Arnaud De Lie has ended his first full opening weekend with a 7th place at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne (1.Pro). After a second place at the Omloop, the 20-year-old Belgian took his second consecutive top ten spot at the start of the Belgian spring Classics.
In the 75th edition of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, the race already exploded 100 kilometres from the finish. In the hilly part of the Pays des Collines, a front group of five managed to get away including Wellens, Mohoric, Benoot, Van Hooydonck and Van der Hoorn. Leading the chase, it was Lotto Dstny who took the initiative for its sprinter Arnaud De Lie, part of a heavily reduced bunch together with multiple teammates. In a long battle between attackers and chasing group, Lotto Dstny did everything to inch closer but eventually the winner came out of the front group. Tiesj Benoot rode to victory with Arnaud De Lie only beaten by Christophe Laporte in the sprint for sixth.
“A seventh place at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and a second place in 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 on Le Bourliquet, but I was limited to following there. Eventually, I came into a good rhythm and the legs only got better as the race progressed”, said Arnaud De Lie.
“Everyone looked a bit at us in the chase, but my teammates did again an amazing job. That we were still with five guys part of the reduced bunch shows another solid collective performance today. Arjen Livyns, Brent Van Moer and Frederik Frison pulled a lot at the front and Florian Vermeersch made sure I could start the sprint in good position. Unfortunately, it wasn’t for the win but I end this opening weekend definitely with a good feeling. I took another step forward and there are some nice things to come with this shape.”
Also sports director Nikolas Maes was satisfied with the performances 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. Of course, there is a really strong Jumbo-Visma, but we took up our responsibility and left a mark on the race. Which does not mean that we need to carry the entire weight of the race on our shoulders, the other teams need to realise that as well. Arnaud still is 20 years old and in his second pro year. Naturally, there’s still room for improvement, but if we can continue on this, there’s still a lot of nice things to come.”
Images: Photo News.
