The various European championships in other categories have shown that a sprint with a large group is very possible to happen this Sunday. In this case, the great revelation of Belgian cycling, Arnaud De Lie, could be one of the main favorites for the European title. “But I also saw the Dutch championships, which were always contested man to man,” De Lie told the media present in the Netherlands.
“If you fall too far behind the peloton after the cobbled section, you’re lost. You definitely need to be among the top five. Then there will be another 35 seconds to the finish. Positioning will really make the difference during the race,” says De Lie, revealing his strategy for this Sunday.
Multiple scenarios possible
However, De Lie sees that multiple scenarios are possible. “It’s a good circuit for me, but I don’t believe in a sprint of forty to sixty cyclists. I find it more likely to be ten to twenty cyclists at the finish. It’s really super tough. On this climb, you’ll be out of sight everywhere, with a thirty-second advantage.”
Mads Pedersen is “the right wheel”
“In the sprint, timing is especially important. You can see it goes uphill, but the last fifty meters are completely flat again. Those are the most crucial. The ideal scenario would be if I could be on Mads Pedersen’s wheel on the climb.”
De Lie concludes by stating that the European Road Championship will be a truly hectic race. “It’s ‘only’ two hundred kilometers long. That’s not in my favor because it makes more cyclists think they can win. The effort on the three climbs of the VAM mountain will take five or six minutes. It’s constantly going up, down, turning right, turning left. That consumes a lot of energy.”