"If Wout van Aert enters the field with the level of last winter, he'll have a lot of trouble beating Thibau Nys" - Bart Wellens' concerns for Visma leader

Although the 2024/25 cyclocross season is now well underway, there is still no sign of the discipline's 'Big 3' just yet. In their absence though, a new name has come to the fore in the form of European champion Thibau Nys.

"I enjoyed Thibau Nys' victory in Lokeren on Sunday. I'm not really allowed to say it, but secretly I'm a fan of Thibau and his way of racing," two time cyclocross world champion Bart Wellens says of the Baloise - Trek Lions star in his analysis for Het Nieuwsblad. "He shook the tree for the first time, but when he saw that he couldn't get away, he put himself in fifth position to watch things and only strike later. He races very sensibly and I like to see that."

As mentioned though, with the likes of Tom Pidcock, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert still absent from the cyclocross field, the question remains how Nys is likely to fare against the Big 3 this winter. "If Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel join us later, we'll see," Wellens notes. "If Wout enters the field with the level of last winter, he'll have a lot of trouble beating Thibau Nys. Mathieu, that's a different story. If he's somewhat up to par, he won't have much trouble with Thibau."

For Van Aert at least, it seems there will be no cyclocross until at least late December this season. “Wout is now leaving for Spain for two and a half weeks to train. After that we will sit down together, but he will only start again after the first team training camp that ends on December 19," Team Visma | Lease a Bike's Jan Boven explained recently. 

If or even when the duo of Van der Poel and Pidcock will return to the field is a little bit more clouded.