Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarché) turned his week around with a late burst to victory on stage 4 of the Tour de Wallonie, coming from behind to catch and pass late attacker Riley Sheehan (NSN) with a huge solo effort on the uphill finish in Eupen.
The win comes one day after De Lie decried his bad luck, saying he'd soon be a Buddhist monk for all of the patience he's had to muster.
"This victory gives us a huge amount of confidence," De Lie said. "During the first days, luck was not always on our side, but today everything finally fell into place. It was really great to race together with the team under these circumstances.
“I knew it would be difficult to fight for the win. Already on the first passage of the finish line, the pace was extremely high. Thanks to the work of my team, I was constantly well positioned.”
Sheehan had jumped clear in the hilly final kilometres of the 167km stage, leaving the peloton behind with 5.8km to run.
The American looked on course to win the stage and snatch the race lead from Kim Heiduk (Netcompany Ineos), but the chasing group behind closed in during the final run to the line.
De Lie put down a massive acceleration from the peloton to fly past stage 2 winner Ben Oliver (Modern Adventure) and then pass Sheehan within sight of the line.
“I didn’t hesitate for a second to accelerate at the bottom of the climb,” said De Lie. “I came in with speed and managed to surprise the rest of the group. The final 150 metres were extremely tough. I wanted to push even harder on the pedals, but I simply couldn’t. In the end, it was just enough to win.
"I was really focused only on my own effort. I know that I’m very strong in efforts lasting close to a minute. Once I saw that I was rapidly gaining ground, I just gave everything until the finish line. Of course, you think about the victory, but my main focus was on producing the best sprint possible."
Sheehan took second place just behind home favourite De Lie, while Oliver came home in third at three seconds down.
Despite missing out on the win after being pipped at the line at the end of his big solo effort, Sheehan ascends into the race lead. He had laid 13 seconds off Heiduk coming into the day, and so his 15-second advantage at the line, plus six bonus seconds, vaults him into the orange jersey.
The grand finale was set up after the remains of the eight-man breakaway, which included Pim Ronhaar (Baloise Verzekeringen-Het Poetsbureau Lions), Jonah Killy (Tartoletto-Isorex), and Samuel Flórez (Modern Adventure), was caught 23km from the finish.
From there, Netcompany Ineos took charge at the head of the peloton, ready to set up a tough finishing sprint. A handful of attacks, including one from Yorben Lauryssen (Tartoletto-Isorex), came and went, with the Belgian caught 8km from the line.
That wasn't the end of the drama, however, as Sheehan launched his bid for glory on a hill with just under 6km to run. Nobody could respond to the 2023 Paris-Tours champion, who sped away alone on his quest for orange.
Lotto and Ineos led the chase behind, but Sheehan looked strong and looked certain to stay away and claim another win to add to his May victory at the Circuit de Wallonie. Stage 3 winner Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) gave solo chase at 3.6km from the line, but neither he nor anyone else looked likely to make the catch.
That was, of course, until De Lie launched his phenomenal push off the front of the peloton 300 metres from the line. The Belgian turned the uphill finish into a thriller, blasting past Pithie and then doing the same to Sheehan in the last few metres of the stage.
De Lie collapsed off his bike after his herculean effort to take his second win of the season, while Sheehan will be more than pleased to take over the race lead with one stage left to run.
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