An emotional Bart Lemmen after seeing a video from family and friends telling him they are proud at him after today's stage 🥹😍
"He will become one of the mainstays of this team" - Bart Lemmen leaving Visma very impressed with performances on Tour de France debut
CyclingFriday, 19 July 2024 at 15:00
In just his second season as a full-time professional and his first at Team Visma | Lease a Bike, the 28-year-old former Air Force captain was surprisingly drafted in for the 2024 Tour de France after the last minute withdrawal from the lineup by Sepp Kuss due to Covid.
Although Lemmen may still be very earlier in his career and a three-week stage race is a concept completely new to him, the Dutchman has seemingly been getting stronger and stronger as the Tour de France has gone on. Nowhere was this more evident than on stage 18, where Lemmen was active in the breakaway and eventually came home in 6th position.
"It's great to see him racing at the front of the Tour de France," says a very impressed Team Visma | Lease a Bike sports director Merijn Zeeman, in an interview with Algemeen Dagblad. "It's his first Tour de France and he never thought he would ever ride here. And then you ride such a good ride in the third week. Very nice to see."
"He is developing very quickly. He is physically very good, but also in terms of personality he is just a very special rider," Zeeman's praise continues of the newest diamond discovered by Team Visma | Lease a Bike. "I really think that he will become one of the mainstays of this team in the coming years."
One of the main reasons Lemmen was selected as the last minute replacement of Sepp Kuss, was the Dutchman continued good form throughout 2024. Although a different type of rider to the American super domestique, Lemmen has already displayed his qualities in his debut season with the team, starring at the Tour Down Under and the Tour de Romandie among other races. Over the final stages of this Grand Tour however, Lemmen could have a key role to play in Jonas Vingegaard's Maillot Jaune challenge.
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