Info about Arnaud De Lie
- Date of birth: 16/03/2002
- Nationality: Belgian
- Height/weight: 1.82 m, 78 kg
Teams
- 2021 Lotto-Soudal U23
- 2022 Lotto-Soudal
- 2023 Lotto-Dstny
- 2024 Lotto-Dstny
Arnaud De Lie (Belgium), Lotto-Dstny
It's not a particularly bold tip for the big breakthrough in 2023: Arnaud De Lie was already sixth in the world rankings last season. Nevertheless, he did not catch the eye of many fans internationally, celebrating his nine professional victories exclusively in races below the World Tour series and almost exclusively in Belgium.
The young Walloon, who lives on his parents' farm in the 100-soul hamlet of Lescheret in the Ardennes, won mainly thanks to his strong sprints - for the first time on Mallorca on his third day of racing as a professional. The young blonde reminds his sporting director at Team Lotto, Maxime Monfort, and Belgian national coach Sven Vanthourenhout of Tom Boonen. In fact, the 1.82 metre tall and 78 kilogramme athlete is a strong all-rounder in sprints.
Boonen himself has already outed himself as a fan of his possible successor: "I like him. I predict a great future for him in the classics. He has a good attitude, a strong head, can read the races, he is tactically good," said the former world champion and winner of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix on rtbf.be about his young compatriot. De Lie himself emphasises that he doesn't like to wait the whole working day for the final sprint, but prefers to ride offensively and attack early. Although his team Lotto-Dstny (previously Lotto-Soudal) was relegated from the World Tour at the end of last season, it is the best team in the rest of the field and has the right to start in all the major classics and the Tour de France.
He does not yet want to compete in a three-week tour in 2023. In the new season, he may try Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix for the first time, according to the plan. "I want to try something at Paris-Roubaix," he told RTBF.be at the end of the season. We will probably see what he meant on 9 April 2023.
Cycling talents: TOUR shows 10 promotion candidates for 2023
TOUR editor Andreas Kublik takes a look at ten young riders who will be worth watching in 2023. We present the individual candidates in our series. Almost all of the selected riders are already under contract with a World Tour team. Signing cyclists at a very young age is a trend that has recently caught on with the top teams.
Numerous youngsters skip the U23 class and go straight into the professional ranks. The most prominent example of this development is Remco Evenepoel. The Belgian was under contract with Deceuninck - Quick Step in 2019 at the age of just 18. Since then, he has worked his way up to the top of the world rankings, including becoming road world champion in 2022.
Many top teams also have their own junior racing team, where they train their talents and later bring them into the professional squad. A prime example of this is the Groupama-FDJ team in 2023, which has recruited all seven new riders for this year from the Equipe continentale Groupama-FDJ.
Andreas Kublik
Editor
