"Wout is not really a cyclo-crosser anymore" - Sven Nys comments on Van Aert's hit-and-miss CX winter

In his four cyclocross appearances so far this winter, Wout van Aert has two victories and two finishes off the podium. At the most recent outing of the Team Visma | Lease a Bike at World Cup Benidorm last weekend, the Belgian's compatriot, Thibau Nys was the man to emerge victorious.

According to Thibau's father, the legendary figure in Belgian cyclocross Sven Nys, the fact Van Aert has been a little inconsistent this winter shouldn't come as much of a surprise. "On the one hand, I think you have to keep that in perspective: Wout is not really a cyclo-crosser anymore," Nys senior explains in conversation with In de Leiderstrui. "He is very limited in his program and does everything very specifically."

"In these types of competitions, he will always have a harder time compared to the specific cyclo-crossers. That turning and twisting, that is something completely different. Put him in Dendermonde and he will still win there in five years, but this is something else," continues Nys' explanation of Van Aert's form. "So we knew there were possibilities. If Thibau had a good day, there would definitely be possibilities. We told him that and it turned out that way."

Thibau Nys is often touted as the natural successor to Van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel and the Belgian continues to emerge as a capable multi-discipline star, much to father Sven's immense delight. "I think that Thibau has mainly managed to create a good combination of intensity, during the Christmas period, and now base and volume. Every now and then a stimulus is added, but you are not going to win or lose that extra bit in this period of the winter," he says of his son. "The danger now is that you push it too far and then you do not reach the World Championship at this level."

"We have to be especially careful now, because you're not really going to improve anymore. And Thibau is fine now. It will depend on the weather conditions whether he can do nice things at the World Championship or whether he just lacks that little bit of absolute power, compared to a Mathieu van der Poel," Nys concludes. "Then I'm talking about very tough conditions, in which it's always pushing and stomping. That suits him a little less."