“The biggest mistake a team can make” - Lotto-Intermarché warned over “shit attitude” risk as Arnaud De Lie support questioned

Lotto-Intermarché have named a Tour de France squad built for stage wins, breakaways and freedom, but the announcement has triggered concern in Belgium over Arnaud De Lie’s place inside that plan.

The team head to the Grand Départ with De Lie, Lennert Van Eetvelt, Georg Zimmermann, Jenno Berckmoes, Huub Artz, Liam Slock, Lars Craps and Baptiste Veistroffer. There is no general classification target, with performance manager Kurt Van de Wouwer making clear that Lotto-Intermarché want to race aggressively across the three weeks.

“We won’t be sitting on the fence this year,” Van de Wouwer said when announcing the selection. “We have no ambitions for the general classification; our focus is entirely on stage victories and strong results.”

For De Lie, though, that message has landed in a more delicate context. The Belgian is out of contract at the end of the season, has been heavily linked with a move away, and is still searching for his first Tour de France stage win after eight top-fives across his first two appearances in the race.

Speaking on RTBF’s On connaît nos classiques, Rodrigo Beenkens questioned whether Lotto-Intermarché have given De Lie the support required to turn those near misses into a victory.

“When you look at this selection, I still wonder who is going to protect Arnaud, who has still had eight top-fives in two Tours,” said Beenkens. “At some point, for him to be able to win, he first has to be well positioned and possibly well launched. On paper, we do not get the impression that he is being protected.”

That concern is sharpened by the absence of Sébastien Grignard and Cédric Beullens from the Tour eight. Both were left out despite fitting the profile of riders who could help De Lie through the fight for position on chaotic sprint days.

Lotto-Intermarché do still have support around him. Berckmoes and Artz have both been named as part of the sprint structure, while Berckmoes also gives the team an option of his own on harder finishes. That, however, is part of the question raised by RTBF’s panel: the selected squad is not short of attacking routes, but it does not look like a Tour team built entirely around De Lie’s sprint chances.

For Rik Verbrugghe, the issue goes beyond the lead-out. The former rider and ex-team manager argued that a team has to keep backing a major rider even when his future is uncertain.

“I have been a team manager and, for me, this is the biggest mistake a team can make,” Verbrugghe said. “It is not giving every chance to a rider you know is leaving during the year, not giving him the teammate he needs…”

De Lie has been linked with Tudor, while Lotto-Intermarché have also tried to keep him. That uncertainty gives the Tour selection a sharper edge than a normal tactical debate.

“If you want to have a good culture, a good attitude in a team, you have to continue and show that you are going to support him, that you are going to help him with his objectives,” Verbrugghe continued. “And at that point, you keep a very good attitude. Now, we risk having, and sorry for the words, a shit attitude in the team. Because you create something over which you no longer have control.”

The warning comes shortly after another moment of uncertainty around Lotto-Intermarché’s handling of De Lie. According to RTBF, De Lie said after the Belgian national road race that he had been told “to stay calm and wait”, while teammates Lionel Taminaux and Grignard had said the Lotto riders were given carte blanche.

Jérôme Helguers also felt the Tour selection sent an uncomfortable message to De Lie. “The message being sent to him is that he will have to fend for himself,” he said. “We do not have all the elements in hand, we are not inside the team, so there are certainly things we are missing. But I have the impression that Arnaud De Lie is being put in the Tour de France because he has to be put there, because he is still Arnaud De Lie and he remains one of the team’s spearheads.”

Lotto-Intermarché can still point to a varied and dangerous team. Van Eetvelt gives them a route into the hillier stages, Zimmermann and Veistroffer bring breakaway potential, and De Lie remains one of the strongest sprint options outside the biggest lead-out trains.

The risk is that the Tour quickly exposes the difference between a flexible stage-hunting selection and a team built to deliver a sprinter. For De Lie, after two Tours of near misses and with his future still unresolved, the opening sprint chances will show whether Lotto-Intermarché have given him enough to chase the win they say they are targeting.