Arnaud De Lie Ruled Out of Tour of Flanders With Illness — Lotto's Classics Plan in Tatters
Arnaud De Lie will not line up for the 2026 Tour of Flanders on Sunday, with Lotto Intermarché confirming on Saturday afternoon that the 23-year-old Belgian has been withdrawn from the startlist after failing to shake the illness that forced him out of Dwars door Vlaanderen earlier in the week. It is a brutal blow for a rider who had pinned his entire spring on De Ronde and had spoken openly about wanting to make the 110th edition the launchpad of his Monument career.
De Lie had been one of the spring's outliers, a rider whose sprint finish and cobbled power made him a fringe contender for a top-five at Flanders despite never having finished the race. His team had structured his entire calendar around Sunday, skipping Milan-San Remo and easing him through Paris-Nice in the hope that a rested De Lie could finally deliver on his long-promised classics potential. Instead, a chest infection picked up the week of Gent-Wevelgem has steadily worsened, and team doctors advised on Saturday morning that starting the 273.9-kilometre Monument would be "medically irresponsible."
"It's devastating for Arnaud and for all of us," team manager Stéphane Heulot said in a short statement released by Lotto Intermarché. "He has done everything right all winter. He came to Flanders in the best condition of his career. But you cannot race a Monument with a fever, and we will not ask that of him. Our focus now is getting him healthy for Paris-Roubaix." The team has replaced him on the startlist with Belgian neo-pro Jarno Widar, who will make an unexpected Flanders debut in a supporting role.
The withdrawal continues a wretched spring for De Lie, who also missed Omloop Het Nieuwsblad with a hamstring niggle and crashed heavily in the opening week of Paris-Nice. It removes another Belgian hope from a race already shorn of its usual home-grown depth, with Jasper Philipsen openly admitting he is no longer a podium contender after his Scheldeprijs-focused build, and Tim Merlier skipping Flanders entirely.
For the race itself, De Lie's absence further clarifies what had already become a four-man showdown between Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert and debutant Remco Evenepoel. De Lie was never going to match any of them on the Oude Kwaremont, but his presence in a bunch sprint for the minor places would have been significant — particularly for teams modelling how to isolate the favourites in the final 40 kilometres.
Attention now turns to Paris-Roubaix on 12 April, the race De Lie has described as his "dream Monument." Sources close to the team suggest the Belgian will spend the next 48 hours on complete bed rest before reassessing on Tuesday, with the team reluctant to commit him to cobbles any earlier than absolutely necessary. Whether he can recover in time to contest the Hell of the North remains uncertain, but after what has felt like a cursed classics block, Lotto Intermarché would settle for simply getting their star to the Compiègne startline.