Arnaud De Lie's Tour de France battle is over
Arnaud De Lie's fight to simply stay in the Tour de France came to an end on stage 3 after the Belgian sprinter was dropped early in the stage and eventually abandoned. De Lie, who suffered a stomach bug in the days leading up to the race and nearly didn't start the opening stage team time trial, has fought simply to finish most days in the race.
Iain Treloar
But on stage 3, things looked ominous almost from the start as he was struggling to hold on to the peloton less than 10 km into the day's hilly, 196 km ride to Les Angles. Oppressive heat likely made things worse and after putting up a valiant, hours-long chase to finish within the time limit, De Lie finally abandoned in the late going.
The DNF marks the latest frustrating setback for De Lie, who also battled gastrointestinal issues at May's Giro d'Italia before abandoning there. De Lie is the second rider to leave the Tour, after Groupama-FDJ's Clément Berthet did not start stage 2 after suffering injuries in a crash in the opening team time trial stage.
