Lotto-Dstny is no longer beating around the bush: Arnaud De Lie is one of the team's main leaders for 2024. The young 21-year-old Belgian debuted in the WorldTour in 2022 and got a serious taste of the real deal just a year later. Nineteen (!) victories in two seasons later, it is now time for him to step up as the team's lead and to target major wins.
Since the beginning of 2022, De Lie has added a host of impressive second-tier races to his palmares. The Volta Limburg Classic, Tour of Limburg, GP Valencia, Circuit Franco-Belge... Always good to have these wins under your belt! With his remarkable victory in the GP Québec at the end of 2023, he claimed his first WorldTour win. Lotto-Dstny hopes to see him achieve even more of those in 2024.
During the Belgian team's media, which IDLProCycling.com attended, De Lie revealed some details about his program, and it is quite impressive. The sprint sensation will have the opportunity to race in Milan-Sanremo, the E3, Dwars door Vlaanderen, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in the spring. Gent-Wevelgem, the Flèche Wallonne and the Amstel Gold Race are options as well, subject to conditions.
After a packed classics campaign, the focus shifts to the Tour de France. De Lie will ride Paris-Nice in March and will be given free reign in the Tour to aim for stage victories. This would include sprint stages, but also tougher uphill finishes. After the Tour, De Lie intends to go to the Olympic Games in Paris, although national coach Sven Vanthourenhout has yet to announce his selection for the Games.
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De Lie opts for early altitude training camp, with an eye on classics
De Lie will start his season two weeks later, on February 10, in the Vuelta Ciclista a la Región de Murcia. A day later, he will participate in the Clasica de Almeria, before gearing up for the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Le Samyn on February 24 and 27. "It's going to be a long winter, in which we opt for an early altitude training camp in Tenerife. My level will be higher from the start now, and I'll be better prepared for the classics. This program was designed together with the team and I immediately accepted it."
There are many positive takeaways from 2023. De Lie noted that altitude training really helps him and he won his first race in the WorldTour. "I was always able to compete at the front, even in the big races. I made big tactical and physical strides and was always in form when I needed to be. I now hope to peak even higher. That's important, as I want to score right away in races like the Omloop and Paris-Nice. And Milan-Sanremo is on my birthday (March 16th, ed.), so I definitely want to ride that too."
Is winning those big Monuments also an immediate goal? De Lie appears realistic. "Last year I was not well prepared, and I gained a lot of experience in Milan-Sanremo. You need to know where to attack, and in that sense, I think that race is still a bit too difficult for me. If you see how Mathieu van der Poel won last year, he was above the rest. If I can achieve a top ten finish, that would be a very good result for me."
"I want to race at the front, but I'm not necessarily aiming for the podium," he says about his ambitions in the biggest one-day races. "If you can be part of a finale in a Monument... I finished third in the Omloop, but finishing third in the Tour of Flanders is something else. There, the level is higher, everyone is optimally prepared. But maybe I can compete for the win in the E3 or Dwars door Vlaanderen. As long as we're in the finale, there's always a chance to win."
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Olympics major goal for Arnaud De Lie
De Lie does not feel like he is at the top yet, and with that mindset, he will head to the Tour de France after the classic season. What is he seeking there? To participate in the sprints? Or choose his days? "I strike at the last moment, I'm not very good at planning. Attacking early in the Tour of Flanders might be a good idea, in Milan-Sanremo I need to wait for my sprint. People don’t need to put pressure on me or tell me what to do. I know what I want and I feel good about it."
An advantage for De Lie is that he has riders such as Florian Vermeersch, Jasper De Buyst, Victor Campenaerts and Brent Van Moer on his team, each offering different strengths. "The atmosphere is great," says De Lie. "That's why I'm going to the Tour, to discover. There are stages that should suit me very well, like the one in Troyes. I get a good lead-out train and am also riding the Tour as preparation for the Olympics. Yes, I really want to go there. I proved myself at the European Championships, so I would like to ride for the team. Also, because only 85 riders will be at the start. Starting with one or two leaders would not be good, it will be chaos. We need to be at the front with at least three guys."
De Lie, however, is not thinking about the World Championships in September in Zurich. "That will turn into a bunch sprint, we are quite sure of that. And our best Belgian sprinter is Jasper Philipsen. In the autumn, I'll focus on all those beautiful one-day races, where I can win," he says. In 2024, De Lie is therefore aiming mainly at the really big races, the events where he will have to compete with the very best each time. "It will be great to race against Wout van Aert and Van der Poel. I am always quite impressed by Van der Poel, who really exudes something special, more than others. When he has a goal, he will go very deep to achieve it. And often he succeeds, that’s pure class."
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