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

"I tried to accept those low points, which wasn't easy," De Lie told Sporza. "At one point, I thought: who am I even riding for? People have expectations, but I was almost riding for others and not for myself. Now I do it for me. I try to take something positive from the negative. That focus has to come from within. People can cheer you on, but if you’re convinced it won’t work, then it won’t."

So De Lie had to rediscover the joy of cycling. Did he succeed? "Absolutely! Otherwise I wouldn't have raced in the past few weeks," said the Belgian. "My mindset is completely different now. Before the break after Gent-Wevelgem, I was going in circles and letting my head drop. You get stuck in a vicious cycle, but now things are going much better."

Asked how he got out of that cycle, De Lie gave a clear answer. "I just couldn't keep getting stuck in the negativity. I started lifting myself up with small things. I had been too hard on myself — if I finished fourth, I wasn’t just disappointed, I was actually angry at myself."

That’s why a change in mindset followed. "My goals don’t have to be focused on results. I mostly need to be satisfied and proud of myself. Early in the season in the Algarve, I was furious when I didn’t win — but that wasn’t the right mindset, and it didn’t help me."

De Lie faced a fair bit of criticism after a string of underwhelming results. That didn’t make things any easier. "It's hard to shut yourself off from it. You see things go by, but I didn’t wake up thinking: let me see what the newspapers are saying about me. I tried to keep my distance and worked hard on myself. I looked for the things that bring me joy."

The pressure was mounting from both inside and outside. The Belgian put pressure on himself, but also felt it from the media and fans. "You have to learn to assess what's being said about you. When people say you need to perform better, you can get angry and wonder why they’re criticizing you. That’s one way to go about it. I took it too personally and set the bar too high."

But things began to shift for De Lie during the Tour de Suisse. "The Arnaud from Algarve and the one from Switzerland are totally different. When I went all out in the mountain time trial in Switzerland, I could be proud of myself. I wasn’t doing it for my trainer to tell me I did well. I did it for me, and that’s so much more rewarding."

n the build-up to the Tour, De Lie gave some new insights during a media moment. "I feel good," he told Sporza, among others. "But of course there’s also a bit of tension that comes with this whole thing. It’s always an impressive experience. As a kid, you dream about this, and now I’m here for the second time. I’ll carry last year’s experience 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 a good thing. You have to sprint more on instinct. Last year, I overthought it sometimes. And too much is too much," De Lie reflects on his debut. "It’s 21 stages with a lot of travel. Recovery is key for the next day."

Together with Lennert Van Eetvelt and Jenno Berckmoes, De Lie is one of Lotto’s three key riders. "We’re all strong in those first-week stages, but we mostly need to be honest with each other during the race and say how we’re feeling. Then it’ll be fine. There are so many beautiful stages — starting with stage one. I want to focus day by day and see where that takes me."