Arnaud De Lie ready for more cobbled races following strong ride at Dwars door Vlaanderen: "Onto Paris-Roubaix"

Arnaud De Lie continues his first spring campaign among the very best riders, with a positive outcome after Dwars door Vlaanderen, where he survived the aggressive racing to sprint to sixth place at the end of the day.

“The racing started really early and from then on we never got the chance to catch our breath. We were attentive in the hill zone and I was able to stay in the front really well. When they accelerated on the Kanarieberg, I tried to follow but I just wasn’t able to," De Lie told in a post-race interview.

He saw Laporte and Philipsen go up the road, but later be caught. De Lie stayed in the peloton however as the winning group went up the road, but his presence in the peloton saw Lotto Dstny work. Several teams organized a chase, which was effective as most of the roads until the finish were flat.

“That is how we were left to chase but we didn’t panic and organised ourselves quite well. Jasper [De Buyst], Pascal [Eenkhoorn] and Frederik [Frison] did a huge amount of work and eventually we still came really close. Pascal went all out one last time on the final cobbles so we could maybe sprint for a podium place."

The chase was close. De Lie could've contested for the podium but three riders managed to escape the chase of the peloton. The Belgian sprinted to sixth place on the day - third from the peloton. "I was maybe a little less stronger compared to Omloop Het Nieuwsblad but I think we delivered another strong team performance today. Onto Paris-Roubaix," he concluded.