🤩
Le Taureau is here to stay. 2⃣0⃣2⃣4⃣ 2⃣0⃣2⃣5⃣ 2⃣0⃣2⃣6⃣ The team is proud to announce that @Arnaud_De_Lie will stay at Lotto Dstny for at least till the end of 2026 🤩
"This is the area where I can excel with my skills" - Arnaud De Lie looks to put less focus on bunch sprints and more into classics
CyclingMonday, 30 October 2023 at 14:00
Arnaud De Lie has over the past few weeks talked about his ambitions for the future and once again he has proclaimed his passion for the classics. The leader of Lotto Dstny seeks to continue performing in the cobbled and hilly classics and will not further prioritize bunch sprints for the time being.
"One of the observations this season is that I still lack experience on a really flat sprint. It's not what I prefer to do either, I prefer to sprint on a more difficult finish after a complicated and exhausting race," De Lie said in words shared with Het Laatse Nieuws. "In this type of race, I won almost everything in 2023."
By 'almost everything' of course, De Lie is referring to 10 wins - including his first World Tour triumph at the GP de Québec. He's gone head to head with pure sprinters on a few occasions but did not thrive, however in the more hilly terrain he resists well and packs an extremely strong punch. This versatility sees him as more of a classics rider. “On punchy finishes, where freshness plays a crucial role more than pure speed, I am not the best, this status belongs more to Van der Poel, Van Aert or Pogacar."
Having the lead of the Belgian team, and being key in it's chase for UCI points, De Lie can be certain he will be supported. This year he has tested himself against the best in several classics, and at the European Championships he looked the strongest, finishing fourth after leading out Wout van Aert for the podium. He believes that was another sign of what his true specialty is. "I want to focus more on that next winter: digesting the warrior races, the Flandrien Classics, even better. If I'm really strong, this is the area where I can excel with my skills."
Read also
claps 1visitors 143
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Avoiding him is a good strategy, you get more wins and then you can compete in the TDF relatively relaxed. Pit yourself against Pogi and not only there will be no wins, it will be considerable mental setbackabstractengineer21-12-2024
- If you hold onto then, you blowup in a minute and then you finish 5 minutes down like Ben O'Connorabstractengineer21-12-2024
- Based on what argument?Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Agreed except the length of climbs, pretty sure you can stretch that to about a km unless we’re talking about half a dozen in quick succession.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Lot of contradictory information floating around world cup contenders, someone should do some tidying up.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- A bit much to suggest that Pogacar is better than MvdP on most terrains. The only terrain Pogacar is clearly better is long climbs, on any other terrain they are pretty even except flat cobbles and short and steep climbs (max a few 100 mtrs) where MvdP is clearly better than Pogacar.Velovibes21-12-2024
- The likelihood of RE improving enough at this point to outclass TP or JV is less than zero.verve82521-12-2024
- That’s the most stupid thing I’ve read for a long time, did you not go to school and learn even the most basic physics? Aero depends on one thing only, drag, drag depends speed and the relationship is squared and apart from maybe at zero or the speed of sound or due to side winds that relationship is valid at all speeds, it dies not “suddenly” start at a magic number. Very simply, the faster you go the more the effect becomes important. If you think 25km/h is needed to have noticeable effects you’re delusional, athletic WR are cancelled as soon as winds top 2m/s that’s 7.2km/h, why because the assistance is already too important at that speed and the times prove it. You don’t even consider wind which can significantly increase the effective speed for aerodynamics and you underestimate speed of climbs, 6% is ridden more at 30 than 25km/h, a speed at which early generation high rims were considered to have more advantages than disadvantages. And finally, as in normal races you can’t just switch bikes according to terrain, it’s pretty pointless to discuss climbs as a separate situation, the aero will have justified itself plenty during the rest of the ride.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- If you look at how much TP progressed in that 1 1/2 years you can no longer say that’s nothing. If Remco improves as much he’s a challenger!Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Froome wishing to ride the Vuelta...he won't even be selected for the team!frieders320-12-2024