Tour de Tietema discuss future plans for new continental team TDT-Unibet

From January 1st, Bas Tietema, Josse Wester and Devin van der Wiel, the faces of YouTube channel Tour de Tietema will become the faces of the newest continental side TDT-Unibet. Now they've been discussing their goals, dreams and future plans.

With over 150k subscribers on YouTube, Tour de Tietema is one of the go-to places for cycling content online. After launching an amateur cycling team in 2021, they recently announced they were to join the world of professional cycling with the launch of their team TDT-Unibet in 2023. Speaking in an interview with Wielerflits, Bas Tietema gave some insight, "There is already a large fan base with people who follow the story and for us, having our own team is actually the next step in what we are going to do. With the people on board, both creatively and sportingly, I think we can certainly do that."

Being a world-renowned YouTube channel, one of the things that will make TDT-Unibet unique will be the unrivalled behind-the-scenes coverage. "Sports documentaries are popping up like mushrooms right now," Devin says. "What I think we can make the difference is that we can tell everything from our perspective. So Bas from the cyclist's perspective, and Josse and I more from the sidelines and as a creator. Basically like we've done it before. It's just a journey of discovery through cycling."

When discussing who will be in charge of deciding the riders and leaders, Bas was clear "That will be done by experts, including Hugo Haak. Our focus is on the media side, but we make sure that everything is arranged professionally." he said. "Maybe if we led with the three of us, it might have been really funny for the video. Josse behind the wheel of the team leader's car… but that is not what we aim to achieve."

As seen in other sports such as when famous footballing YouTuber Spencer Carmichael-Brown created his own professional team Hashtag FC, there is often initial resistance and scepticism to new, revolutionary ideas, something suffered by the boys of Tour de Tietema. "If the first idea didn't arouse resistance from people, our plan probably wasn't good enough." Josse says. "Of course there are people who think: it won't work, it can't be done. If you let that guide you, you can't do many things these days... This is really a boy's dream."