Stepping out of a pink shadow, Bart Lemmen emerged as Visma’s biggest Giro d'Italia surprise

Visma | Lease a Bike was unbelievably dominant in the Giro d’Italia. Over three weeks the talk was mainly about eventual winner Jonas Vingegaard with five stage wins, luxury domestique Sepp Kuss with one stage win, and the impressively strong Davide Piganzoli. Even so, there was one rider in the Dutch team who surprised them even more, and that was most evident in the final two mountain stages.

The big-name riders in the squad will be in action for Visma | Lease a Bike again in July, but Vingegaard was ultimately able to rely on an incredibly strong team in the Giro as well. Timo Kielich, Victor Campenaerts and Tim Rex kept things under control on the flat and in the hills, and after Wilco Kelderman dropped out, Bart Lemmen stepped up as the main engine.

The 30-year-old Dutchman broke his wrist in February and therefore had a rather different preparation from the others. In the end, he managed to arrive at the Giro with superb legs. “Whether I have surprised myself? Er, yes and no, actually. For a while I had the feeling that there was more in me than was coming out,” he said on the final day in Rome to In de Leiderstrui.

“Because of circumstances, delivering had to be postponed every time, but now the course suited me, as did the third week and my role in the team. Then it comes out,” Lemmen smiled, noting that he had already had a beer after stage 20 according to Eurosport. More followed after the stage in Rome. “I did not expect it to be as good as in the last two mountain stages.”

Because Lemmen rode with the best climbers in stages 19 and 20. In the final mountain stage, he was even the last man for Vingegaard. “At that point I was not really thinking any more, I was mainly doing my job and then we would see what the damage was. It was very special, because even on a good day I am normally finished earlier than Sepp and Davide. But it happened anyway.”

Where Kuss and Piganzoli cracked, Lemmen kept going, and that underlined Vingegaard’s fifth stage win. As for what the power meter said in those final days? Lemmen did not really know. “I do not spend too much time on numbers. Sometimes you feel like you are not riding very fast, but there are still very few riders left. A third week is always different.”

The spotlight on Lemmen was well deserved, though he stayed grounded in Rome. “I just do my best, and fortunately that is going very well. In training before the Giro I already noticed that it was really easy. I was riding very hard and recovering quickly, but then you also need a race in which that can become visible.”

The broken wrist in February seemed to throw everything off in 2026, but the pieces finally fell into place for Lemmen. “In the last two days I enjoyed it a lot, one hundred per cent. But in any case we had three fantastic weeks with the team. Everything we wanted worked out, and we had a great time together.”

“That is an environment in which you can flourish,” the Dutchman stressed, though he did not want to call it a breakthrough. “I am actually not doing anything different from what I was already doing, just now a bit later in the race. I already knew I enjoyed this, and I am also a grateful person for the things I can do and am allowed to do. Everything is done in close consultation and the team is very flexible. I fit in here extremely well.”

Bram van der Ploeg ( X: @BvdPloegg | email : [email protected])