Bas Tietema hopes to bring his team to the biggest cycling event: "My ultimate goal is to bring the team to the Tour de France"

Tour de Tietema-Unibet may not have won any stages at this year’s Tour of Britain, but they have won hearts. The Dutch Continental team, classified in cycling’s third tier, has been omnipresent at the race, the squad's sky blue jersey a constant in breakaways.

For a team in its first year, exposure is key. In fact, so keen are the riders to be on show, that they’ve won four of the seven combativity awards so far by public vote. The prize, the team’s owner Bas Tietema admits, is a popularity contest. And TDT-Unibet are winning.

"We have not been the most combative rider in each of those stages," Tietema laughs as he speaks to Cycling Weekly on a still summer’s morning in Southend-on-Sea. "But what you can see is that we have actual fans. It’s not just TV spectators, we have actual fans who want us to win the prize."

"My ultimate goal is to bring the team to the Tour de France," Tietema says, matter of factly. "Then we’ll have the journey that we started at the Tour de France with our own tents, to having a team on the Champs-Élysées. We have milestones along that road. Next year, we want to do our first WorldTour race, then a Monument, then the first Grand Tour. It’s quite crazy, and it’s far, but it’s also in reach. The last year it was more like a crazy, stupid idea to even think about it, but it’s getting more realistic."