Arnaud De Lie is legendary for saying what he thinks and in Friday’s pre-Omloop Het Nieuwsblad press convention, he made no secret of his want to nail down a serious triumph as quickly as he can within the 2025 Spring Classics season.
A second place end within the 2023 version of Omloop – his first-ever participation – was a serious assertion by the Belgian star, significantly provided that he had crashed late on. Then, after a relatively disappointing tenth place in 2024, the proficient Walloon racer is decided to present his rivals a run for his or her cash on Saturday.
“Each time I’ve taken half on this race, I’ve felt nice,” De Lie informed reporters on Friday, “I am impatient to place a race quantity on my again in a Flemish race carrying my good Belgian Nationwide Champion’s jersey.”
De Lie agreed with Tom Pidcock (Q36.5), who additionally gave a press convention Friday, that the 2025 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad route is more durable than in earlier editions. Just like the British racer, De Lie highlighted the reintroduction of the Eikenberg climb at 56 kilometres from the end in a totally recobbled format, one thing that “modifications all the pieces” within the race.
“Earlier than there have been some elements of the climb that had been tarmacked and you could possibly use these to rise up it however now it is all pavé. And that makes issues tougher. Anyone who’s in fiftieth place or additional again might lose the race,” De Lie stated.
“Then there’s the descent to the Wolvenberg and if a crew needs to tear issues up there, it might create some enormous gaps. The finale is not so totally different, however the stretches of simpler street for restoration are shorter than they was once.”
De Lie was a DNS within the Volta ao Algarve on the final day due to allergy symptoms, however he stated on Friday that up till that time within the Portuguese race he had been feeling higher and higher and on stage 4, he had been ready “to place down a very nice dash.” His higher situation was due partly, he stated, to his very totally different winter build-up.
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“My preparation has modified lots, and the very fact [that because of those changes] I might journey in Bessèges, Almeria and Algarve is one thing I appreciated lots. I acquired plenty of pleasure out of racing. I want that than to be sat on prime of a volcano” – a reference to the Teide volcano within the Canary Islands, the place riders typically do altitude coaching – “watching bike races on TV that I might wish to have ridden. So I really feel good, bodily and mentally.”
Nevertheless, the true proof of his technique will come on Saturday within the closing kilometres of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. “If I win, my spring will have already got been a powerful success,” he informed reporters.
“However you get hungry by way of consuming and if I handle to lift my arms on the end line, I believe that’ll give me an unlimited enhance, and I can be eager to do even higher in what comes afterwards.”
To take action on Saturday, in fact, De Lie should deal with and beat his rivals in a race which he insisted was notoriously unpredictable, mentioning that even the strongest of breakaways like Dylan van Baarle (Visma-Lease a Bike) in 2023 was barely capable of fend off the peloton. This 12 months Van Baarle is just not racing, however De Lie stated Visma stay one of the vital highly effective squads, and never simply due to their chief and former Omloop winner Wout Van Aert.
“Globally they’re very spectacular,” De Lie stated. “I spent per week within the Algarve racing subsequent to Van Aert and I might see he was in nice kind. His time trial” – the place he took second behind teammate Jonas Vingegaard – “is the proof.”
“As for UAE [Team Emirates-XRG], they have been up there within the thick of it for the reason that begin of the season. These two groups [Visma and UAE often make the right strategic decisions and you have to be really sharp to be able to beat them.”
“But we’ve got a 100% Belgian team and we’re really united. I hope we’ll be up to meeting the challenge.”
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