Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) has insisted that regardless of his latest success in Binche-Chimay-Binche, there isn’t a assure that he’ll produce an analogous end result subsequent Sunday in Paris-Excursions. Nor but does he really feel there’s any strain on him to take action.
De Lie, 22, informed Belgian newspaper Dernière Heure on Thursday that he believes that Paris-Excursions’ extraordinarily technical, rugged finale – comprising 10km of winery grime 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.
Moreover, De Lie faces a formidable line-up on Sunday’s 213km effort, with a minimum of 5 former winners of Paris-Excursions current – Arnaud Démare (Arkea-B&B Lodges), 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 also be current for France’s final highway race of the 2024 season.
Profitable in Binche-Chimay-Binche on Tuesday forward of Philipsen, De Lie informed the Paris-Excursions race web site earlier this week, “has boosted my confidence. I would been feeling a bit below the climate because the GP de Wallonie two weeks in the past, so I used to be fairly apprehensive. Ultimately, although, I got here out on high.”
“Paris–Excursions is one among my targets. It is a beautiful race and, what’s extra, it has gravel tracks, which I merely adore.”
Nonetheless, as he added to Derniere Heure, “I am not placing myself below strain concerning this course. These days in Paris-Excursions” – which up till a couple of years in the past was held purely on regular roads, somewhat than together with winery tracks – “you additionally want a whole lot of luck.”
“I’ve performed Paris-Excursions 3 times, and every time I had setbacks with crashes and punctures. Even should you do the proper race, you’ll be able to’t management the end result.”
De Lie’s misfortune in his two participations in Paris-Excursions 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.
Nonetheless, 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 related off-road sections like Paris-Excursions, this Spring. What that have means, although, is that he’s additionally reasonable 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 dangerous luck in Paris-Excursions when “he was preventing for victory. However then he punctured within the final gravel sector. His race was destroyed consequently.
“So I’ll trip Paris-Excursions with out feeling any type of strain. If I get a superb end result, then a lot the higher. If I do not, then a lot the more serious.”
