Between a quickly swallowed toast and counting the Nadar barriers, the dynamic educator took the time to rewind the thread of his memories in the company of Anthony Hubert, the sports director of De Lie among the cadets, who paused the cutting stickers intended for the following cars for a few big bursts of laughter.
Arrival at the club in 2014: “Even at 12, no one beat him in the sprint…”
”Arnaud arrived with us in 2014 in the 12-year-old aspiring category with his brother Axel (Editor’s note: three years his senior), begins Laurent Mars. He had made his first debut before that with the juniors in Houffalize, in a club mainly oriented towards mountain biking. I knew his father Philippe and the family well since I too am from the town of Vaux-sur-Sûre. We very quickly understood that we were dealing with a small phenomenon (laughs)… During group training on Wednesday afternoon, even though he was only 12 years old, no one was able to beat Arnaud in the sprint even though there were young people three to four years older than him and that some adults also sometimes mingled with this little platoon.
We were trying to develop anti-Arnaud strategies in training, but there was no way to beat him!
The fun dimension of cycling is, in our eyes, essential at this age and we therefore carried out sign sprints. It's all in the name of the exercise, it's the first one to pass in front of a sign marking the entrance or exit of a village who has won (laughs)… We tried to develop anti-Arnaud strategies by attacking him in turns as we approached the last hectometers but to no avail, it was always him who won with his big smile on his lips. However, he only had the very small gear ratios authorized for his category, but he turned his legs at crazy speed, already combining his strength with a cadence that sometimes came close to 140 pedal strokes per minute…”
The cadet years: “The other sports directors came to congratulate me before arrival!”
”I managed Arnaud among the cadets in 2017 and 2018, continues Anthony Hubert. He was already a serial winner before this category but he also raised his arms very often, almost 25 times in two years. When we started a race with him, we knew we had almost a one in two chance of winning. It even regularly happened that some of my fellow sports directors came to congratulate me on the victory even before the finish. (laughs)… When the peloton regrouped in the final of a race and it was going to be decided in a sprint, many considered that the identity of the winner was known.
When returning from shopping on Sunday evening, we had a tradition of going for a portion of fries.
When returning from shopping, our tradition was often to indulge in a portion of fries, very often in the same establishment on the heights of Namur. This probably doesn't fit with the philosophy of marginal gains, but we enjoyed sharing these moments as a group, Arnaud is someone who is deeply collective, friendly and sociable. I don't think I've ever heard a single rider, even among his rivals, have a negative word about him. His winning side has never dampened the respect he has for his opponents. However, he is a real competitor. I remember that at the start of a race in Dottignies, I told him that his brother Axel had had a superb race a few years earlier, attacking on numerous occasions to finally finish second. Arnaud replied with a little smile that he would do better than his brother. And bingo, a few hours later, he raised his arms…”
His attachment to the club: “He still shares his training with our young people”
”Arnaud has a real bond of attachment with our club, says Laurent Mars. This winter, for example, he participated in almost all of our Saturday group training sessions. One day, he had two specific exercises to perform, each lasting 45 minutes, interspersed with a quarter of an hour of recovery, and asked me if I didn't mind if he accompanied us given the intensity of his session. I gave him the green light and he towed our entire little platoon stretched out in single file for two hours. We returned at an average of 34 km/h but everyone had a great time. We're talking about a guy who finished last season in the Top 15 in the world! I don't think a football player of this level would ask 15-year-olds to go kick the ball with him. (laughs)… And he still regularly posts messages in the club's Messenger group with his training itinerary, inviting those who wish to share a part of the road with him. We sometimes call this the 'De Lie bus' between us (laughs)…
At the end of 2019, Arnaud and his family invited 60 people to a thank-you evening.
At the end of 2019, to thank the people who had worked in the shadows, he invited around sixty people around a hamburger in a room that the family had rented in his village. And his parents have already given me several times a smile that the hike in his name that we have been organizing for two years now and allows us to raise funds for the running of the club was a way of offering a form of training compensation. A gesture that says something about the values of this clan. Good people as they simply say…”
Why Arnaud De Lie will resume well on Sunday at the Lotto Famenne Ardenne Classic
