Cycling
Arnaud De Lie (22) is putting an end to his spring in consultation with his Lotto-Dstny team. De Lie has struggled with himself in recent races and is now canceling his participation in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
Monday, March 25, 2024 at 7:02 PM
De Lie started the cycling spring with many expectations, but the 22-year-old rider could not repeat his good form from last season this year. Illness during an altitude training camp in Tenerife and a fall in the GP Le Samyn meant that De Lie was not 100 percent at the start in the further races. A fourth place in the GP Denain and a fifth final ranking in the Classic Bredene-Koksijde seemed to predict improvement, but De Lie suffered another setback in both the E3 Saxo Classic and on Sunday in Gent-Wevelgem.
“Continuing to race like this won’t bring him anything. This week we will sit down with him, evaluate everything and see what is best for him,” CEO Stéphane Heulot said afterwards in Wevelgem. “We will review his calendar. I don’t know yet what he’s into. He needs to be able to clear his head.”
Confirmation came from Lotto Dstny’s camp on Monday. “The team’s management and performance department have decided together with De Lie that he will not start in the upcoming classics. He will take some time to recover and build up to the second part of the season. The date of his return will soon be definitively determined,” the statement said.
Normally, De Lie was scheduled to participate in Dwars door Vlaanderen (Wednesday), the Tour of Flanders (Sunday) and Paris-Roubaix (Sunday, April 7).
