Zeeman's praise for Visma's rising star Lemmen was spot on: "Altitude training works for almost everyone"

Last week, Zeeman left Visma to join Dutch soccer club AZ on December 1, closing out an incredible era at Visma | Lease a Bike. It was an emotional goodbye marked by tears. Reflecting on his accomplishments, one standout was Bart Lemmen, whom Zeeman openly praised during the summer, even as he was preparing to leave. "We have very high expectations of him. Bart is going to become a truly excellent WorldTour rider — both physically and in terms of personality. He has a bright future ahead," Zeeman remarked just before the Tour de France.

Lemmen was called up for the Tour as a last-minute replacement for Sepp Kuss, who had become ill. His Tour debut seamlessly capped off a debut season filled with highlights: fifth in the Tour Down Under, tenth in the UAE Tour, second in the Tour of Norway, completing his first Tour de France, and displaying excellent form in the autumn races, including the Tour of Luxembourg and Coppa Bernocchi. By the end of 2024, few will remember that just a year earlier, he transitioned from the ProContinental team Human Powered Health.

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The big question now is: what more can he achieve? "The most important thing is that I’m still relatively early in my cycling career. I’m getting better year by year. For example, before last season, I had never completed a full winter of training. When you do, you’re obviously not going to get worse," he told the Dutch cycling outlet Wielerrevue. "I don’t know exactly how much I’ve improved in terms of my threshold, but what’s really improved is my endurance after five hours on the bike. I used to be the type of rider who could nail a great 20-minute test or take a KOM on Strava, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be a good WorldTour rider."

Now, Lemmen has proven he’s a capable WorldTour cyclist — and there’s still room to grow. "I’m not a training fanatic yet, but that doesn’t mean I’d automatically improve by adding five more hours of training. When I was in the air force (yes, indeed, Lemmen is a former military officer, ed.), I said the same thing. It’s not a given that more training will make me faster. But what should make me stronger is altitude training. I didn’t train at altitude in 2024, and altitude training works for almost everyone. In 2023, I went to altitude once on my own, but that’s different from being there with the team. I had to handle other tasks like cooking, grocery shopping, and maintaining my gear. I’m really looking forward to experiencing a proper team altitude camp."