“That crash ruined my whole race” – Thibau Nys soldiers on in Zonhoven, driven by crowd support after spectacular spill

For Thibau Nys, the World Cup round in Zonhoven turned from promise to damage limitation in a matter of seconds. On a day dominated at the front by Mathieu van der Poel, the Belgian champion saw his own chances of fighting for a top result wiped out by a violent crash on an icy section that sent him over the barriers and into the fencing.

The incident came in the fifth lap on a course that had already proved unforgiving. Nys lost control at high speed on a frozen patch, slid across the surface and was catapulted into the advertising boards, colliding with a spectator before making his way back toward the course. While he escaped physical injury, the impact snapped his handlebar and effectively ended any competitive ambitions for the day.

Reflecting on the moment afterwards, Nys said the danger had been building for some time. “It started to slide more and more, and I was aware of that,” he explained to Sporza post-race. “I had already seen a lot of riders in front of me make mistakes, but I felt like I had things pretty well under control.”

That confidence disappeared instantly. “On a section where the speed was really high, it was just ice,” he said. “I couldn’t correct it anymore.”

The frustration lay not in the fall itself, but in its timing. “When I went down and checked the damage, I felt that I myself was okay,” Nys said. “But that crash obviously ruined my whole race. I was just getting into it and riding well.”

With his handlebar broken, Nys briefly considered calling it a day. Instead, he chose to continue, lifting his bike onto his shoulders and running through the Kuil toward the pit, a moment that drew loud encouragement from the Zonhoven crowd.

“That wasn’t easy,” he laughed. “I hesitated for a moment about stopping, but it was too much fun and the crowd was too good to get off.”

Even with his result beyond saving, Nys leaned into the atmosphere rather than frustration. “I made the best of it and enjoyed myself,” he said. “Going into the Kuil one last time and getting the crowd on my side, that’s what I did it for.”

Nys eventually finished 19th, a result that dealt a significant blow to his World Cup campaign. Yet on a day defined by ice, crashes and split-second margins, his reaction underlined why Zonhoven remains as much about character as classification.