After two lost springs, De Lie hopes Gent-Wevelgem marks new start

Fourth place in the reduced bunch sprint here certainly offers some long overdue reassurance for De Lie, who lost his way so dramatically the past two springs. In 2024, he pulled the plug on his Classics schedule after slumping home in 90th place in Wevelgem. Last year, he abandoned the race and spent almost two months on the sidelines.

De Lie remained the figurehead of the merged Lotto Intermarché squad for the 2026 season, but he would have been keenly aware that memories of his pugnacious display at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad three years ago were softly fading. There have been brief flashes of that potential in the years since, but never on the cobbled races that were supposed to become De Lie’s bread and butter.

The pressure was heightened after two decidedly nondescript showings on Opening Weekend, but De Lie was more prominent here. He survived the winnowing process on the Kemmelberg to stay in the main peloton, and he sprinted for the win when Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel were swept up in the finale.

Jasper Philipsen would claim the win ahead of Tobias Lund Andresen and Christophe Laporte, while De Lie had to settle for fourth. But disappointment that De Lie felt at missing out on the podium in Wevelgem was offset by the fact he had been in the mix in a race like this at all. It had been a while. Small wonder he cut a relieved figure when he rolled through the mixed zone on Vanackerestraat.

“To be honest, I was pretty dead for the sprint, I could tell I didn’t have much left in the tank,” De Lie said. “But honestly, I’m really pleased with the result. My sensations have been good over the last few weeks, but when you have mechanical issues and a bit of bad luck, it’s hard to show your potential.

“Today, I had no problems, and I was right up there at the front. It’s obviously nice to get a result, but riding without any issues is great too.”

De Lie acknowledged that fourth was about as much as he could have hoped for against this opposition. This was a sprint of strength rather than strategy, and the standings didn’t lie.

“I think you can be disappointed when you miss an opportunity but that wasn’t the case here,” De Lie said. “Here, I knew well that I was lacking a bit of strength. I don’t think you can be disappointed about being less strong than the others. 

“There are days like that. You can’t always be the strongest and you have to accept it. If there was a way to get on the podium or win, I would have done it, but I feel the others were just going a bit faster.”

De Lie is in action again at Dwars door Vlaanderen in midweek before lining up for what will be a very belated Tour of Flanders debut next Sunday. Before he headed for the sanctuary of the Lotto Intermarché team bus, someone suggested that Wevelgem marked the start of his spring rather than the end. “Maybe,” De Lie said.