Circuit Franco-Belge: Arnaud De Lie wins in uphill sprint
(Image credit: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
The front of a four rider breakaway included Mathis Le Berre of Arkéa-Samsic (left), Celestin Guillon of Team Van Rysel-Roubaix Lille Metropole and Oscar Riesebeek of Alpecin-Deceuninck, with Meindert Weulink of ABLOC-CT out of view
(Image credit: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
Arnaud De Lie of Belgium (far left) riders alongside Frederik Frison of Lotto Dstny and Greg Van Avermaet of AG2R Citroënon climb of 190.6km race
(Image credit: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
Dries Devenyns of Soudal-QuickStep prior to the 82nd Circuit Franco-Belge 2023, receiving a gift before his retirement from the pro peloton
(Image credit: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
Greg Van Avermaet of AG2R Citroën prior to 2023 Circuit Franco-Belge, his final pro race before retirement
(Image credit: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
Greg Van Avermaet with his son at the start ceremonies in Tournai
(Image credit: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
Arnaud De Lie of Lotto Dstny celebrates at finish line as race winner
(Image credit: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
Podium ceremony (L to R): Rasmus Tiller of Uno-X Pro Cycling on second place, race winner Arnaud De Lie of Lotto Dstny and Corbin Strong of Israel-Premier Tech on third place
(Image credit: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) timed his charge up the Mont-de-l’Enclus perfectly to beat Rasmus Tiller (Uno-X) to the line at the Circuit Franco-Belge and take his ninth win of the season.
As the road flattened out in the final 200 metres following the final climb towards the line, the 21-year-old Belgian came off the wheel of Tiller and his lead-out Tobias Halland Johannessen to burst through and ease to the win.
The Norwegian could offer little resistance in the final metres as De Lie’s pace told, while Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) followed the pair home for third place ahead of Johannessen and a fading Florian Sénèchal (Soudal-QuickStep).
“It’s always nice to be able to thank my teammates with a win,” De Lie said later. “I felt good, and we rode a good race as a team.
“It proves once again that it was the right choice to stay with Lotto-Dstny. Everyone has their opinion, but the team proved that they created a good group around me, though not only around me, of course.”
De Lie’s win marks the first time Lotto have won the race in almost a decade, going back to the wins of Jurgen Roelandts and Jens Debusschere in 2012 and 2013, when the race was known as the Tour de l’Eurométropole.
It’s the 18th win of his short career, having turned pro last year. Heading towards the end of a season which has seen him take on a host of new WorldTour races, his record includes a win at the GP de Québec and second at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, with the Tour of Guangxi on his calendar to close the 2023 season.
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How it unfolded
De Lie’s Lotto-Dstny team had sought to control the hilly 190.6km race close to Tournai and Ronse in eastern Belgium.
However, with the race traversing plenty of hills – an early large circuit featuring the Col de la Croix Jubaru (1.7km at 4.3%), Col du Hortilin (1.7km at 3.7%), and Knokteberg (1km at 7.9%), and the later laps near Ronse of the finishing climb (2km at 5%) Hortilin, Knoteberg – it wouldn’t be that easy.
Early on, a break including Oscar Riesebeek (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Mathis Le Berre (Arkéa-Samsic), Meindert Weulink (A Bloc), and Célestin Guillon (Van Rysel-Roubaix Lille Métropole) went away as Lotto and Israel-Premier Tech set the pace behind.
The move would be caught early, though, with aggressive racing from behind on the Walloon hills seeing the breakaway brought back over 80km from the finish line.
At that point, an elite group emerged from the peloton, with Sénèchal and his teammate Dries Devenyns, Johannessen, Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny), Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies), Elie Gesbert (Arkéa-Samsic), and Toms Skujinš (Lidl-Trek) making a move.
The attack wouldn’t last long but it did usher in a period of the race which brought multiple moves off the front. Riders including Jens Reynders (Israel-Premier Tech), Mike Teunissen (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), and Dries De Bondt (Alpecin-Deceuninck) shot off the front as the race headed into its final 50km, though Lotto-Dstny managed to wrangle control of the situation heading to the final.
Campenaerts was back on the front to control the pace and chase down speculative attacks, while Lidl-Trek and Intermarché-Circus-Wanty also contributed to the pacemaking.
More attacks came in the final 15km, with Tiller and Turgis among the names attempting to get a jump on the sprinters hoping to duke it out at the finish. They wouldn’t succeed in their quest to break from what was left of the peloton, though, with Lotto-Dstny continuing to push the pace for De Lie.
The final kilometres of race saw Uno-X join the fray at the front with Anton Charmig. He joined Campenaerts and Florian Vermeersch, who were on hand for Lotto, and Biniam Girmay, the star among Intermarché-Circus-Wanty’s workers for Lorenzo Rota.
It was Uno-X and then Soudal-QuickStep’s Stan Van Tricht who led it up the final climb, with the Norwegian squad reassuming control and establishing an uphill lead-out as the gradient tapered.
But Johannessen and Tiller could do nothing to prevent De Lie from storming past in the closing sprint. The Walloon fastman broke clear to claim his second win of the month after the GP de Québec, showing his form ahead of his season-ending appointments.
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor before being hired full-time. Her favourite races include the Paris-Roubaix, Tour de France Femmes, Tro-Bro Léon, and cycling's fourth Grand Tour, the Volta a Portugal.
