Thibau Nys reacts to a comparison to Tadej Pogacar on uphill sprints: "Purely and only on the finish I might be able to compete against him"

It's not really a shock anymore to see Thibau Nys win a stage in World Tour race such as Tour de Pologne. However to score a hat-trick by taking all uphill finishes, that was a rather impressive show of power. And a massive promise towards future.

"I know it won't last, but at the moment the puzzle fits perfectly," Nys opens at Het Nieuwsblad. The Belgian notes that his success didn't come as an absolute surprise to him. "The Tour de Pologne simply confirms that I have come to know my body very well. Training, nutrition, rest, preparation, ... we do that in the right way. A puzzle that we have worked on for a long time and that now fits perfectly. I know it won't last, but at the moment I just have to do something and it works."

The Lidl-Trek rider appears to be nearly ubeatable on the punchy uphill arrivals. He knows what kind of finishes suit him best. "Quite short and very steep or just three to four kilometres of climbing, but not too steep. Also depending on how the race was ridden beforehand. The kind of finishes where the fast men have to let go, which makes me the fastest of the climbers. They always have less 'kick' than I do."

Naturally, many wonder if he could match the phenomenal Tadej Pogacar on such 'ideal' uphill finish: "Purely and only on the finish I might be able to compete against him," Nys admits somewhat conservatively. "But Tadej writes the scenario of the races as he wants. It is quite possible that he has been racing so hard long before the finish that I am nowhere to be seen," he puts into perspective. "And to be clear: in the high mountains there is no comparison possible. I am not a climber, not someone who can do anything on a climb like Alpe d'Huez."