Arnaud De Lie Finishes Strong Opening Weekend with 7th Place at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne
Arnaud De Lie, a promising young cyclist, concluded his first full opening weekend with an impressive 7th place finish at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. Following his second place finish at the Omloop, De Lie continued his strong performance at the start of the Belgian spring Classics.
In the 75th edition of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, the race saw a breakaway 100 kilometres from the finish, which included top riders like Wellens, Mohoric, Benoot, Van Hooydonck, and Van der Hoorn. Despite a heavily reduced bunch, Lotto Dstny led the chase with De Lie as their sprinter. Although they fought hard, the winner eventually emerged from the front group, with De Lie finishing in 7th place, narrowly beaten by Christophe Laporte in the sprint for sixth.
Reflecting on his performance, De Lie stated, “A seventh place at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and a second place in the Omloop of course gives me a satisfied feeling after my first full Belgian opening weekend. When the race split in the hilly part, I had some heavy legs at first. If I had felt strong enough I would certainly have tried to join the attackers, but I was limited to following there. Eventually, I came into a good rhythm and the legs only got better as the race progressed.”
De Lie acknowledged the strong support of his teammates during the race, stating, “Everyone looked a bit at us in the chase, but my teammates did an amazing job. That we were still with five guys part of the reduced bunch shows another solid collective performance today.”
Nikolas Maes, the sports director, expressed satisfaction with the team’s performance at the opening weekend. “We were working towards a podium place at the Omloop for quite a while and with also a solid race at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, we can look back to a successful start to the Classics. Naturally, there’s still room for improvement, but if we can continue on this, there’s still a lot of nice things to come.”
As De Lie continues to develop his skills, the team remains optimistic about his potential for future successes.
