Arnaud De Lie's comeback goes wrong: "He had trouble breathing and his heart rate was very high"

It was a moment Arnaud De Lie along with whole Lotto looked forward to; the return of Belgian champion to racing after thwarted spring at the Rund um Köln. However what was supposed to be a fresh start turned into a disaster just one hour into the race.

As the peloton raced through the first difficult hilly section between KM 20-55, De Lie suddenly felt less, unable to follow the bunch. After a short respite, he tried to continue in the race, but by that time there was no real point in doing so.

"On the hardest part [of the climb] he was still with us, but at the top he had trouble and had to give up," team manager Nikolas Maes told Het Nieuwsblad. "He had trouble breathing, his heart rate was very high, he was not going. He was not feeling well at all. Arnaud set off again, pedaled alone for another hour and a half and then looked for the bus."

"Maybe we didn’t think he would win, but we thought he would race and compete [at the front]," Maes continued. "But that was not the case. These are the facts. With the entire staff, we will have to re-analyze Arnaud’s situation. Zoom in on his problem again. Examine it again. It is clearly necessary."