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  "description": "Arnaud De Lie thought he'd got everything he needed from the Lotto Famenne Ardennes Classic last weekend, chalking up a first win of 2026 before starting the Giro d'Italia five days later, but he came away with a lot more than he'd bargained for and it almost derailed one of the big goals of his season. He and a number of his teammates, along with a large portion of the Belgian mini-classic's peloton, were struck down with a very nasty stomach bug that has since been attributed to a common bacte",
  "path": "/de-lie-describes-manure-related-illness-that-threatened-his-giro-it-was-really-super-weird/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-08T12:37:12.000Z",
  "site": "https://escapecollective.com",
  "tags": [
    "Cow pies in Belgium blamed for Lotto’s pre-Giro woesIf a butterfly flaps its wings at the Famenne Ardennes Classic, does a Giro sprinter spend the next few days in the toilet?Escape CollectiveDane Cash"
  ],
  "textContent": "Arnaud De Lie thought he'd got everything he needed from the Lotto Famenne Ardennes Classic last weekend, chalking up a first win of 2026 before starting the Giro d'Italia five days later, but he came away with a lot more than he'd bargained for and it almost derailed one of the big goals of his season. He and a number of his teammates, along with a large portion of the Belgian mini-classic's peloton, were struck down with a very nasty stomach bug that has since been attributed to a common bacteria found in cow manure.\n\nLotto-Intermarché was worst affected, leading to a late change to its Giro roster – Liam Slock out, Josh Giddings in – and a very uncomfortable flight to Bulgaria for De Lie, who subsequently skipped the Giro's presentation on Wednesday evening. It was touch and go for Friday's stage 1, but the young sprinter was able to start.\n\n\"It’s going better, really better. I’m happy that I can start here. Mentally I’m doing okay. I will try to sprint today. But in the first 100 kilometres, I’ll see how I feel,\" Del Lie told _Sporza_ before the stage, before going on to explain his first couple of days in Bulgaria, “I couldn’t eat. It was really super weird. My teammates Milan Menten [_still able to race the Giro_ – ed.] and Liam Slock had exactly the same thing. I didn’t have it under control, I just had to accept it and try to start. My legs were bad, my stomach too. And my muscles were wrecked.”\n\nCow pies in Belgium blamed for Lotto’s pre-Giro woesIf a butterfly flaps its wings at the Famenne Ardennes Classic, does a Giro sprinter spend the next few days in the toilet?Escape CollectiveDane Cash",
  "title": "De Lie describes manure-related illness that threatened his Giro – 'It was really super weird'",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-08T12:37:13.618Z"
}