To see Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Dstny) atop the results sheet of the Famenne Ardenne Classic is no surprise – it’s his 10th win of the season. Having already proved himself faster than much of the pro peloton, on Sunday, the young Belgian further frustrated his rivals by winning while pedalling with only one leg.
De Lie had a good laugh after the plate holding the cleat to his right shoe broke and he had to finish off his sprint one-legged.
“I would have won quite easily without this problem,” De Lie said according to RTBF.
“My cleat plate broke during my sprint. It’s bad luck but I won. Now I can laugh about it but if I had lost, I would have been pissed.”
He didn’t just break his cleat, the force caused him to drop his chain. Fortunately, he already had a lead of several bike lengths on the rest of the sprinters and was able to throw his bike – still one-legged – to beat Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Florian Sénéchal (Soudal-Quickstep) to the line.
“I tried to put the chain back on while trying to pedal. I managed to put it back on for the last ten meters and maybe that’s why I won.
“In the end, it was a bit of a panic… I knew how to stay calm. I gained a little maturity from that point of view this year. It was a headwind, I wanted to launch from a distance and finish with a lot of speed.”
De Lie’s neo-pro season last year was sensational, and this year he won his first WorldTour race at the GP Quèbec. He followed that up with a win at the Circuit Franco-Belge this week, but the win on Sunday was special because it came not too far from his hometown.
“That feels good. Last year I wasn’t far from victory and I crashed before the final straight.”
To see the video of the sprint, unfurl the Twitter embed below.
Easily one of the most surreal sprints I’ve ever seen. Arnaud De Lie unclips but doesn’t lose his calm, he keeps pedalling with one leg and wins Famenne Ardenne Classic. Legendary stuff! #FamenneArdenneClassic 📹 @marcrp pic.twitter.com/l6si8CaUKDOctober 1, 2023
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