2024 has officially started, and that means all transferred riders now get to wear the jersey of their new team. As of today, Bart Lemmen is officially a cyclist for Visma | Lease a Bike, a thought that he could hardly fathom just a few months ago. IDLProCycling.com spoke extensively with the former military officer, who is starting off his tenure with the team at the Tour Down Under.
Lemmen makes his debut in the WorldTour at the age of 28, after rapidly climbing the proverbial ladder of the cycling world over the past two years through VolkerWessels and Human Powered Health. For years, he planned his training around his duties as a commander in the air force, but after focusing entirely on cycling from 2023 onwards, things progressed at a rapid pace.
However, it wasn't all easy: his team Human Powered Health folded, making it uncertain which team he would ride for in 2024. But then Merijn Zeeman, the sporting director at Visma | Lease a Bike, suddenly called him up. "You didn't expect that, did you," Zeeman began that conversation. And the rest is history, as Lemmen now prepares for his first season with the world's best team.
Lemmen reflects back on that moment. "It was October and I had already raced my last race, but the first thing I thought was how strange it was that it happened so late. I only found out in August that I would be available for transfer next year, and of course, there was the merger story, so the whole market was locked for two or three weeks," he admits. "It was a bit of a shock for me, also because it took so long, until October. And then to immediately go to the best team in the world..."
"After that, things moved quickly, Merijn was curious who I was exactly, and that's how you start talking. However, I also wanted to know what they would expect of me and how they would view me in the team," says Lemmen, who, because of his background, is consciously engaged in such matters. "I am a bit older and have always had to plan and develop myself in my work, so I can structure things very clearly with concrete action points for myself. That's also a matter of self-reflection. If you're leading 48 people and you don't engage in self-reflection, you're not going to do a good job for very long. So those kinds of things do help me," he states regarding the formation of his contract with Visma | Lease a Bike.
Don't get Lemmen wrong: he doesn't think that his military background will make things easy-peasy for him at his new team. "Of course, you need to start off patiently in a new team. I'm just a cyclist and that's my role and responsibility, whereas other things are a nice bonus," says the Dutchman, who describes himself as a team player.
So don't expect him to just take charge in the Tour Down Under. "That would be on par with my personality, but it's not my field of expertise. You can be a leader and have those characteristics, but when you're completely new in a team, it's questionable whether it's smart to do so and whether there is support for that. You have to deal with that in a natural way, but I think that in the long term, there might be possibilities. But for now, I want to be cautious that people don't get the impression that I come from a military background, thus I want to set the lines in the Tour Down Under", Lemmen articulates.
He will thus start the season in Australia, for which he was actually the first reserve. However, with Lennard Hofstede's retirement, Lemmen moved up in the pecking order. "I am quite happy about it, as it's a good opportunity to show what I can do right away, and then we can just get started. Let's first acclimatize and then we're good to go," states the cheerful Lemmen. Milan Vader will be the team leader in Australia.
Even after that, Lemmen has been given a nice program by his new team, which will allow him to first gauge what type of cyclist he is, exactly. "I can climb reasonably well and am quite explosive, but I can also make a difference on the flat. I'm fairly all-round. I’ve never really tested myself in high mountains, but that will happen this year. I will ride races like the Tour of Catalonia, Tour of the Basque Country and Tour of Switzerland, so we will see what happens there."
"I just want to support the team leaders as well as possible, but also just look at the role that I am given," says Lemmen, who, logically, wants to learn a lot in his first season. "I don’t have much experience taking charge of races. I want to learn about team dynamics and play a role in that, that's the goal this year. To become a stable, reliable force. I prefer to set a realistic goal, and then set another goal, rather than to start dreaming right away. For me, the goal now is to contribute in a WorldTour team."
Of course, the 28-year-old cyclist is looking forward to his tenure with a team where he can fully realize his potential. "I think there is still room for improvement. If I look at how fast I am riding now compared to a year ago, that's been a nice step forward. Now I've had a year of really learning to train and rest, and I can possibly develop further with the best team in the world, but I really dare not say whether that's 0 or 30 watts."
In aspects like nutrition, cyclists coming from a lower level have a lot to gain at Visma | Lease a Bike. "The food coach app is comprehensive. It's not that last year at an American team I was just eating fries, but this provides more structure and stability. Top athletes are also fundamentally doubters, and it's nice to know that if you follow that app, then you're in the window of what's good for me."
Finally: Lemmen has already completed his first training camp with the team, but how exactly is his military background viewed? "There's interest in my background, but in the same way as usual," says the cheerful Dutchman. "It's the same as if you go to a birthday party as a policeman or firefighter, then there's interest for that," he makes a nice comparison.