"Wout has a special place in my heart... It hurts that the collaboration is ending" - Departing Visma DS pays heartfelt tribute to Van Aert

Merijn Zeeman has long been a spearhead figure behind the scenes of the Team Visma | Lease a Bike set up. With his time at the Dutch-based team coming to an end thanks to a new adventure with the Dutch Eredivisie football team AZ Alkmaar, he has now reflected on what made his time at Visma so successful.

"I can say: Visma changed my life. Where I am now, the opportunities I get... Without the team, that would never have happened. The past twelve years may have been the most important period of my life," Zeeman admits in conversation with Het Nieuwsblad, having joined the team back in 2013 while they still went under the Rabobank name banner.

Arguably the rider with which Zeeman has shared the best relationship over the years has been Belgian star Wout van Aert. "Wout has a special place in my heart, just like his family and in-laws. A bond that I will cherish for the rest of my life. It was a privilege to be able to work with him. Wout is a very special athlete, a very special man with incredible perseverance. A fantastic leader," Zeeman says with love, also commenting on the recent lifetime contract signed by Van Aert and Visma. "Richard Plugge and Robert van der Wallen came up with it and I really thought such a contract was the best possible idea. Wout is the natural leader of Visma, the embodiment of how we view sports. It hurts that the collaboration is ending. The dream that Wout and I had was of course to win the Tour and Roubaix. It is a great pity that I will no longer be directly involved in that. I sincerely hope that it will still happen. I firmly believe in that."

Sadly in his final year, Zeeman couldn't depart Visma on the ultimate high. "2024 is a dip compared to other years," he acknowledges. "Whether that was just bad luck or whether there is more to it, the people who take over my job will now evaluate. I did the preparation, not the evaluation interviews themselves. One of the reasons why this team is so good is precisely because we don't have a culture of excuses. Things are named. And don't forget: last year we still won the Omloop het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne and Dwars door Vlaanderen, Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico."

Even at the Tour de France Visma were successful despite missing out on a third consecutive Maillot Jaune, Zeeman insists. "What we did with Jonas Vingegaard in the Tour I still call a top performance after his fall. He is one of the few riders who beat Tadej Pogacar man to man," the Dutchman concludes, assessing it will be difficult but not impossible to beat Pogacar in future. "At the moment he is 'by far' the best rider. Many people are already hoping that other riders will outdo him."