Arnaud De Lie's rollercoaster 2025 season showed no sign of letting up this weekend as the Lotto sprinter clinched his first podium finish since February at the Brussels Cycling Classic, only to drop out of the Antwerp Port Epic after a heavy crash.
De Lie, 23, already has 27 wins in his palmares, but only one has happened this season, a stage in February at the Etoile de Bessèges. Since then his year has been plagued with abandons, illness and long spells off the bike recovering.
The third place at Brussels behind Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) encouraged the team to put De Lie in the Antwerp Port Epic line-up, but his heavy crash on a corner mid-race, falling then striking a traffic post, represented the umpteenth setback of 2025 for the Belgian National Champion.
The Belgian's team told Dernière Heure that initial fears of a possible elbow fracture have been all but ruled out, although the definitive verdict will only come today with a hospital checkup.
"In principle, there is no fracture," Lotto team sources said, "but as an additional checkup, he'll do another scan Tuesday [today]. It's a real pity, he was in good shape at Brussels and was going well on Monday until the accident happened.
"This podium was great, but what I really am keeping in mind is how I raced," De Lie said afterwards. "After months of suffering, this is a real pleasure. And when you feel good, it's all that much easier and it's not so surprising I've got this result."
De Lie's satisfaction was much greater, he told Dernière Heure, because in his previous 'comeback' race at the Rund um Köln the week before, he had not managed to go further than 40 kilometres before abandoning.
"Here [at Brussels] after 40 kilometres I was just chatting with a teammate, and I told myself after kilometre 41, it's been a good while since I've done such a long course!"
The results of De Lie's scan this week on his elbow will now decide whether his crash in Antwerp is the latest big setback of 2025. His next race, on paper at least, is the Tour de Suisse, starting this Sunday – and which would be De Lie's first stage race of 2025 since the Volta ao Algarve in February.
Subscribe to Cyclingnews and gear up for the Tour de France with unlimited access to our coverage of the Tour de Suisse - including breaking news, analysis and more from every stage as it happens. Find out more.
