a row proved to be a huge logistical and financial challenge, which this year proved to be quite difficult to balance. Hence, the race is follow the format of other monuments with the race on the same day.
“We invested a lot in women’s cycling already. The investment is huge for organisers, but we are not always followed by sponsors - Zwift left us. We would like parity, but in reality’s not yet possible. That’s the economic reality right now. It’s difficult for organizers to balance the books with women’s cycling," he explains. "We have to be patient. Audiences are good. It’s going to come, it’ll take some time, but we shouldn’t always criticize."
Gouvenou explains comments on Bas Tietema
However he was also asked about the comments he made on Unibet Rose Rockets Bas Tietema - without naming him - in an interview published this Saturday by L'Équipe. "A few years ago we had an idiot who wanted to ride Paris-Roubaix purely for social media" were amongst his words. Taking into consideration he is the race director, and that Tietema (who raced in 2022 and finished outside time limit, as well as several other riders), the comments felt out of place.
But Gouvenou meant them, and explains the reason for his frustration: “The L’Equipe article was clumsy. But it’s true that Tietema was riding to make content for social media. He was dropped from the first sectors. The driver of the broom wagon told me, ‘he’s never making any efforts’. He cruised round all day, made video sequences, and at the finish I got questions from the police because the roads had been blocked for an hour more than they should have been".
But the Frenchman's statement is once again having to be taken with a grain of salt. Whilst Tietema finished outside the time limit and was the last placed on that edition, he finished 19 minutes behind the closest rider - UAE's Alexys Brunel. 10 other riders finished outside time limit, and so Gouvenou's attribution of responsibility to the 31-year old look exagerated.
However Tietema, a Youtuber, was also participating after getting a contract from the Bingoal team, which saw an opportunity on the exposure he could provide. That fell on Gouvenou the wrong way. “We can’t accept that a rider comes to Paris-Roubaix and cruises around. It’s a Monument. You don’t come here for social media. Of course, if it’s cycling first and social media second, that’s fine, but when it’s the other way around…”
With the team being surprisingly kept out of the Tour de France this year, after a multitude of top signings and commercial exposure that rivals the top teams, there were many questioning as to why Spanish team Caja Rural - Seguros RGA was chosen after the French team.
However Gouvenou, route designer at the Tour and key part of the organization, puts aside the theory that he's had a personal say in the decision. “We’ve already spoken a lot. I think his project is magnificent," he admits. "At a certain moment, it’s a case of sport before media, but I think he’s in agreement with that now.”
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
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Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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- Yeah, unreal.
parisbound0008-11-2026 - there needs to be space in life for pointless comments!Ketterechts08-11-2026
- That is a very lazy way of putting it but so far on this website it seems like everyone is happy to look at everything lazily, even things that annoy them intensely. All they want to do is state their feeling and position but ask most to analyse a problem or come up with solutions or improvements and you’re stunned by silence. Nobody even really knows how this all happens. It’s very simple and quick to just say the UCI did it but I bet you they didn’t, I bet you not more than 2 people were involved, more likely just 1. The UCI may be ultimately responsible but it is not their decision, this is about hierarchy, power and delegation. The fact that protest is possible also means it isn’t over and that MORE people could get involved for a thorough review which could throw up anything. It is highly likely it was a sole commissar who decided and has that power in a first round. Therein might lie the problem the UCI has to consider, is it acceptable to give so much authority to one single person when it is quite possible for them to have a natural bias or be too easily susceptible to imposed bias. Who is to say an individual in this position isn’t susceptible to collaboration with outside players with interests in the results, nations, families, teams, betting companies, etc. On the one hand we have sports where these problems have been worked on way more to reduce such problems, on the other hand we have sports with far stricter and more draconian rules not even concerning safety or obstruction that nobody really questions like false starts or stepping out of lane or zones in athletics. If cycling hastowork on itself, it would be good if protagonists (all kinds) would start doing a little more than just moaning over outcomes.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Yes, so why not make comments less pointless?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - There really was nothing in it. Schreiber was so much faster, and Brand was fighting to stay in the wheel in the sprint. Schreiber did move a bit, but to say she closed the door doesn't make sense because Brand couldn't enter it anyway, abd she wasn't impeded.Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026
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- seems like we are advertising the website with pointless comments…Ketterechts08-11-2026
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