“It’s really nice to end the season like this" - Thibau Nys best of the rest behind Van der Poel & Van Aert at CX World Championships

Thibau Nys has had himself a real breakthrough winter. After taking the title at both the European Championships and the Belgian National Championships, the son of the legendary Sven Nys has now made onto the podium of an elite World Championship for the first time in his career.

“It’s really nice to end the season like this," reflected the Belgian in his post-race interview afterwards. “I didn’t have a flawless two weeks leading up to this World Championship, the last five days were really difficult. Physically I felt like I was over my peak and I was fighting an illness. It never really broke through, but in the two weeks before a World Championship you want to build up confidence. That wasn’t the case.”

“But a World Championship like this is an ideal motivation to still make something of it. In the first round I felt like I was moving up quite well. After that I was able to keep up a good pace, but then I did indeed struggle with my choices of material posts," continues the 22-year-old. "I had some bad luck with a bike once and had to come in, which took me out of my flow. It took a while before I got into the right rhythm to come in at the material posts. But even if I had handled those changes differently, I wouldn't have been able to beat Wout either.”