Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarché) finally got his first win of 2026 at the Lotto Famenne Ardenne Classic on Sunday 03 May — and then, quite literally, everything went to shite.
The 24-year-old Belgian, largely anonymous all season, turned up with a vintage uphill drag sprint to bag his third win in the past four editions of the 186km Ardennes slog. Jens Verbrugghe (NSN Development) was second, Matteo Moschetti (Pinarello-Q36.5) third — all blissfully unaware of what they’d just ridden through.
Because this wasn’t just another hard day in the Ardennes forest. It was a farmyard minefield.
What the peloton didn’t realise at the time: the roads were littered with cow manure — not the occasional smear, but proper, wheel-splattering, bidon-dodging mounds of it. Add rain, speed and 150 riders, and you’ve got a full-body contamination event.
Lotto later said riders were likely exposed to the muck throughout the race, with spray kicking up into faces, bottles, jerseys — everywhere. The suspected culprit is Campylobacter, a bacteria that causes gastrointestinal infections and, in this case, has ripped through the bunch like a bad buffet.
Three Lotto-Intermarché riders ended up briefly hospitalised with abdominal pain, diarrhoea, fever and vomiting. De Lie initially escaped the worst of it, only to start feeling nauseous mid-flight to Bulgaria ahead of this Saturday’s Giro d’Italia. For now, his start is still on.
He’s not alone. Not even close.
Other teams, including Alpecin, have reported cases, while French veteran Maxime Bouet, speaking via Arkéa, claimed half the peloton is down. Whether that’s exaggeration or not, one thing is clear: this wasn’t just a race result — it was a rolling biohazard.
Welcome to spring in the Ardennes.
Photo Credit: Lotto-Intermarché
© 2026 Copyright Gran Fondo Daily News – All Rights Reserved