It's enough: Lotto recognizes Arnaud De Lie is falling behind and withdraws him from races

De Lie called it a day in Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday after lingering somewhere in the back of the pack in a fourth echelon. We saw a similar scene in Nokere Koerse, where his opponent dropped the normally strong Belgian champion. In Classic-Brugge De Panne, he finished 126th after falling behind, and in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Le Samyn, he did not do much better. Only in the Grand Prix de Denain did he score a top ten with a 9th place.

Before Gent-Wevelgem, Lotto, therefore, issued a kind of ultimatum. "We are still searching ourselves. His previous blood tests and his training sessions were all good. It is too early to predict the Tour of Flanders or the Tour of Roubaix. We are waiting for the results of the tests, and if the results are better in Gent-Wevelgem, we can look further ahead," said team manager Kurt Van de Wouwer at the time. That result did not come...

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While waiting for answers, Lotto temporarily relieves its intended leader of his suffering. On Sunday evening, the Belgian team released an official statement saying it had made some decisions. "Arnaud will take some time in the coming days for a reset and will therefore not start in Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday or the Tour of Flanders on Sunday. We hope he returns to his old self soon, wish him lots of courage, and look forward to having him back with us soon."

De Wouwer had already drawn that conclusion at HLN afterward. "He had hoped for improvement, but that was not the case today. Taking him out of competition now seems best because this is not good for anyone." De Lie had also been racing in the spring a year ago, although his results up to Bredene-Koksijde had been quite good. However, he was diagnosed with Lyme disease at the time, which meant that De Lie was out of competition for over a month. Upon his return, he immediately won the Lotto Famenne Ardenne Classic, the Tro-Bro Léon, and the Circuit de Wallonie. He also became the Belgian champion.