"De Lie will take the necessary time to recover": Pedersen, Bennett, Asgreen and De Lie among abandons from Paris-Nice to prepare for classics

Arnaud de Lie has left Paris-Nice, the young Belgian talent of Lotto Dstny did not appear at the start of stage 7 of Paris-Nice. The team justified that as a tactical decision in order to De Lie recover from the race fatigue he has been experiencing.

"Arnaud De Lie will not start today was decided after a consultation with the 20-year-old rider and the team's staff. Arnaud De Lie will take the necessary time to recover from his first stage race at the WorldTour level and he will focus the rest of the spring", stated Lotto Dstny in an official statement.

De Lie leaves Paris-Nice, his first World Tour race, with 5th place on the opening stage of the competition. After that, he and his team struggled to put him in a favorable position for the final sprint, and with the opportunities for the sprinters to finish the now roads home to take a necessary rest.

As the spring classics draw near, many sprinters and classics riders abandoned before or during stage 7 of Paris-Nice. The likes of Michael Matthews, Mads Pedersen, Sam Bennett, Kasper Asgreen and Dan McLay were among the non-finishers on the day due to these decisions.