Sven Nys cheers: why heavily protected Thibau flies on "innovative" lime-green bike (with chain issues)

"We are internally investigating what we can do in the future, but these are not things we will communicate now. They are issues that happen occasionally when you start reviewing things. But not an issue that we need to worry about. Unfortunately, it happens, especially in competitions. It may happen with other brands at slightly less significant moments, but it remains a mechanical sport in which you must deal with bad luck every time."

"That was indeed the same thing that happens every year. However, it can also be coincidental, so we have to investigate it further. I can't give any details because we are looking at it internally."

"No, not really. That's because, in recent years, David was someone who, in championships, did not always make the most of his performance. Sometimes, this was due to circumstances that he was not feeling good conditionally. But sometimes, it is also because of the pressure he puts on himself. Of course, there was disappointment, but what stuck with him at the end of his European Championships race was the confirmation that he could fight to the finish to win a title. That did him quite well. He got a huge boost from that."

"David just had a lot of bad luck physically last year, which ruined his cyclo-cross season. If you look at his preparation and the fact that he has become stronger and more confident, he is a pure cyclist. He's only 20 years old, and there has to be progression every year, but that step has been huge now. Sunday, we got confirmation of what we had been seeing for a few months. He's ready to get into racing in that U23 category, even if there aren't a lot of opportunities for that anymore. This was the first one, and he was spot on immediately."

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"Hahaha, two. And that was enough; I fell asleep soundly."

"Gosh, on the one hand, yes, and on the other hand, no. Of course, we have already seen what he can do on the road and in the cyclo-cross over the past few months. However, that illness disrupted the preparation, so we had to wait and see if the puzzle would fall together in time. He has shown that he knows which path to take to get the maximum out of it. It was all uncertain, but in the cyclo-cross, we soon saw that it was working as it should. Thibau performs very well under pressure, and this was confirmed once again. The first time at an elite championship was again of a different magnitude."

"That's mainly in the attention he gets, which takes a lot of energy during the week. Thibau agrees that it's all about training, eating, and sleeping. Everything else involved and the requests thrown at him are where he wants to preserve as much energy as possible. That's also wearing the name. He gets offers to stop by daily on TV and radio shows, but we must focus on what is important. That is on his performance. His physical condition will deteriorate quickly if he starts doing things he doesn't want to be doing. That is his biggest concern, so we must protect him as best we can. Interviews are possible, but we will need to manage that well. We take that responsibility because his freshness and fitness will keep this form in the coming weeks."

"Yes. We know very well what we must do regarding training, eating and sleeping. But the impact around that, magnifying the good and bad things, also affects his performance. So it's not only physically very clever what he's doing now, but also that he's dealing with it like that mentally. That's not always obvious; I admire that."

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"Actually, that was a little idea from Trek, who wanted to promote this bike and its color. I have to say I like it when I see them cycling through the field. It's eye-catching because we have always used blue in our colors in recent years. Now, we are taking that completely out of context, and I think Trek made a bold choice in that, which nevertheless beautifully comes into its own. Despite not matching our jerseys, they match very well with what we represent: innovative, striking, and attracting young people. It looks like the whole bike is stuck with tattoos, but it's spray-painted. It brings rejuvenation to our bikes."

"Yes, every rider has two green and two blue bikes. They can play around with that a bit."

'"hat won't happen right away. The blue bike fits nicely with that championship jersey anyway, but he won't object to using the green bike in his European colors, either. So we're not going to make any immediate adjustments to that."

"Then we return to the new group from SRAM, which has made the bike much lighter and improved the braking capacity enormously. The shifting is also a tad faster, and if your bike is lighter but keeps the same sturdiness, you'll be able to accelerate faster and so on. In recent years, we've also put some extra aerodynamics into our bikes, which is coming into its own. Regarding cyclo-cross and innovation, we've made huge progress with Trek, having had four bike editions since 2013. We are unique in that Trek has made investments in the cyclo-cross bike. No other brand has done that, and that's nice that they continue to believe in that."

"Yes. But also when turning on and carrying the bike. Moreover, we use our riders to improve our bikes in the future. We are already talking about the next generation of cyclo-cross bikes. That's nice, having a rider involved in getting a new bike. No real Thibau bike; we need the whole team's knowledge to create something extraordinary."

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email: [email protected])