Arnaud de Lier (Lot-Dousteny) insisted that despite his recent success in Binche-Chimay-Binche, there is no guarantee that he will achieve similar results in Paris-Tour next Sunday. He also feels no pressure.

De Lee, 22, told Belgian newspaper Dernière Heure on Thursday that the highly technical and rugged finale of the Paris-Tours (a 10-km course consisting of dirt and gravel roads in vineyards on a hill overlooking the Loire River) is a top level performance, which means that luck will always be a factor. [Arnaud Demare (Arkea-B&B Hotels), 2023 champion Riley Sheehan (Israel-Premier Tech), John Degenkolb (DSM-Filmenig-Post NL), and Soren Klag Andersen (Alpecin-Deseuninck), Matteo Trentin (Tudor Pro Cycling).

The in-form Jasper Philippsen (Alpecin-Desseuninck) is fresh off his victory at the Sparkasse-Münsterland Giro, where De Lier finished 8th on Thursday.

De Lier, who won Tuesday's Binche-Chimay-Binche ahead of Philipsen, told Paris-Tour's race website earlier this week, “I was more confident. I was a bit out of shape since the Wallonie GP two weeks ago and was quite worried. But in the end I came out on top.”

“Paris-Tour is one of my goals. It's a nice race, it has a gravel course, and I love it.”

”I've been racing for a while now, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it to the top.

However, as he added to Derniere Heure, “I'm not putting any pressure on myself regarding this course. Now the Paris-Tour” - which until a few years ago was held on purely public roads, not on vineyard courses - ‘also requires luck’

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“I've competed in the Paris-Tour three times, and each time I've been set back by a crash or a flat tire. Even if you have a perfect race, you can't control the outcome."

De Lier has had bad luck in two Paris-Tour entries, the first in 2022, when he was involved in a crash 60 km from the finish and retired. In 2023, he suffered three or four punctures in a row in the second half of the race and chose to retire again.

But it is no contradiction to say that de Lier enjoys racing on gravel, as evidenced by his victory at Toro Bro Leon this spring. But what that experience means is that he realistically understands that such difficult terrain can skew results, even if he likes it.

The reigning Belgian national champion commented that he remembered his former teammate Frederic Frisson having extreme bad luck in Paris-Tour. However, he suffered a puncture in the final gravel sector. As a result, his race was destroyed.

“So I will go into the Paris-Tour without any pressure. If we get a good result, then all the better. If not, it will be worse.”