  We present a detailed study of the bulk electronic structure of high quality
VSe$_{2}$ single crystals using optical spectroscopy. Upon entering the charge
density wave phase below the critical temperature of 112 K, the optical
conductivity of VSe$_2$ undergoes a significant rearrangement. A Drude response
present above the critical temperature is suppressed while a new interband
transition appears around 0.07\,eV. From our analysis, we estimate that part of
the spectral weight of the Drude response is transferred to a collective mode
of the CDW phase. The remaining normal state charge dynamics appears to become
strongly damped by interactions with the lattice as evidenced by a mass
enhancement factor m$^{*}$/m$\approx$3. In addition to the changes taking place
in the electronic structure, we observe the emergence of infrared active
phonons below the critical temperature associated with the 4a x 4a lattice
reconstruction.
