De Lie fighting back in the Tour de France sprints

One rider who went under the radar in Saturday’s Tour de France bunch kick into Laval was Arnaud De Lie. The former Belgian champion finished fifth on stage eight, behind winner Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), after his Lotto team were ever present in the closing kilometres, ensuring he was in the right place.

He might have done even better, had he not been caught behind the battle of elbows between Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Milan, which was the likely reason for the Italian’s CHF500 fine. That clash saw De Lie forced backwards, off Van der Poel’s wheel, and in the end he was forced to take the long way round on the gently curving, final few hundred metres. He still managed to get around the outside of Alberto Dainese (Tudor Pro Cycling) and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) though, beating them both, even if he ran out of gas just before the line.

It’s by far and away the best result of his race to date, his previous being 40th on the opening day in Lille, and the result is a welcome return to form for a rider who has suffered a torrid season. 

Obviously, a sprinter’s job is to cross the line first and the 23-year-old has managed that only once this year, winning stage three of the Etoile de Bessèges, way back at the start of February. Since then his meagre return includes only four top five finishes, none of those at WorldTour level.  

“He’s fighting back, I like to see that,” sports director, Marc Wauters, told Sporza’s Vive Le Velo show. While he was well beaten by Milan and second placed Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike, he might have been able to snatch another place had he sprinted on the drops, though that a doesn’t seem to bother Wauters too much.

“He’s a strong guy and he does that often, he feels most comfortable that way, that’s how he won the Belgian championships. Today he sprinted without his lead out, Jasper De Buyst, so he can certainly take today as a starting point.”

This is De Lie’s second Tour de France and he would have come to France hoping to better his 2024 results when he bagged two third place finishes. However, his poor season meant he was close to not making the Belgian team’s selection.

"The timing's been close but I'm delighted with his evolution in the last week. I've found the Arnaud again that I knew before,” team boss Stéphane Heulot told RTBF when the Tour squad announced.

A versatile sprinter, De Lie was touted as another of Belgium’s production line of ‘next-big-things’ but that responsibility, and that to his team to score points, has not been an easy burden for him to bear.

“The team always counts on him,” Wauters continued. “He’s the man who has to get the points and sometimes that can go wrong, he’s fighting back now. He feels like a rider again and that gives him confidence.”

With its flat finish, Sunday’s ninth stage may not suit De Lie’s characteristics, with the likes of Milan, Van Aert and Soudal-Quickstep’s Tim Merlier the favourites, but there are plenty of punchy sprint stages where De Lie can prosper still to come.