Transfer Mechanics: 'Current riders are the first priority' at Visma-Lease a Bike 🐝
Grischa Niermann on Olav Kooij’s future with the team and the old guard riders out of contract
For all the rider turnover at Visma-Lease a Bike during the winter, perhaps the biggest move came with the departure of senior DS Merjin Zeeman.
The Dutchman was pivotal, not just in terms of the team’s phenomenal Grand Tour success, but in shaping the rider recruitment policy, negotiating with agents, and deciding on who would stay and who would leave.
When Zeeman announced his departure for AZ Alkmaar in the spring of 2024, the Visma management had to divide his duties, and Grischa Niermann was handed greater responsibility for transfers.
The former Rabobank rider had already formed part of the committee that looked at recruitment but with Zeeman leaving the German was handed a wider remit in the second half of the season. In 2025 Niermann will lead on the transfer front, with help from team boss Richard Plugge, as the squad look to make decisions on the 11 riders currently out of contract, and then decide on new recruits.
It’s an important period for the team, with Olav Kooij out of contract and drawing attention from several WorldTour teams, and several of the team’s old guard also up for renewal.
“Of course, Merijn was responsible for that. I was not involved with talking about money in recent years, for example. We had a squad within the management with Mathieu Heijboer, Merijn and me and we were always discussing every rider that would join the team. Merijn would ask for feedback and we’d decide things together but it was Merijn who was doing the negotiations with managers and Richard,” Niermann told us at the Visma-Lease a Bike training camp in Spain.