“I want to support Mathieu for as long as possible”: Van der Poel's domestique is ready for brutal Montréal Worlds

Bart Lemmen believes the World Championships road race in Montréal will be an elimination race from the opening laps, but the Dutchman is confident that his improved form this season can allow him to play an important role in support of Mathieu van der Poel.

The Visma | Lease a Bike rider enters his second elite World Championships after a breakthrough season that included his first WorldTour victory at the Tour de Pologne. That result was followed by a three-year contract extension with his team, and Lemmen now hopes to translate that progress into a strong performance in Montréal.

Lemmen recently returned to the Canadian city for the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal before traveling back to the Netherlands instead of remaining in Canada for the World Championships.

“I think I can start a lot fresher this way and ultimately perform better,” Lemmen said. “At home I also know the routes, I have my own food and everything like that.”

Lemmen's preparation has come after a season in which he feels he has made a significant step forward. “I've really made an enormous step this year. Everyone always has that feeling a little bit, but now I feel it just a little bit more,” Lemmen said.

That improvement will be tested against a field containing some of the world's strongest climbers and all-rounders. For Lemmen, however, the objective is clear. “It’s going really well and that basically promises good things for Sunday. In principle, I just have to stay in the race as far as possible in the final,” he said. “And then I know that normally I don't have the numbers of a Seixas or Del Toro, which would be nice, but I just want to support Mathieu for as long as possible.”

Lemmen has already experienced the demands of the World Championships once, as he raced in Zürich in 2024. “I wasn't good in Zürich either, but I thought it was a very different race. Without earpieces, so you have to pay close attention to who attacks and when,” he said. “I'm still very happy that I already have that experience of a World Championship, because now I know that I have to prepare for a hard race.”

Lemmen expects the race in Montréal to be very attritional. “It really is an elimination race. There is an enormous amount of climbing and it all follows each other very quickly. There is little rest, so it's constantly into the red,” Lemmen said. “You recharge and then sprint uphill again, but on that long climb through the park your legs really do fill up.”

The descent after the main climb could provide some opportunity for riders to return to the front, particularly if they have the wind behind them, but Lemmen expects the other climbs to make the race equally demanding.

“After that long climb there are also no corners, but one straight road downhill. If you have a headwind there, you can — between quotation marks — come back quite easily,” he explained. “And those other two climbs really hurt the legs too. No, Montréal is really not an easy race.”

Even if Van der Poel admitted he does not see himself as one of the main contenders, Lemmen nevertheless believes he cannot be dismissed, regardless of how his preparation has looked.

“He's simply a contender because it's Mathieu. You know he can do crazy things. You just can't say that about a rider like him, that he's out of the running,” Lemmen concluded. “It's Mathieu, you know. He's crazy. And in Zürich it was the same, but then he almost became world champion.”