Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Tour de France - Arnaud de Lie is aiming for breakthrough victory
Cycling
At 22 years of age, Arnaud De Lie is already an experienced and well fixated face in the peloton. Having come up at a very young age, he already developed and won many smaller races in one season, transitioned into World Tour competition in 2023; in 2024 he overcame his first big obstacle in the form of Lyme disease... Now he enters 2025 with the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and the Tour de France as his biggest goals.
Like teammate Lennert van Eetvelt, it will be an incredibly busy schedule all the way into the summer, even though the ProTeam-level Belgian outfit already virtually secured it's promotion back to World Tour level into the coming year. It's a calendar that mixes big goals with smaller races where De Lie should be able to net several wins and get his confidence u.
Wielerflits reports that De Lie will be racing in the European season's opening weekend, with the Gran Premion Castellón on the 25th January and the Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana the next day - both races where he should be one of the main favourites. In February there will be no training camp, but instead more warm-up races where he will look to rack in some more wins. He will do the Etoile de Bessèges which regularly features punchy sprints but also the Volta ao Algarve which will be having three flat bunch sprints. This will be with the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad under eye, likely a big goal for his spring. De Lie will skip Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne and race Le Samyn instead.
Then he will take on an altitude training camp, a more modern approach to the cobbled monuments, instead of racing one of the big-level stage-races in March. He returns to competition at the E3 Saxo Classic and will race all the way to Paris-Roubaix. This means he will be at the start of Gent Wevelgem, Dwars door Vlaanderen and of course also the Tour of Flanders.
He will be returning to the Tour de France as well, alongside Lennert van Eetvelt, as the Belgian team move on to try and net a stage win for the first time in years at the biggest race in the world. De Lie already made his debut this year, where he has finished five times on the Top5 of stages. He is likely to also include the national championships in his calendar, where he is the reigning national champion in Belgium.
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- it is cringeworthy to read XC when you are referring to cyclocross, which I think you are as Wout does not do XC. CX = cyclocross. XC = cross country mountain biking. and so you have the rest: XCO = cross country olympic race. XCM = cross country marathon. XCC = cross country short track.mij06-01-2025
- I see your point BTW, as I said, maybe go for green one year or something. his long winded response is typical - pointless, self promoting, and needlessly wordy LOL. oh and he is smarter than all.mij06-01-2025
- His last important race before the Tour is P-R and his next important race after is CX WC 2026 since he has no chance at the WCRR So unless he really goes into MTB this season, there's really no reason to skip a TdF and compete for a few stages and yellow jersey at the beginningvappaxbipmv06-01-2025
- How I can say that? Let’s look at the spirit of it and put it into context. Firstly, we are all cycling fans, we have been for a while, we’ve almost all been here a while too so have absorbed some feeling for each commentators style. For those of you who might not understand, I post with the assumption, we all know enough background not to have to explain every thought with 3 paragraphs of background to justify a statement. I also don’t waste my time repeating mundanity, I try to bring a more original angle or stone to any discussion that creates a more complete picture of the whole story (often not told). So, as far as I see, and I’ve said it before, MVDP is kind of unique in racing just about 12 months a year. He races to win, ie, he also trains for that, ie he has to train to peak more than a dozen times a year as opposed to typical road racers (including Jonas, Remco* and to a lesser extent WVA and Pog) who try to peak 1-around 3, 4 max half a dozen x a year). Obviously, training for a three week race and doing it is going to put a dent in results before and after and maybe even as far as the “off-season” (when he is at his most active winning xc week after week after week for years. Do you see my point a bit better now?Mistermaumau06-01-2025
- Sorry, maybe you thought I meant on TV? Obviously, most of the big fans in Belgium watching these two would take the opportunity to go watch live. I was once unlucky the TdF passed right near my house (when I lived in the south of France) it was over in 30 seconds, all 180 riders.Mistermaumau06-01-2025
- How can you say that, last season he had 7! race days before the Tour, that's neither a lot nor oftenvappaxbipmv06-01-2025
- It would be interesting to see if he could go for a green jersey onetime. Considering his penchant for winning everything possible, I’m surprised he doesn’t try this once.mij06-01-2025
- I am disappointed that we ever give Broyneel a public platform again. Boonen is a former star, and why should Bruyneel’s disgraced opinion ever matter, let alone be published. Bruyneel has forever disgraced by the Cycling profession, and never deserves a public platform again. He is entitled to his personal opinion on talented cyclists, but those opinions should never be published or printed. We need to forget him in the professional sport of cycling. As a cyclist and father, I never want my children to even know about him, unless it’s how he orchestrated a cheating doping program.GMG06-01-2025
- It seems like every 3 years a new French kid pops up as the wonderkid, the savior to finally redeem France in their own race, including Bardet, Pinot, Rolland, Barguil, Gaudu, Martin, but it never quite materializes. I hope Seixas is finally the guy. I'm not a Frenchman, but I'd be happy to see them do it for once. If it should happen, how do you think France would celebrate?Ride197406-01-2025
- oh, crap, maybe i’m OBSESSIVE! i’ll have to spend some time thinking about that, over and over, as if it were a looped tape, playing in over and over and over in my head, forever…OCexile05-01-2025