A tough day in Baal for Nys, who, without Van der Poel, could have succeeded his father: no GP Thibau Nys yet

No Mathieu van der Poel at the cyclo-cross named after his father: For Thibau Nys, the X2O-cross in Baal should have been the perfect start of the year. But almost everything went wrong: a disastrous start, a shoe change, and a crash ruined the European champion's day.

Beforehand, Nys had high hopes for a perfect race. As such, he spent his New Year's Eve with the Sven Nys GP in mind. "I have recently shown a few good cyclo-cross races and hope to do so again. I narrowly missed 00:00 last night, so hopefully, that will pay off," he told me. "I went out to eat something with some friends but didn't do anything special."

Of course, the big news that Van der Poel had canceled the New Year's cyclo-cross was not a disadvantage for the young Belgian, but he was somewhat disappointed. "It's unfortunate that he's not there. That doesn't change that I will do my best today and give everything. Then I'll see where I end up. I realize it's a great chance to win, but that was the same in Diegem. For me, it doesn't change that much." Beforehand, Nys made a deal with father Sven: should he win, the cyclo-cross would not be named after the legend but his son.

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📈 The chances for 🇧🇪 Thibau Nys to win his dad's own Grote Prijs for the first time have suddenly massively increased. Last year they made a deal to change the name from GP Sven Nys to GP Thibau Nys if Thibau would win for the first time.

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"Was hard to keep morale high" after yet another setback

There was a chance to win, but things turned out differently. Afterward, he spoke to Het Laatste Nieuws about his failed race." It was a really bad day. The first fifteen meters were absolutely superb, and then I slipped out of my pedal. Then, I end up somewhat in the back. I break part of my shoe, and then I crash. I did ride two excellent laps after that, but I had to change my shoe. That's where I lose connection with the head of the race."

After the third setback in the race, Nys struggled physically and mentally. "I've already shown a lot of resilience this year, but today, it was hard to keep morale high after halfway through the course. For a long time, I still felt like I'd take it easy and ride to it later, but at that point, I started to lose it a bit."

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🚵​🇧🇪​ | 10 punten voor de schoenwissel van Thibau Nys. Als je knippert mis je het 👀​👀​ #GPSvenNys 📺​Stream cross op HBO Max

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