Bart Wellens on Thibau Nys' uprising: "Thibau has something that Wout, Mathieu and Pidcock, when he is there, also have"

The cyclocross season has now come to a close and in the aftermath, legend and team manager Bart Wellens evaluates some of the key aspects. In specific, he praises the uprising of Thibau Nys, as the kind of rider that for several years hasn't been seen in men's cyclocross, and who dares to challenge the most popular three riders of the discipline.

Wellens is not a fan of those who settle for a minor place as soon at the races with the discipline's big figures (such as Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert) are at the start line. "As if they know that they are riding for second or third place. That should not be allowed," Wellens wrote in his Het Nieuwsblad column.

"The way Eli [Iserbyt] put Wout under pressure in Gullegem, that is how it should always be. But with Eli you often see that things go less well when Wout and Mathieu join. You can almost set your watch by that."

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Whilst a few managed to challenge the 'big two', in most races they have shown their skin and put the rest of the field behind. Thibau Nys, reigning European Champion, was one of the few who managed to indeed be a match (or even a victor) in some occasions, and he fondly looks at the young Belgian, son of Sven Nys.

"Thibau is a popular guy, he brings a lot of people to the race. And he dares to say something sometimes. Or he dares to dye his hair white sometimes. You know, those are the men you need in the race," Wellens says, in a sport where more and more riders are conservative and closed with their words or true emotions in public or to the media.

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"There are too many dry people around, guys who train during the week and come to ride their race in the weekend. Thibau has something that Wout, Mathieu and Pidcock, when he is there, also have," the two-time former World Champion goes as far as saying.

And in his eyes, this is exactly what the men's side of the sport was in need of in recent years. "Those guys dare to do something extravagant sometimes. That is part of it. And the way Thibau did everything he could in Benidorm to beat Wout, I think that is great."

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