Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) has insisted that regardless of his current success in Binche-Chimay-Binche, there is no such thing as a assure that he’ll produce an analogous end result subsequent Sunday in Paris-Tours. Nor but does he really feel there may be any strain on him to take action.
De Lie, 22, instructed Belgian newspaper Dernière Heure on Thursday that he believes that Paris-Tours’ extraordinarily technical, rugged finale – comprising 10km of winery filth tracks and gravel pathways on the hills overlooking the River Loire – meant that when it got here to producing top-level performances, luck was at all times an element.
Furthermore, De Lie faces a formidable line-up on Sunday’s 213km effort, with at least 5 former winners of Paris-Tours current – Arnaud Démare (Arkea-B&B Hotels), 2023 champion Riley Sheehan (Israel-Premier Tech), John Degenkolb (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL), Soren Kragh Andersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Matteo Trentin (Tudor ProCycling).
The in-form Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), contemporary from his victory in Sparkasse Münsterland Giro, the place De Lie completed eighth on Thursday, may even be current for France’s final highway race of the 2024 season.
Winning in Binche-Chimay-Binche on Tuesday forward of Philipsen, De Lie instructed the Paris-Tours race web site earlier this week, “has boosted my confidence. I’d been feeling a bit beneath the climate for the reason that GP de Wallonie two weeks in the past, so I used to be fairly apprehensive. In the top, although, I got here out on prime.”
“Paris–Tours is one among my targets. It’s a stunning race and, what’s extra, it has gravel tracks, which I merely adore.”
However, as he added to Derniere Heure, “I’m not placing myself beneath strain relating to this course. Nowadays in Paris-Tours” – which up till a number of years in the past was held purely on regular roads, slightly than together with winery tracks – “you additionally want quite a lot of luck.”
“I’ve finished Paris-Tours 3 times, and every time I had setbacks with crashes and punctures. Even in the event you do the proper race, you’ll be able to’t management the result.”
De Lie’s misfortune in his two participations in Paris-Tours meant that the primary time, in 2022, he deserted after getting concerned in a crash some 60 kilometres from the end. Then in 2023, he punctured three or 4 occasions in fast succession late and consequently as soon as once more opted to name it a day.
However, when De Lie says he enjoys racing throughout gravel, it isn’t a contradiction, as proven by his victory within the Tro Bro León, which has loads of comparable off-road sections like Paris-Tours, this Spring. What that have means, although, is that he’s additionally lifelike about how such difficult terrain, even when he likes it, can probably skew the end result.
The reigning Belgian nationwide champion commented that he remembered how his former teammate Frederik Frison had been the sufferer of utmost unhealthy luck in Paris-Tours when “he was preventing for victory. But then he punctured within the final gravel sector. His race was destroyed because of this.
“So I’m going to experience Paris-Tours with out feeling any sort of strain. If I get a very good end result, then a lot the higher. If I do not, then a lot the more serious.”
