This is certainly not Arnaud De Lie's spring: yesterday the Belgian champion stopped during Gent-Wevelgem. The Lotto rider got stuck with other cyclists in the last group of the race and withdrew from the competition. After the race, his team announced that the Belgian champion will miss the next two races, namely the Tour of Flanders and Through Flanders.

"Mentally I'm already improving, physically I'm not yet at my best" - De Lie had said yesterday morning before the start of Gent-Wevelgem - I'm not yet at 90 percent and in the Flemish Classics you must be more than 100 percent if you want to aim for an important result". De Lie had already lowered the bar a bit, but probably did not expect to find himself in a difficult situation like the one he encountered during the race. "There was a lot of wind, so the first objective was to position well and then survive the Kemmelberg. Unfortunately, it didn't go that way".

The key word was indeed survival, but the twenty-three-year-old Belgian did not succeed in his intent. Unfortunately, it was the wind itself that took the Lotto rider out of the competition, who in the end was forced to abandon the race and review his plans. So when 102 kilometers were left to the finish line and he was already at the back of the group, the decision was to stop, because it was obvious that no result would come.

"Arnaud will rest in the coming days and will not participate in Through Flanders and the Tour of Flanders" - the team commented - "We hope he returns soon to his best. We wish him lots of courage and can't wait to have him back in the race".