"I couldn't see much through my glasses" - Thibau Nys' divebomb gamble doesn't pay off in Overijse

Thibau Nys had a spectacular and dramatic race today in Overijse. He crashed twice but was still in contention for victory until the very end, and went down with a big fight.

“I actually started well. Eli got things going and that was ideal for me. In the second lap my pedal got stuck behind a pole and I was catapulted. I started around 25 seconds back. I then picked everyone up one by one. I found a perfect pace and was able to get back to the front," Nys said in a post-race interview. He was left off very far from the front, but in a few laps his efforts saw him return to the fight for the win. “I had actually already won my race when I came back. I am very satisfied with that. I didn't expect to be this good today either. I felt really bad during the reconnaissance, with the nose being plugged and everything."

Then, the fight for the win was possible. He, Eli Iserbyt, Michael Vanthourenhout and Lars van der Haar stood apart from the rest of the field and attacked each other without mercy in the final laps. Nys resisted the attack of Iserbyt in the final lap but couldn't overtake him into the technical finale. So he took a huge risk and divebombed him on a descent, a risk that didn't pay off as he then crashed. "On the penultimate lap I had a difficult moment, but I knew that if I could get to the water first on that last descent, I could win. I actually wanted to pass one bend earlier, but Eli kept the door firmly closed."

"Then it was all on that descent. I had chosen the perfect line there every lap. It was really dark there in the forest, I couldn't see much through my glasses. I thought I'd throw it in, and uh... too much risk," he details it. He then fell to fourth place, but was not overly disappointed in his result. "About the feeling. The fact that I could have won the race is the most important thing for me. I enjoyed myself," he the concluded.