Thibau Nys second in Zonhoven: "Take away Mathieu van der Poel and I’ll be riding the entire race alone at the front"

Thibau Nys has started the 2024-2025 season quite well and used his form to win the European Championships, a very meaningful title. In the past few weeks he's struggled with consistency again but has shown his best level today at the World Cup Zonhoven. However, with Mathieu van der Poel back in the field, this could only earn him a second place.

“I mean: it’s been a few weeks and races since I had such a good feeling. I sometimes had a good feeling, but then I was unlucky. Now everything fell into place again," Nys said in a post-race interview. "I’m very happy with that. Even if it had been for a fourth or fifth place, I’m just happy that I could do my thing again.”

In the technical and explosive circuit, marked by it's downhill and steep uphill sand sections of the 'Kuil', Nys and teammate Pim Ronhaar went clear of the chasing group to van der Poel in the first few laps. Whilst Ronhaar then struggled, Nys built a solid gap over the rest of the field.

“I immediately felt that this was a track where I could warm up my engine and convert it into speed. That was missing yesterday," he explains. "I have the feeling that I’m missing the cross-specific feeling. That’s of course quite important as a crosser, haha. But today I was able to bring the speed back onto the course".

In the end he faded slightly and was almost caught by Joran Wyseure, but hung on to a second place that marks his return to the front of the big cross races. A motivating sign ahead of some very important weeks this winter. "That results in a great day. Take away Mathieu van der Poel and I’ll be riding the entire race alone at the front," he concluded.