Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarché) will make his keenly anticipated 2026 debut today (Sunday) in the sprinter-friendly Clásica de Almería, team sources have warned against excessively high expectations that the 23-year-old fastman will hit the ground running.
Rather, a domestic accident over the winter, in which the Belgian fastman injured his ankle, means almost certain delays in De Lie's rise to top form - or at the very least, questionmarks over how quickly he will be up for fighting it out in top condition for a sprint.
"Almeria is a preparation race for Arnaud, not a test," warned manager Kurt van der Wouwer in an interview published Sunday in Dernière Heure.
De Lie is set to take part in Almería before heading to the Volta ao Algarve, starting next Wednesday and which will likely see two sprints play out during its five days of racing, on stage 1 and stage 4.
As for Almería, running through Spain's most south-easterly province, the 190-kilometre 1.HC race almost invariably ends in a sprint, too.
Visbeek's optimism is based on some very impressive seated power output data recently produced by De Lie, he said. But given the lack of specific sprint training, he pointed out that the demands of the traditional mass dash for the line that usually decides Almería could come too soon for De Lie.
As such, while the place on a results sheet always have their importance, Verbeek continued, the real aim at Almería and Algarve would be to see De Lie taking steps towards his much bigger goals later in the season, with top condition possible - but not yet 100% confirmed - at Tirreno-Adriatico.
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