De Lie explains towards Tour the roles of 'three-headed Lotto snake': 'Have to be honest during the stage'

“I’ve tried to accept those low points, which hasn’t been easy,” De Lie began his story earlier with Sporza. “At a certain point, I thought: who am I even riding for? People have expectations, but I was almost doing it for others and not for myself. Now I am doing it for myself. Now I try to find the positive in the negative. That’s what I focus on, and it has to come from within. People can encourage you, but if you’re convinced it’s not going to work, then it won’t.”

De Lie had to rediscover his joy in cycling. Did he succeed? “Absolutely! Otherwise, I wouldn’t have raced these past weeks,” said the Belgian. “My state of mind is completely different now. Before the break after Gent-Wevelgem, I was going around in circles and hanging my head a bit. You get into a vicious cycle, but now it’s going much better.”

How he got out of that vicious cycle, De Lie explained clearly. “I just couldn’t let myself get stuck in the negative anymore. You do that by lifting yourself up with small things. I was being too hard on myself because when I finished fourth, I wasn’t just disappointed – I was angry at myself."

That’s why a change in mindset followed. “My goals don’t have to be focused on results. I mainly need to be satisfied and proud. Earlier in the season, with my podium finishes in the Algarve, I was always angry, but that wasn’t the right attitude and it didn’t help me.”

Due to his poorer results, the Lotto rider faced quite a bit of criticism, which didn’t make things any easier. “It’s hard to shut yourself off from that. You see things go by, but I didn’t wake up thinking: let’s see what people are writing about me in the papers. I try to keep my distance from it, and I’ve worked hard on myself. I looked for the things that bring me joy.”

At a certain point, the pressure kept building. The Belgian put pressure on himself, but he also felt it from the outside. “You have to learn to assess what is being said to you or about you. If people say you need to perform better, you can get angry and wonder why they’re blaming you. That’s one way to deal with it. I took it too personally and set the bar too high.”

Still, the Belgian’s mindset changed during the Tour of Switzerland. “The Arnaud from the Algarve and the one from Switzerland are completely different. If I go all-out in the mountain time trial in Switzerland, then I can be proud of myself. I’m not doing it for my coach to tell me I did well. I’m doing it for myself, and that gives much more satisfaction.”

In the build-up to the Tour, De Lie shared some new insights during a press moment. “I feel good,” the Belgian told Sporza, among others. “Of course, this whole event also brings some nerves. It’s always impressive. As a kid, you dream of this, and now I’m here for the second time. I take the experience from last year with me, and that’s a bonus.”

Last year’s Tour was primarily a learning experience. “In a sprint, you can have a lot of questions running through your head, and that’s not always good. You need to sprint more on instinct. Last year, I sometimes had too many questions. And too many is too many,” De Lie learned from his first Tour participation. “It’s 21 stages with a lot of traveling. It’s also important to recover well for the next day.”

Alongside Lennert Van Eetvelt and Jenno Berckmoes, De Lie is one of the three key riders for the Lotto team. “We’re all strong for the stages in the first week, but we mainly need to be honest during the stage and say how we’re feeling. Then it will all work out. There are so many beautiful stages. Starting with the first one. I want to focus day by day and then see where that takes me.”