Lotto take decisive action following Arnaud De Lie’s poor start to 2025: “Arnaud is a winner, that’s not nice”
Cycling
Arnaud De Lie was expected to light up the early months of the 2025 season, but instead, the young Belgian star has found himself battling poor form, mental fatigue, and now, significant changes within his support team. With results well below expectations, Lotto have taken decisive action, ending De Lie’s collaboration with his personal trainer Gaëtan Bille in a bid to reset the rider’s trajectory.
Once hailed as Belgium’s next Classics king, De Lie’s underwhelming performances so far this spring have prompted concern. Despite flashes of promise in 2024, including a Belgian national title and a solid Tour de France debut, 2025 has started in stark contrast, with missed opportunities and mounting pressure.
At the start of the year, De Lie announced a new partnership with Bille, a former Lotto rider himself from 2012 and 2013, and someone who had previously been both a training partner and a close friend. The collaboration promised familiarity, trust, and a tailored approach. But as results failed to materialise, Lotto decided it was time to intervene.
The decision to end the partnership suggests the team sees a need to reassert control and recalibrate De Lie’s preparations. Sports manager Kurt Van de Wouwer acknowledged the difficulties the rider is facing (both physically and mentally) and admitted there are still more questions than answers.
“It wasn’t good in Nokere Koerse, so you can’t ride around with confidence in the races after that either,” Van de Wouwer said, following another disappointing showing at Gent Wevelgem. “It’s clear that Arnaud is not in his normal state and isn’t achieving his normal values. That weighs on him, also mentally. Arnaud is a winner, that’s not nice.”
The most concerning part of De Lie’s struggles may be the lack of a clear explanation. “Last year we were able to put our finger on it, now we are a bit in the dark about what the reason is,” Van de Wouwer admitted. “We did do blood tests and other research, but nothing specific came out of it. That doesn't worry me. We know what kind of talent he is.”
While physical issues appear to have been ruled out for now, the mental toll of not performing to his usual standard is evident. Confidence, so often a driving force for De Lie’s explosive racing style, has taken a hit.
With no immediate solution and performances not reflecting his true potential, Lotto has opted for a reset. De Lie will be taken out of competition for a period to regroup and rebuild away from the spotlight.
“Last year we were in the same situation here, we were also a bit down in the dumps,” Van de Wouwer recalled. “Afterwards he immediately won his first race, he became Belgian champion and rode a good Tour de France. I want to sign for that right now.”
The team’s decision is clearly not a punishment but a strategic pause, designed to help their young leader recover and return to form. “That is why it is interesting to take him out of competition and let him reset for what is to come,” Van de Wouwer said. “There are still some great races coming up. The Belgian Championship is a goal again, the Tour too. That talent is not gone. We have to give him time to recharge. Then he will be the Arnaud we know again.”
Let’s hope, for De Lie and Lotto’s sake, that this is the right decision. He is undoubtedly a superstar in the making, but he certainly has not been at his best so far this spring. Will this change help to fix that?
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- Just like Dwars door Vlaanderen, the Ronde van Vlaanderen was/is NOT on MAX. Get your facts straight.Ben04-04-2025
- You might bounce more for the same power, but not the same speed. Sending 20 kgs over a jump at 20 kph will fly just as far as 10 kgs at the same speed. Again, Galileo demonstrated this.acem8204-04-2025
- So, you're saying that doing a bunch of small hops on a bike is easier if you're heavier? Why do people buy lighter bikes, then? Why do they generally feel better and faster? An appeal to "rhythm" is not helpful either, as the right "rhythm" might be on the lighter or heavier side of things, and as it varies, it's likely a wash either way. Then we are left with the physics truth that it takes less power to lift lighter things than heavier things.acem8204-04-2025
- No, weight doesn't affect the ability to go into the wind at all. It's all CdA vs power at that point. For example, it's "obvious" that a heavier object falls faster than a lighter one. But, absent wind resistance, it's not true (Galileo demonstrated this). An appeal to "obviousness" doesn't matter when the physics is clear. And yes, you have to be able to hold everything else constant, or you can't determine anything! So, imagine a 300 watt rider at 80 kgs with a CdA of 2.0, then imagine that same rider at 70 kgs with a CdA of 2.0. (Assume ideal tire pressure for both, same bike.) Which one can ride over a bumpy road fastest? The lighter one, as he doesn't have to lift as much. That's also why when they test bikes on 5 star cobbled sectors, the MTB goes faster than even a cobble-build road bike. Even though rolling resistance is higher on a flat road, and the CdA is junk, it smooths out the cobbles, allowing the person to not lift as much as they otherwise would.acem8204-04-2025
- I disagree. If you have lower weight, you will bounce more at the same speed, meaning that you will spend more time in the air and shorter time on the ground, as a consequence, when you are on the ground you have to produce more force for the same speedvappaxbipmv04-04-2025
- That’s not quite true, even steep climbs and sudden gradient changes can be considered as remaining tangential to the wheel whereas the occasional dip between cobbles a wheel drops into cannot, as such riding over cobbles can become like a permanent surmounting of small obstacles that hit back into your wheel slowing you drastically if you don’t have the right rhythm to “fly” on the mounds, here again the greater the momentum the less these obstacles reduce your speed. But, it is but one factor, you cannot decide on this alone. Like with natural surface ripple formation on desert tracks used by vehicles, there is an optimal speed range to efficiently pass over such surfaces, too fast or slow and your car gets shaken to pieces from the “harmonics” in the vibrations caused. Pretty sure the same applies to riding on cobbles.Mistermaumau04-04-2025
- I am saying I have an open mind at the moment for your cobbles theory but cannot agree with your wind statement (and by extrapolation sprinting since that implies speeds where wind is by far the limiting factor). Had you argued all things not being equal I could have agreed with you but if we thus assume 2 objets of the same size and speed but with differing weights, it is completely obvious that the lighter one will suffer faster in the wind. Extrapolate to the extreme, drop stuff off cliffs or just remember your momentum equations to verify. Now, obviously in real life we have to assume riders of different weights won’t have the same wind hitting surface but you cannot generalise at all then as you can have very unaerodynamic light riders and very aerodynamic heavy ones because it isn’t weight that defines CdA, Teslas have an incredible CdA and are ridiculously heavy, and someone like Harry Levreyssen is a Tesla in cycling.Mistermaumau04-04-2025
- When Roglic beat Geraint Thomas on the last day's TT at the Giro, I remember just how unbelievably emotional his team was. One guy, I forget who, German rider I think, was interviewed and was nearly speechless with a really drawn out "fuuuuuuuuuck it's incredible" comment. And then something even more amazing happened. Geraint Thomas came through the ranks of the Jumbo Visma riders and congratulated them all. True, honest, sincere, sportsmanlike, and celebratory of what had been achieved. Here he was, getting second, and he meant it. And cycling these days is like that, as you say - the way Pogacar hugged Matthews in Quebec, the way Matthews congratulated Pogacar in Montreal, on and on they honor and respect each other. It's pretty great.RidesHills04-04-2025
- Not sure exactly what you are saying, but if you're implying that being heavier is helpful if you're going against the wind or sprinting, then no, it isn't. Ceteris paribus (all else held equal) being a lighter cyclist is always better, save downhill. The reason why heavier cyclists do relatively better than lighter ones on flatter courses is because they will have to have a higher power than the lighter cyclist in order to have any chance at all against them, and flatter courses mean that the lighter cyclist has nowhere to display the better power to weight ratio, meaning that significant ratio is power to CdA, which is usually an advantage to the heavier cyclist.acem8204-04-2025
- Going over bumps is equivalent to going over many small climbs. Lower weight is always a good thing (ceteris paribus) except when going downhill, and even then it's not that advantageous if the downhill is at all technical.acem8204-04-2025