Bart Wellens "shocked by Thibau Nys in a negative sense" during World Cup opener in Antwerp: "Just not good enough"

Thibau Nys has been one of the stars of the early cyclocross season so far, taking three victories including most notably, the European Championship title. In this Sunday's World Cup opener in Antwerp however, the Belgian had to settle for 12th. A performance that surprised cyclocross legend Bart Wellens.

"I was shocked by Thibau Nys on Sunday in the negative sense. If you skip Saturday, it's with the intention of being good on Sunday. Thibau was just not good enough," writes Wellens in his regular analysis column for Het Nieuwsblad. "He says himself that he cannot ride well through the sand. Pff, if you think that beforehand, why come to Antwerp? He can, can compensate for everything perfectly with his strength. With his level he should always have done better, he shouldn't doubt himself after all."

Nys' poor showing wasn't totally down to his legs as a shoulder hit took something away from the young Belgian, but according to Wellens there still should have much more from the Baloise - Trek Lions star on Sunday afternoon. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh but this was an underwhelming performance from Thibau. He should have been good on Sunday, no excuses," the former world champion adds.

"Eli Iserbyt, Michael Vanthourenhout, Niels Vandeputte, ... They all rode in Kortrijk on Saturday and were also good the day after," Wellens continues. "I find it strange that with Thibau it's everything one week and nothing the next. I had very high expectations and he occasionally lives up to them. But there are still too many bad days in between. For Thibau Nys, 12th place is just not good enough. May he soon have a sandbox put in daddy Sven's garden."

In the end, it was the aforementioned Iserbyt that took the victory, his second of the weekend, kicking his World Cup campaign off in the most perfect of styles in Antwerp.