‘I don’t want to be a cyclist just to be a cyclist’ – Vermote keeps flame alive in contract search

Every year, riders of talent find themselves squeezed out of the sport amid the scramble for the last remaining places on professional teams. Julien Vermote knows the drill only too well by now.

In the winter of 2020, the Belgian was surprisingly deemed surplus to requirements at Cofidis, and he had to wait until March of the following year to find a home at Alpecin. The situation was even more stark after his tenure at Alpecin came to an end. When no new contract materialised that winter, Vermote dropped back down to amateur level for the entirety of 2023. At the time, it seemed an almost delusional act of love for a sport that had rejected him so brutally, but Vermote’s steadfast belief was eventually rewarded. 

He found a WorldTour berth, with Visma | Lease a Bike, no less, and he served two years in a supporting role for the Dutch squad. Vermote’s performances and experience meant he was held in high regard at Visma, but that still didn’t suffice to insulate him from the cold reality of racing at this level. 

Midway through the summer, Vermote was informed that his services wouldn’t be required in 2026. The 36-year-old no longer quite fitted the profile of a team that was determined to invest in youth. Pro cycling has always been a ‘next man up’ kind of business.

“You always know it’s the team that ultimately decides, but it was a bit of a surprise,” Vermote tells Domestique. “Everybody at the team said they were happy with me, performance-wise and everything, but they had to take some decisions. I felt good in the team, and I felt I had value for the team, but they’re taking younger guys. 

“But they were also correct with me. They didn’t make me wait that long, the communication was correct, and I appreciate that from their side.”

In another year, a rider like Vermote might have found a team relatively swiftly. This winter, however, the market is a volatile one. The closure of teams like Arkéa-B&B Hotels and Wagner Bazin WB has reduced the number of available places, while ongoing confusion over the imminent Lotto-Intermarché merger has essentially stalled the entire transfer carousel. 

“I think there are two things: fewer spots, which is never good, but also an unclear situation that is blocking a lot of the market,” Vermote says. “It wasn’t clear who could stay at Intermarché and Lotto, and this didn’t help the situation because certain teams realised they could take riders for less money than normal.”

The machinations of the depressed transfer market populate the sports pages of the Flemish newspapers every day, but Vermote tries to block it out as much as possible. His previous experiences have taught him to focus on what he can control rather than stress himself unduly about the things that he can’t.

“If I’d followed this every day, I think I’d just go crazy,” Vermote says. “If I want to continue next year, it’s because I’m still convinced about my value, I still know I can do something and I still have the passion. But if you’re stressing the whole time, then you don’t switch off and your performance will be less the following year.

Vermote has experience in this regard. In the dark winter of 2020, his desperate search for a contract led to anxiety and to a degree of bitterness about how he had been treated by his sport. This time out, he is more sanguine about the situation.

“I think it’s a bit easier this time, it feels different and you know a bit how to handle things,” Vermote says.

“The first time, I maybe felt a bit disappointed in cycling. I felt like I had given my heart to cycling and then I didn’t have a team. No team took me. I was training for months without a team, so it was a strange situation.

“The second time, it was also crazy because I went to amateur level again, but I was really locked in, and I was kind of convinced that something would come of it. But both times taught me a lot of lessons in life. In cycling, you think you’re part of a big group, but then when you’re out, you’re out…

“You have to fight hard to get back, and it helped me to see things in a different perspective. Normally when you’re training, you’re thinking about a certain race or focusing on your values, and you forget about enjoying the landscape or realising that it’s a privilege to have the job that you have.”

Vermote’s belief in his ongoing ability to do the job is why he is still holding out hope of securing a contract for 2026. Top-flight cycling may have given up on him a couple of times before, but Vermote never gave up on the dream of making it back to the Show. And after his two-year stint at Visma, he remains convinced that he can perform a similar supporting and mentoring role elsewhere.

“My goal isn’t just to be a rider next year. I still want to be a rider, but I want to be a good rider,” Vermote says. “I don’t want to be a cyclist just to be a cyclist, I want to add value to a team, and I believe that I can.”

At this point in his career, Vermote reckons he is more likely to find a spot on a big team than on a smaller squad scrambling for UCI points. Almost a decade from his last victories on the 2016 Tour of Britain, Vermote knows his greatest calling card is his ability to clock in and do a job for his team when called upon from February to October. 

“The smaller teams are looking for young riders to score some points, whereas in bigger teams, they have a leader and they want to give him some support,” he says. “So I think my value is more for the bigger teams. They know I have experience and they can use me in races across the whole season.”

This quiet belief informed Vermote’s recent comments to Het Nieuwsblad, where he lamented that teams were focusing increasingly on youth to the detriment of experience, fearful that they would miss out on signing the next Tadej Pogacar or Remco Evenepoel

His comment wasn’t a criticism of young riders – “I was a young rider once and they gave me a chance” – but rather a reminder that veterans still had something tangible to offer their teams. 

“I’m more consistent now than I was in my younger years, and you can’t blame young riders for not being consistent,” he says. “I just think you need a good mix, so you need experienced riders that can guide the young guys and give them advice.”

While Vermote strives to keep the flame alive, he insists that he will not do so at all costs. If Spring arrives without a new contract, there will be no repeat of 2023, when he treaded water by racing as an independent at amateur level before rejoining the WorldTour.

“No, I won’t do this,” he says. “In theory, it would be possible, but that was a different time in my life. If I continue, I want to do it at a proper level, and not do it just to keep myself busy. Because there are enough different things in life I can do, there’s another life besides cycling. “With my brother, we have like a sports medical centre in Kortrijk, and I have a bike shop with my brother and my brother-in-law, so there are different things to do when it is over.”

Until then, Vermote will continue to rage quietly against the dying of the light. He will shortly resume training for a 2026 season that may prove to be a mirage rather than a milestone. As a younger man, the thought was a daunting one. But on those interminable training rides on grey winter days in the hinterland of Kortrijk, he discovered a curious thing. Sometimes, the effort was its own reward. 

“I think we focus a lot on results or achieving a certain level, and that’s really important because it’s part of the game,” Vermote says. “But you also just have to enjoy it, and I learned this when I didn’t have a team. When I wasn’t training for Omloop or Flanders, I imagined I wouldn’t enjoy it anymore. But that wasn’t the case. Luckily, I learned to just enjoy riding the bike. It was an important lesson.”