"It was very difficult to get away on the final circuit" - Thibau Nys leaves World Championships very disappointed

The contrast couldn't be greater: while world champion Axel Laurance was spitting over his bike from fatigue, Thibau Nys crossed the finish line with his mouth closed. The Belgian says he had a super day, but he as well as whole Belgian team missed all the key moves and came short at the end of the day.

"I'm a bit disappointed because I had the idea that I still had to get my best legs out to ride the final," he tells HLN disappointedly. "I had a very good day. Tactically, we only made a number of mistakes, which means that we are chasing after the facts. I did what I had to do, but you can't control everything. That's too bad."

With this, Nys mainly refers to the group of nine that took off early. That included the eventual world champion, and many riders who also rode in the final. Belgium simply didn't have a single man in front throughout whole day. "We missed the early breakaway, but it wasn't up to me to go with that. On the other hand, I did see that break go. Without communication you just don't know where the rest are."

"I felt that I was one of the stronger ones, but the jabs often came at times when things hadn't gone very fast for a long time," he says. "There was never a high pace for an entire lap, so I never felt that it was the right time to go for it. Then it was very difficult to get away, it just wasn't going fast enough."