ProTeam Arnaud De Lie sprints to Tour de Wallonie stage win

Lotto Dstny rider Arnaud De Lie has won the second stage at the Tour de Wallonie. At the end of a hilly stage between Saint-Ghislain and Walcourt, the 21-year-old Belgian beat amongst others Thibau Nys and Timo Kielich in a bunch sprint. For De Lie, it’s his first win after crashing out of the 4 Jours de Dunkerque. De Lie has also taken the leader’s jersey from Italian Ganna.

“I am really happy with this victory, after two months without a win I kind of missed this feeling. It is even more nice to win close to home at the Tour de Wallonie. After a difficult period with the crash at 4 Jours de Dunkerque, this gives me a lot of satisfaction. The boys did it perfectly today. And to win in a race where my brother Axel did so much work, it makes it even more special”, says Arnaud De Lie.

“Contrary to yesterday, we didn’t want to take the race into our hands. But due to the strong winds, we came back to the attackers pretty quickly and then it was all about preparing the sprint. Cedric Beullens was my final man in the sprint and he did it perfectly. I followed the wheels and trusted my sprint.”

De Lie will start the third stage at the Tour de Wallonie in the leader’s jersey. “Tomorrow is a new chance, but again a tough course. Defending the leader’s jersey till the end will be very difficult with the long time trial but if I’m still in the lead I will of course give it my all”, concludes De Lie.