"De Lie should stay away from Spain more and train more in the Ardennes" - Homesickness named as one of possible reasons behind Arnaud De Lie's poor results

The Classics campaign is once again a reason for wrinkles on foreheads of Lotto sports directors. The Belgian team's greatest asset - at least on paper - Arnaud De Lie is visibly struggling again despite solid early appearances in France, Spain and Portugal.

"Arnaud trained too much in Spain - two months - and less at home. De Lie likes to be with his cows too much. That is literally what Dirk Demol [Lotto sports director, ed.] told me," says Dirk De Wolf, winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège 1992 and Dwars Door Vlaanderen 1989 in Wielerclub Wattage powered by Sporza.

Presenter Ruben Van Gucht then throws out the word homesickness. "De Lie should stay away from Spain more and train more in the Ardennes. And be with his cows more."

"Could that be it? If you are there for two months, you can't cross back to Belgium twice for a few days?" Tom Boonen wonders.

Arnaud De Lie is still in the provisional lineups for Gent Wevelgem (March 30), Dwars Door Vlaanderen (April 02) and Tour of Flanders (April 06) - races where he should ideally compete for a top-10 result. However if the string of poor luck and mediocre performances keep stacking up, it wouldn't be unwise from Lotto to withdraw the Belgian from these races and save his strength for another day...