De Lie abandons Giro d'Italia on stage 4 - 'We’re not panicking yet about his upcoming goals'

De Lie had been struggling visibly since the race began in Bulgaria, with the 24-year-old Belgian failing to figure in the bunch sprints in Burgas and Sofia despite arriving at the Giro as one of Lotto-Intermarché's most-talked-about cards. 

He had won the Famenne Ardenne Classic the previous Sunday for his first victory of an injury-disrupted 2026, but had been one of three Lotto-Intermarché riders nearly ruled out of the Giro after an illness outbreak in the team linked to cow dung on the Famenne Ardenne course.

De Lie was deemed well enough to travel to Bulgaria alongside Milan Menten, with only Liam Slock missing out and being replaced by Joshua Giddings in the squad. But the post-illness recovery has clearly not gone the way the team had hoped, with De Lie speaking after the third stage about how poor he had felt across the opening week.

"I don't think I've ever felt this bad," De Lie said. The Belgian's frustration at not being competitive in the bunch sprints had been visible throughout both Bulgarian sprint stages, with the 24-year-old finishing well down on Paul Magnier, the stage winner in stages 1 and 3, and never able to contest the front of the peloton in the closing kilometres.

Lotto-Intermarché loses its most plausible candidate for a stage win in week one. The route's flat finishes in southern Italy, and a rolling stage 6 into Naples had lined up well for the kind of finisher De Lie can be when he's healthy. The team now pivots to Lennert Van Eetvelt for the hilly days and mountain stages and a possible GC tilt, with Toon Aerts the most interesting card for the breakaway days ahead.

The 2026 season has been a difficult one for De Lie from the start, with an off-season domestic accident delaying his return to racing, a quiet early-season block, an unfinished Paris-Roubaix, and the Famenne Ardenne win arriving as his first real positive of the year. The Giro was meant to be the platform from which he reset.

De Lie joins a growing list of notable losses across the opening week. UAE Team Emirates-XRG's Adam Yates abandoned after his crash on stage 2, and several other GC names lost time on the same chaotic day to Veliko Tarnovo. Van Eetvelt now becomes Lotto-Intermarché's protected rider for the rest of the race, with a top ten / top-15 GC finish a realistic target if the 24-year-old's form holds across the mountains.

After the stage, Lotto-Intermarché sports director Pieter Vanspeybrouck told Sporza: “We had hoped Arnaud would be doing better after the rest day, but today he had stomach trouble again.”

“We’re not panicking yet about his upcoming goals, the Tour of Wallonia and the Tour,” Vanspeybrouck said.

Milan Menten also came close to abandoning alongside De Lie after vomiting twice. “It hung by a thread for Menten today,” the sports director added.