Arnaud De Lie has been the man of the moment in recent weeks and the Lotto-Dstny man burnished his reputation still further with a remarkable victory at the Famenne Ardenne Classic, where he was forced to pedal with one leg in the final metres after pulling his foot out in the sprint to the line.
The Belgian's ferocious acceleration as per his habit, had seen him open a decisive lead in the uphill sprint, but he risked losing the race when his right foot came out of its pedal in the final 50 metres.
De Lie was unable to put his foot back in – it later emerged he had broken a cleat – but it scarcely mattered. Undeterred, he simply kept on pedalling with one leg and threw his bike towards the line to come home a whisker ahead of the fast-closing Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Florian Senechal (Soudal-QuickStep) took third ahead of European champion Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma). On Sunday’s evidence, one wonders how that title race might have played out had Belgium deployed Wout van Aert to work for De Lie in the finale rather than the other way around.
No matter, this was the latest exhibition from the coming man of Belgian cycling as he notched up his tenth victory of the season in a manner that was both familiar and novel. When De Lie made his late charge for the line in the final 200 metres, his hands were on the hoods, in defiance of the coaching manuals, just as they were when he scored his first WorldTour win at the Grand Prix de Montréal last month.
His strength here was such that not even a broken cleat could deny him victory on home terrain. Whatever the circumstances, the 21-year-old seems able to find a way to win.
“I think I would have won quite easily without that, but I think I broke my cleat in the sprint,” De Lie said afterwards. “My chain came off too, so I was trying to get it back on and I think I managed it in the last ten metres so that’s how I won.
“It’s really good to win on home roads. I wasn’t far off last year. This year I’ve won and against a strong field too. I stayed calm in the finale. There was a headwind and I wanted to leave it late to launch my sprint, like in Québec.”
The race around Marche-en-Femenne was, as ever, an aggressive one, with the front group constantly fragmenting and reforming on the breathless finishing circuit and the climb of the Côte de Roy.
The early part of the day had been coloured by a break featuring Sven Erik Bystrøm (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Cyrus Monk (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Carl-Frederik Bévort (Uno-X Dare Development), Anton Stensby (Team Coop-Repsol), Miguel Heidemann (Leopard TOGT Pro Cycling) and Jordan Habets (Metec-Solarwatt).
When they were swept up with a shade over 50km remaining, a number of the big names on show began to spring into action. One of the most dangerous moves came inside the final 30km when Yves Lampaert (Soudal-QuickStep) and the European champion Laporte merged their efforts off the head of the bunch, building a lead of 20 seconds.
UAE Team Emirates and Lotto-Dstny were never likely to grant them freedom, of course, and the move was pinned back with 20km to go. Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) was very active in the finale, and the Belgian brought Hugo Page (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Stan Dewulf (AG2R Citroën), Fabio Christen (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) and Rémi Cavagna (Soudal Quick-Step) in a dangerous move.
When Cavagna accelerated on the final time up the Côte de Roy, only Wellens could follow, but the reduced peloton was always within sight, and they were clawed back shortly afterwards.
Dylan van Baarle (Jumbo-Visma) would later stretch the front group on the run-in, but a reduced sprint was inevitable.
De Lie was a long way back when the sprint started, but he had deliberately left his effort late. Once he built up a head of steam, he stormed to the front and nothing – not even misfortune – could deny him victory.
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