"At Visma, I wasn’t good enough to really ride for my own chances" but Koen Bouwman overcomes disaster year

Koen Bouwman left Team Visma | Lease a Bike last year, and encountered one of the most difficult seasons of his career. Not due to his departure from the Dutch team however, rather, the 32-year old was ill several times throughout the season and it always got in the way of his big goals.

Bouwman had already been sick before he started putting on some serious racing in late March at the Volta a Catalunya, but in what was his big goal of the season, the Giro d'Italia - where he's won in the past - he found himself devastated after the first week of racing. “It was actually a bit the same as before the Volta a Catalunya; I already had it before the start. Then I just managed to recover in time, but even then it wasn’t my very best race," Bouwman said in words to IDLProCycling.

“The day that Luke Plapp won (team victory on stage 8, ed.), I was in the breakaway. That was a really tough day to be up there – it was a long one and the pace was extremely high. And once I was there, I already knew: this isn’t my best day. Back on the bus, I really didn’t feel well". The Dutchman's rac eended shortly after the big day out into Castelraimondo.

"In the evening after dinner, everything came straight back up. The next day I had a fever, diarrhea, everything you can think of. There was just no way I could start. That was really disappointing. In the Tour of the Alps I had felt like my old self for the first time, so I went to the Giro with quite a bit of confidence. Then it’s painful to have to abandon in stage eight.”  

Jayco believed in Bouwman's strengths and so he was then inserted in the shortlist for the Tour de France. But his return to racing was rushed and he was honest that he didn't have the level to be present: “After that I tried to pick things up again, but I went to the Critérium du Dauphiné with just two training sessions in my legs. That wasn’t ideal. The Tour was still an option because the selection was announced late and Michael Matthews was still dealing with issues, but with that condition, I had no business being there.”

The summer came about and he found some consistency again, but then at the Tour de Pologne he fell ill again. “After an altitude camp I felt really good. Then in the Tour de Pologne it went wrong again, with a high fever and basically all the symptoms of Covid. I tested negative every time, but it was far from ideal".

However as luck would have it, he would still be selected to the Vuelta a España despite his issues. "Because of that illness I missed out on the Vuelta selection, which was a real blow. In the end, Jasha Sütterlin dropped out, and I still got to go to Spain.” However it ended in the same way as the Giro.

“I was throwing up all day, fever… I did ride the team time trial, but completely empty: no food, not even a warm-up. In the evening I still couldn’t eat anything. I tried again the next day, but after three hours I was completely empty.”

Hence it was a very rough first season away from Visma, where he also won a stage of the Criterium du Dauphiné, the GC of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali, and the KOM (alongside the two stage wins) at the 2022 edition. “You make the decision to leave Visma, even though it’s a really great team. But later on, you don’t want to say: maybe there could have been a nice win in a big race. At Visma, I wasn’t good enough to really ride for my own chances there," he explains.

He's got seven Giro editions behind him, and four Vueltas. But no Tour de France yet. “I’ve always said I’d love to ride the Tour one day. But I’m realistic enough, especially after last season, to know that I have to prove myself, and that it won’t just happen overnight.”

In addition, next season brings further pressure, as he enters contract year. "If I have another season like this one, that obviously won't help. In the past I’ve shown good things, and within the team it’s been repeated several times that the talent is still there – that doesn’t just disappear. That fire is still burning. I just hope I’m spared a bit more bad luck this season.”

But retirement looms in the distance, and he doesn't exclude it to be something that he may choose in the upcoming years. “I still love cycling just as much as I did as a junior. If in three years’ time I feel like it’s breaking me, then I’ll stop. As long as I’m a professional cyclist, I’ll give it 100 percent. But if it’s gone, or I don’t want it anymore, then I also have to be honest with myself.”