"It was him or me" - Arnaud de Lie almost takes down Girmay's leadout; Eritrean praises 'perfect' work from NSN

The Clasica de Almeria proved to be a calm race in its majority, however the finale became increasingly hectic with several crashes taking place in the peloton. Whilst Arnaud de Lie was not involved in one of them, a particularly hard shoulder bump against Lewis Askey, who was leading of Biniam Girmay, has grabbed the spotlight.

"I have to thank my teammates, because they did a fantastic job from start to finish," Girmay said in a post-race interview. "It was hectic, with lots of roundabouts, but we got through it well and intelligently. We wanted to be together for the last kilometer, and even though we've only known each other for a few weeks, we already know what to do."

The Eritrean's move to NSN is quickly pointing towards success, as he won the opening stage of the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana and has now backed that up with an even more important triumph at the Clasica de Almeria. In a field stacked with pure sprinters and fresh leadouts, chaos reigned. But NSN nailed their timing to perfection, bringing a quartet to the front in the very last kilometer.

The leadout was effective and Girmay had the speed to finish it off. "They dropped me off 200 meters from the finish; I've honestly never had a leadout like that before. I only put in the last few percent; the rest was from the team. We're close, want to improve together, so this was a great achievement".

He praised the work of his teammates, and has gotten a lot of confidence ahead of his first big goals of the season: "That's why I joined this team, and I've found the perfect guys here. It's great to start the season like this; it gives me motivation to keep building towards the biggest races. For now, I'm going to a small training camp, heading into the opening weekend and then Paris-Nice".

However one of Girmay's leadout men, Lewis Askey, did a move that has been seen more and more over the past few years. After moving out of the leadout train, he continued riding side by side right behind Girmay, to make the other sprinters' task harder. A risky tactic, for everyone involved.

As the other sprinters began overtaking the Briton, he blocked several riders only seconds away from the bunch sprint. Arnaud de Lie was one of them, and as he moved through, the movements saw the Belgian shoulder him, causing Askey to unclip and almost crash at high speed.

"It was him or me," de Lie justified. Askey's positioning in the middle of the sprinters and loss of speed proved to be an added detail to the chaos of the sprint in Roquetas del Mar, and the helicopter footage soon became as notable as the sprint itself. "He just kept getting in the way. There was almost an unfortunate crash in the final, but it was him or me. I was lucky because I stayed on the bike."

The Belgian nevertheless has finished sixth on the day, the first of his season after he had an illness delay his initial plan to race in January. "I'm very happy with my legs. I was very good."