The white minibus is decked out in advertising signs for a window company. There are 16 seats inside, but only one of them is occupied: the driver’s. The bus trundles its way around France every July, bringing up the rear of the Tour de France peloton, repurposed from an otherwise nondescript van into the broomwagon – the vehicle that swoops up the riders who fall too far back and miss the time cut.
Arnaud De Lie of Lotto-Intermarché loitered in front of it throughout Sunday’s third stage. More on him later. Arvid de Kleijn of Tudor Pro Cycling was also hanging out just front.
This year’s race is meant to be a joyous occasion for De Kleijn. Aged 32, he’s making his Tour debut. It’s also his maiden Grand Tour. A late-bloomer, he didn’t turn pro until 2020 and didn’t start winning sprints regularly until 2023. A win at Milano-Torino in 2023 and a stage victory at Paris-Nice in 2024 was an indication that in an increasingly youthful sport, older riders could still emerge. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that he could win a stage of this July’s Tour.
His year so far, however, has been marked by tragedy and sadness – as well as euphoria. In February, his father, Cees, died of cancer. De Kleijn, understandably, took a break from racing. “Towards the end [of my dad’s life] things became very difficult for him and for all of us as a family,” De Kleijn said in May.
A few weeks after his dad’s passing, a group of young adults attacked him while out training and broke his nose. “There was no way to reason with them, so I tried to leave,” he said. “One of them punched me in the face several times… I still don’t understand why it happened.”
At the same time, De Kleijn was welcoming his first child into the world with his partner. “It was beautiful news, of course, but becoming a father while preparing to lose my own dad… that was emotionally overwhelming. I was living between two extremes: joy and heartbreak at the exact same time.”
As the Tour left Spain and headed into France on stage three, the Dutchman struggled in the repressive heat and felt physically hamstrung.
“My body didn’t want to do it today,” he said at the finish. “After the team time trial I’m just blocked. My body doesn’t want to push that much.”
De Kleijn, supported by two Tudor teammates, endured rather than enjoyed the third stage. Every pedal stroke was an effort. He could have given in, abandoned, but the memory of his father was at the forefront of his thoughts.
“I’m completely exhausted but I just told [my teammates] that I was riding with my dad in mind,” he said, hunched over in Les Angles, cold bottles of water being poured over him by his team’s staff.
He had made it, 41 minutes behind stage winner Tadej Pogačar, but crucially seven minutes within the time limit. De Kleijn continued talking about his father: “I saw him suffer so much and I had him in mind. This suffering is nothing compared to what I saw. I just needed to keep on going, keep the pressure on the pedals.”
De Lie did not see the finish.
The 24-year-old Belgian fell ill two days before the race got underway in Barcelona with a stomach infection, and there were doubts if he would even start stage one’s team time trial, after he stepped off his bike during the TTT’s recon. In the end he did, and he finished stage two as well – but in dead last place.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
He wouldn’t even be that fortunate on stage three. De Lie was at the back of the stage throughout, the broomwagon in his rearview mirror the whole way, the spectre of going home early casting a long shadow over him. The TV graphics showed how far behind De Lie was – in essence a countdown to his exit.
Yet it was not inevitable, even if it looked that way. “I had the feeling he was getting better,” his Lotto-Intermarché teammate Liam Slock told Cycling Weekly. “On the bus he was actually quite happy. This morning he was confident he was going to make it.”
Two other teammates shared the same opinion. “We decided before the stage that Bauptiste [Veistroffer] would stay with him,” explained Huub Artz. “And if we thought that he was making a strong impression and needed help, I would drop back. But there was the possibility that he would not have the legs.”
De Lie did not have the legs. His condition had regressed and he was in survival mode all day. The stifling heat could have been to blame. “That was one of the hottest days on the bike I’ve ever had,” Slock said. “At the beginning it was always between 38 and 40 degrees until the penultimate climb when it went down a bit.”
Late on, the decision was made that Veistroffer would leave De Lie behind to make sure he made the time cut himself. With just kilometres remaining, De Lie waved the white flag. He hopped into a team car and withdrew from the race. “To protect his health, the Belgian eventually stepped off his bike on the final climb of the day,” his team said.
It was agony and ecstasy in the Pyrenees. De Kleijn, riding in the memory of his father, just about found a way through the suffering. De Lie, however, barely rode a few dozen kilometres in France. The broomwagon has claimed its first victim of the 2026 race.
