"I don’t want to hate on him too much," says Gilbert about De Lie — Then does exactly that: "What are you doing?"

Arnaud De Lie is without a doubt one of Belgium’s biggest talents, but for the second year in a row, the young powerhouse from Lotto hasn’t delivered in the spring classics. While last year the cause was Lyme disease, this year his team has yet to find a clear explanation. So former Lotto rider Philippe Gilbert offers one himself in Het Nieuwsblad…

Gilbert knows De Lie well, as their careers briefly overlapped. De Lie officially joined Lotto’s WorldTour squad in 2022, the same year Gilbert retired. But in the interview, “Monsieur Cauberg” doesn’t hold back when De Lie comes up. “He doesn’t really listen to the people around him,” Gilbert says, among other things.

“He’s going through a tough time, so I don’t want to criticize him too much,” Gilbert starts—before still offering some pointed criticism. “When I look at his Strava, I don’t see enough long training rides. I used to do at least one six-and-a-half-hour ride every week. That’s why I was always strong in the longer races.”

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Philippe Gilbert in his final years at Lotto

Gilbert thinks De Lie should do more

The fact that De Lie apparently isn’t doing those longer training rides doesn’t sit well with Gilbert. The Belgian cycling star himself was once pushed to the limit by Dirk De Wolf. “He would leave his house at six in the morning to be here by nine. And then we’d ride together for six hours. That was discipline: in the last four hours, we wouldn’t eat anymore. Honestly, I would completely empty myself. Sometimes I had to get in the car with ten kilometers to go because I was totally spent.”

It’s not that De Lie needs to ride four hours without food in 2025, but Gilbert believes he could definitely do more and make clearer choices. “Arnaud needs to decide for himself whether he wants to remain a sprinter or become a true classics rider. There needs to be a clear direction. Also in his training. Right now, I see him training in Spain one day, then in Namur the next… and I wonder: what are you doing?”

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Arnaud De Lie

Lotto already said that De Lie isn’t giving it his all

Gilbert continues: “Every trip takes time and energy. I used to spend two or three hours before each season with the team’s logistics manager, planning all my flights—even the taxi rides to the airport. Everything was arranged to lose as little rest time as possible due to travel. In my prime years, that was all I did: train, race, rest.”

And that’s exactly what Lotto seemed to be criticizing their team leader for. Sporting director Kurt De Wouwer said, “He’s not up to standard in terms of fitness. It’s not a 5 or 10% gap—it's more than that. This is well below his level, so you need to intervene: reset everything and rebuild toward what’s coming. The only thing we can say is that living 90% for your sport isn’t enough in today’s cycling. You’re better off living 110% for it. I think that might be where the problem lies.”

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