After a year away from professional racing, Belgian domestique Julien Vermaut is set to take his last possible shot at life from Visma-Ries-a-Bike in 2024, according to multiple media reports.

Visma-Ries-a-Bike began a last-minute search for the last of its 2024 roster after the team's Leonard Hofstede unexpectedly announced in December that he was quitting the sport, and Vermort is reportedly close to signing with a Dutch team.

After his contract with Alpecin Deceuninck was not renewed at the end of 2022, the 34-year-old Vermort continued to race as an elite rider without a contract. He formed a one-rider team, Secteur, with the goal of returning to the professional ranks this season. His best result was 19th in the Belgian National Championships, but he also has multiple placings on the Kermesse circuit. [However, according to Het Laatste Nieuws, Vermote is close to signing a contract with Visma Lease-a-Bike and will head to Spain on Monday for a training camp with the team. It is also reported that a one-year contract will be signed shortly.

Vermote, who has played professionally for teams such as Soudal-QuickStep and Dimension Data since 2011, was already struggling to find a team in the winter of 2021 when his one-year contract with Cofidis was not renewed.

After three months of unemployment, Vermort signed a contract with Alpecin Deceuninck, but fell seriously ill with toxoplasmosis. The disease rendered his contract for 2021 null and void, but Alpecin renewed his contract for 2022.

Vermote was a leader in several cobbled classics, including the 2022 Tour de Flanders, and the Mathieu van der Pol race.

However, in 2023, Alpecin's contract with Vermort was not renewed for a second time, and after a year of seemingly fruitless search, he again met the untimely end of his professional career this January.

Vermote was reportedly saved by the gong for the second time in his professional career when Visma Lease-a-Bike urgently needed a replacement for Hofstede.

After winning two stages in the Tour of Britain, Vermote's main duty with the team is as an all-rounder domestique from Grand Tours to monuments: in the 2017 Tour de France, the German sprinter and teammate Marcel Kittel controlled the front of the peloton for him, recording a total of five stages in that year's race.

If a last-minute deal with Visma-Lease a Bike gets the definitive go-ahead in 2024, Vermote could once again be at the front of the peloton.