Visma | Lease a Bike learns to function without Merijn Zeeman: "It's been different, quite strange, you have to get used to it"

Team Visma | Lease a Bike has had one of the most sensitive casualties it could have had in this past cycling market. Interestingly, it is not about any rider. It is Merijn Zeeman, who was one of the most important sports directors of the team, being fundamental in the successes of the recent history of the Dutch formation.

The 46-year-old left his post to move to soccer and take on a similar role at Eredivisie club AZ Alkmaar. But Visma now has to work without him. And it's not something he's used to. One of the top managers, who has now taken his place in the team is Grischa Niermann. The German has talked about it all in a recent interview for wielerrevue.nl.

"To be honest, quite strange. The cooperation over the last six years has been very good and structured. We approached the evaluations in a similar way, but of course it was different because Merijn was not there. There have certainly been times when we have thought: now Merijn would have acted that way. He always led those evaluations. Now I was in charge. A small example: now I had to control the time. We sit at the table 20 people and you want to be able to discuss everything you have determined beforehand. You have to get used to that."

"Sometime during the classics period. I felt it, but I also understood him. I knew that his big dream was to one day work in soccer. With the growth of Visma | Lease a Bike, he had an almost impossible position to replace, because not for nothing will we cover his position with several people (in addition to Niermann, they are Jacco Verhaeren as head coach, Mathieu Heijboer as head of performance, Robbert de Groot as head of development and Patrick Broe as head of strategy, ed.). We will divide the tasks over several shoulders."

"Those are my words. Only yes, you have to supervise not only the men's team, but also the training team, the women's team and a whole organization, which has grown from 30 to 180 people in recent years. Ideally, I would also like to be involved in the daily training sessions of the riders and be present at the big races. That's a lot. It wasn't the reason Merijn left, but it's the reason we'll be dividing the tasks in the coming years."

"Ultimately, as CEO, Richard Plugge is responsible for his team, but within the five-member sports management team he oversees, each has his own domain and specialization. Take Mathieu, for example: he is and was Head of Performance. Only in recent years, Merijn was still ultimately responsible. Now Mathieu is only the person responsible for the planning of altitude training, or other things that depend on performance."

"Jacco Verhaeren will soon take care of the development of our coaches and the individual development of the riders, but he will also have more time to take care of the women's team. There was simply less time for the latter in recent years."

"On the other hand, I am mainly involved in the planning of the men's team. Merijn had already passed a lot of things on to me, because for years I have been responsible for planning the routes and the riders' programs. But now I'm also in charge of contact with the managers and contract negotiations. I do that together with Richard. I already discussed it with Merijn, but it wasn't me negotiating with the managers and the riders."