Bas Tietema: "There are so many stories to be told from inside the peloton"

Just under a month after revealing his return to the professional ranks of cycling, Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB rider Bas Tietema has talked about his return and ambitions for the coming season, which are set to include Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne this coming weekend.

After developing his Youtube channel Tour de Tietema, where he has over 127.000 subscribers, he got back into amateur racing last year as a means to produce interesting content: “When I noticed I was able to ride at the front in those amateur races and enjoy myself again on the bike in a race we came up with the challenge to train an entire winter. However, I do need a goal to train, so together with Bingoal, who sponsor Tour de Tietema, we came up with the ultimate challenge and that is to become a professional rider.”

“The professional level is a very high level and many really decent riders never get to sign that pro contract. It’s true that the Bingoal sponsorship is a stepping stone but it also means more pressure. It’s a bit like being the son of the coach of your football team. You have to prove yourself a bit more," Tietema said on an interview with CyclingTips.

“I really had to show the team I had the level. In the beginning I made these huge steps up. I had so much ground to make up compared to my teammates. I lost the weight and gained the watts, even up to 35 watts during one training camp. That is huge compared to the gains the other riders made. We are now finding out what my level is and whether it’s enough to be a professional rider," he added. At the end of January his paperwork was complete and the Dutch ended up as a new signing for the Belgian Pro Team. Having a focus in the flat races and the classics, the team was a suiting structure for the type of rider Tietema has shown to be. With Bingoal as an intermediary, it is a win-win situation for both sides, as the team will greatly benefit from the extra exposure at the same time whilst gaining a valuable rider.

“The pro level is a high level, also, and maybe especially for the second-tier teams like Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB where everyone works and lives 100% for the sport too. I want to show that in our videos too. I made it to the team and that is great. Everyone now says how awesome it all is but it also could have been a total fluke and then there would have been a lot of criticism for me and the team too. The videos now show the personalities behind the riders who would normally be a name on ProCyclingStats, so it works both ways as well," Tietema pointed out.

He adds: "I wasn’t expected to be among the best riders in my first race [Tour of Antalya]. But I could do my job for the team. It helps I have previous race experience. In the pro peloton the level is so high that you need to save as much as you can. When you do 55 km/h you can’t afford going through the wind like you would in the younger categories because it means you can’t do your job later on.

Tietema debuted for his new team at the Tour of Antalya earlier this month where he assisted Luc Wirtgem into the final podium and Karl Patrick Lauk into a third spot on the opening stage. Despite suffering a crash on one of the stages he managed to finish the race and have a solid presence in the peloton.

“Although it wasn’t the highest level of races, I showed I know how to ride a bike. This race was also ideal to ease back into the pro peloton. Starting in the Belgian Classics where it’s full gas from the start would have been more stressful, I think If I had failed miserably in Antalya things would have looked different and I probably would have ended up with their development team. Now I got a great program that will enable me to show what I can do for the team as a rider.”

“It would be great if I could be there,” he says. “It would be like full circle to me but again, I don’t know yet. It all depends on my results in the races I get to do now. If they are a success, who knows what will happen? I could even do the biggest races in April then.” Tietema is set to debut in the Belgian classics this weekend at Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne. Depending on his performance in it, alongside Le Samyn and some more semi-classics, he may be in for a spot in all of the World Tour cobbled classics, including Tour des Flandres and Paris-Roubaix where the team has wildcards.

He concluded: “The forced end to my first career gave me the ability to try a second career in media. Now the two have come together and reinforce each other. That’s the best thing. There are so many stories to be told from inside the peloton this year. And if, in the end, I do not succeed I don’t have to go on endlessly because I have nothing else in my life. Everything has really fallen into place now.”