How Bas Tietema turned a YouTube experiment into a Tour-ready cycling team

“Dylan isn’t here for a paycheck,” said Bas Tietema, founder and owner of the Unibet Rose Rockets, when speaking on the Domestique Hotseat. “He wants to leave a legacy. And Wout’s not just a mentor, he can still win races.”

The Wout, of course, is Wout Poels, another veteran signing whose experience anchors a project still finding its limits. In just three years, the Rockets have gone from an idea on paper to a professional outfit with serious ambitions and a Tour de France wildcard firmly in their sights.

It started far from any team bus or sponsor meeting. Tour de Tietema, the YouTube channel that Tietema launched with his friends Josse Wester and Devin van der Wiel, began as a summer experiment: follow the Tour de France, film the chaos, and see what happens. “We didn’t start with a business case or a sponsor deck,” he said. “We started with people who believed in what we were doing, and we built a team around that.”

The videos found an audience. Within a year, the channel’s mix of humour, access and heart had built a fanbase bigger than some pro teams’. That community got Tietema thinking about what might come next. If thousands of fans were already following their journey online, why not bring that story to life in the real peloton?

“Normally you start with a business case and a blank sheet,” Tietema said. “We started with storytelling.”

That idea to turn a fanbase into a cycling team marked the start of a new experiment. But making the leap from digital to physical, from screen to peloton, was far from simple. “Especially the first year, it was literally nothing except an idea and a PowerPoint,” he recalled. “We had the reach from YouTube, but still, when you reach out to riders saying you’re starting a continental team, there are quite some doubts. People thought, ‘Okay, a YouTube channel that thinks it can start a cycling team.’”

Building from scratch, however, gave them freedom. “Because we started from a blank sheet, it gave us the opportunity to create our own culture,” Tietema said. “If you take over a license from an existing team, it’s really hard to change traditions. Building from scratch made it possible to make something new.”

The team, originally named after Tietema himself, began racing in 2023 at continental level, quickly earning results and recognition. By 2024, they had stepped up to ProTeam status. Their rise, like their roots, was built on storytelling. “We were known for media first, not performance,” Tietema said. “So we had to prove we could actually perform. But I think that’s also what made us different because people were already following our story.”

Storytelling remains central to how the Rockets operate. Where traditional cycling structures rely on results and sponsor visibility, Tietema’s model relies on community and connection. “Our goal isn’t just to reach the WorldTour,” he said. “It’s to build the biggest fanbase in cycling.”

That focus has shaped every decision, including the team’s name. “If someone only wants the name on the front, then maybe we’re not the right team,” Tietema said. “Culture doesn’t change with a sponsor.” He is blunt about what makes the Rockets valuable. “If someone reaches out to us and doesn’t understand that, then maybe they should contact someone else.”

Even as backers have come and gone, the Rockets' identity has stayed. With Rose Bikes joining for the 2026 season, the partnership felt natural; both companies are founder-led, both rooted in authenticity.

Their fan-first model is starting to reshape what a cycling team can be. At races like Paris–Roubaix and the Amstel Gold Race, the team has organised “Rockets Corners,” gathering hundreds of supporters in purple jackets to cheer from the roadside. “At the Amstel Gold Race, we hosted our own corner, and there were thousands of people there to root for our riders,” Tietema said. “It’s small steps toward creating that stadium feeling in cycling.”

That sense of belonging, he believes, is the future. “We’re not just a team to sit down and have a paycheck,” he said. “You are part of a big dream and journey.”

Still, growth brings its own challenges. “The downside of growing fast is that you also have to say goodbye to riders,” Tietema admitted. “Every year, we have guys who are improving, but maybe not fast enough for our goals. That’s hard. But it’s part of becoming professional.”

What sets the Rockets apart is that they’re not trying to escape their past, they’re refining it. Their roots in content creation aren’t a gimmick but a framework: a way to make cycling visible, relatable, human. “Even when we race badly, we can still tell our story,” Tietema said.

And that story is still unfolding. A Tour de France wildcard remains the next dream, but the real ambition goes deeper. “I hope other teams will follow this model,” Tietema said. “They all have nicknames already, the Wolfpack, the Band of Brothers, the Yellow Bee. It would be super nice if, in the future, you have more teams with real identities that last.”

He doesn’t claim the Rockets can change cycling overnight. “Even if we can’t change the whole business model of cycling, I hope we can change a few percent,” he said. “That’s already huge.”

From a PowerPoint and a YouTube channel to a professional cycling team with world-class riders, the Rockets have already achieved more than most thought possible. The only question now is how high they’ll fly.

Enjoy the full Hotseat episode with Bas 👇