“This will be my twelfth Worlds, and also my last – I’m nearly 40 now”: Bauke Mollema ready to give his all in support of Dutch rainbow jersey ambitions in Kigali

There will be no fanfare. No grand farewell. Just one more brutally hard day in the highlands of Rwanda, and then silence. For Bauke Mollema, the World Championships in Kigali will not be about personal glory, but about something far more meaningful to him at this point in his career: one last selfless ride in support of the Dutch team.

“This will be my twelfth Worlds, and also my last,” Mollema tells WielerFlits with characteristic understatement. “I’m nearly 40 now. I’ve decided I won’t be going to Montréal in 2026. This is the end of the line for me at the Worlds.”

But it’s no curtain call in name only. Mollema isn’t in Rwanda to make up the numbers or wave goodbye from the back of the peloton. He’s here to work — tirelessly and tactically — for Thymen Arensman, the 25-year-old INEOS Grenadiers talent viewed as the Netherlands’ most credible hope for a men’s elite world title this time around.

Mollema’s palmarès may lack a top-10 finish at the Worlds — his best being 11th in Florence (2013) and 12th in both Innsbruck (2018) and Zürich (2024) — but the value he brings to a national team setup goes far beyond his own results. Long considered one of the peloton’s most intelligent tacticians and most reliable lieutenants, he steps into his final Worlds not as a protected rider, but as a trusted road captain, guiding a younger generation through the chaos and cruelty of one-day racing at its highest level.

“I don’t think other countries or the favourites will be afraid of me,” he says with a wry grin. “And rightly so. But that might play to our advantage. I won’t be the first rider they chase down, and I’m not here to ride for myself. I’m here to help.”

That help will be needed. The course in Kigali is relentlessly hilly, with technical climbs, heat, and altitude all expected to play decisive roles. At over 1,500 metres above sea level, the Rwandan capital presents an unfamiliar battleground for most of the peloton — but not for Mollema, who meticulously prepared with altitude camps in the lead-up.

“I’m probably at my best level of the year,” he says confidently. “I finished eighth at the Tour of Britain, and I’ve done everything I can to be ready for this. It was already a target, but once I knew I’d be selected in July, I really gave these last two months everything. Koos Moerenhout [Dutch national coach] gave me that confidence, and that helped me go all-in.”

The Dutch team for Kigali is built around a blend of youth and experience. Alongside Mollema and fellow veteran Wout Poels, riders like Frank van den Broek, Menno Huising, and Sam Oomen bring depth — but it’s Thymen Arensman who carries the weight of Dutch hopes. Tall, lean, and gifted on long climbs and in the time trial, Arensman has the engine to contend on such a demanding course. What he doesn’t have is the same depth of experience in managing the unpredictability of a Worlds road race.

Despite this being his final Worlds, Mollema insists he’s not caught up in the emotion of it all. “It’s not emotional,” he shrugs. “It’s motivating. I wanted to make this a proper final target. I wasn’t interested in riding Montréal in 2026 — I’ve never had much affinity for that parcours, and I didn’t want to go through this whole preparation again. Rwanda made sense. It feels right to finish here.”

He may be bowing out from the World Championships, but Mollema still has over a year left on his contract with Lidl-Trek, and remains undecided on what his final race as a professional will be. But Kigali, in many ways, marks the closing chapter of his time in orange. And if the Dutch flag does rise behind the rainbow bands on Sunday afternoon, don’t look to the podium to find Mollema. Look back down the road — at the wheels he chased down, the gaps he closed, the calm he brought to the race. One last ride, not for his own individual glory, but for the team.