<\/p>\n
\u201cHe felt super before the race,\u201d Visbeek explained. \u201cIn the team meeting, the plan was to push hard in the hills so it would become a sprint for riders like Brennan and Arnaud. In the end, he cracked there. We had Steffen De Schuyteneer as a second option, and we played that card afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Managing expectations after a race against time<\/p>\n
The fade came on a day shaped by pressure in the hills and crosswinds that repeatedly split the field. For Lotto, the script had been clear: increase the pace in the decisive terrain to reduce the sprint field and give De Lie a manageable finale.<\/p>\n
Instead, the Belgian was among those who slipped out of contention as the race intensified.<\/p>\n
Visbeek suggested the explanation may lie as much in Saturday at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad as Sunday. \u201cThis could be a reaction from yesterday. He went deep then. It\u2019s also a matter of race hardness that he\u2019s still missing at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
That race hardness is central to the broader picture. De Lie spent the off-season working his way back from an ankle injury, and his build-up to the spring was described internally as tight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a race against time to get him ready, and that seems to have worked,\u201d Visbeek said. \u201cWe\u2019re not worried. You also have to look at the full picture. We have a strong team, Arnaud is focused and motivated. We rode a solid Opening Weekend, but in the end we\u2019re left empty-handed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Building towards Tirreno<\/p>\n
Rather than viewing Kuurne as a setback, Lotto see it as part of a progression. \u201cDe Lie definitely still needs next weekend to continue building towards Tirreno-Adriatico,\u201d Visbeek added.<\/p>\n
For now, the emphasis remains on development rather than immediate results. Kuurne may not have delivered the sprint opportunity Lotto envisaged, but internally the focus is on conditioning, continuity and patience.<\/p>\n
If this spring is indeed a work in progress, Lotto are determined not to judge it too early.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cHe felt super before the race,\u201d Visbeek explained. \u201cIn the team meeting, the plan was to push…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[231768,227319,4230,231767,231769,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-798692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-aike-visbeek","9":"tag-arnaud-de-lie","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-kuurne-bruxelles-kuurne","12":"tag-lotto-intermarche","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116158759247966840","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}