More than an elite race, Sunday’s World Cup Waterloo was once a redemptive journey for Thibau Nys (Baloise Trek Lions). Just a yr in the past Nys competed in the lads’s elite World Cup contest however may no longer end because of a damaged collarbone.
One yr on, Nys stayed in competition for a podium spot with most sensible contenders Laurens Sweeck (Crelan-Fristads), Nys’ teammate Lars van der Haar and Michael Vanthourenhout (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) and scored his highest end in an elite World Cup: 5th.
“My mission has been accomplished. I didn’t dare to take the initiative myself in the last [lap], because then I could still be third. But I’m glad Lars is still third. Perhaps this was the best result possible left for us to get,” the 19-year-old mentioned on the end to Wielerflits.
To end smartly throughout the most sensible 10 was once a large success for the 2019 junior World Champion. Last season, his season was once all highs and lows, because of the Waterloo crash and restoration. He controlled to race a number of World Cup elite races, along with his highest end nineteenth in Koksijde.
Nys was once satisfied to opposite the end result from final yr in Wisconsin, which he referred to as a ‘nightmare’. He recalled {that a} mild rain started to fall all the way through the elite males’s race, making sections slippery. He fell onerous sooner than the run-up situated immediately in the back of the Trek Bicycles manufacturing unit construction in a paved transition house.
“I tried to save it, but by trying to save it, I only made it worse. When I saw the footage of the crash, I think I was really lucky to not hit my face on the fence as well. So yeah, it could have been way worse than breaking the collarbone,” he recalled.
“Breaking your collarbone, so far from home, in the second race of the season is every rider’s nightmare, I think. [But] after all, it turned out quite OK. I hope it doesn’t happen again,” Nys informed Cyclingnews, a large smile breaking out on his face. “Now I can go into the new season I worked so hard for without any big problems.”
He returned to ‘cross competition only three weeks after surgery but struggled a bit due to the long-term healing process for his entire body. By December he was back in balance and won three U23 races during the busy Christmas racing block. Then at the Belgian Nationals, he crashed again, with his shoulder taking the worst of the impact. He nonetheless salvaged a bronze medal in the U23 category at the Worlds in Fayetteville.
In May he turned the year around with a GC win on the road at Flèche du Sud and in August raced as a stagiaire for Trek-Segafredo. He’ll formally sign up for the WorldTour crew subsequent yr on a two-year deal for the street, so needs to take advantage of of this ‘go marketing campaign. With that in thoughts, he didn’t omit taking part on the Road World Championships, held in Australia only a few weeks in the past.
“I felt like it was maybe the last opportunity to ride the full cyclo-cross season this year. Because I’ll switch to Trek-Segafredo next year, it will be difficult to come to the World Cups next year also. So I was finding a bit of balance. And then I choose to do the full cyclo-cross season this year,” Nys mentioned.
“Of course, there is another World Championships next year on the U23, in which I can still compete. So I felt that that was the right choice.”
“I think this one is already a pretty heavy trip in the beginning of the season and to add some more jetlag to it would not be perfect. So, yeah, I’m really happy with the decision I made.”
“I will not stop riding cyclo-cross. It’s my goal to ride more on the roads in the next couple of years but still feel like a cyclo-cross rider. So not only race three or five or maybe 10 times but really have a cyclo-cross season, maybe starting later and finishing a bit earlier.”
Nys heads to Fayetteville, Arkansas for the next round of the World Cup series, and he plans to also compete in the C1 race on Friday.
He’ll once more be phase of an extended record of emerging stars vying for podiums in elite races. Waterloo grew to become out to be a playground of kids, 11 of the sector of 46 males had been nonetheless youngsters, the youngest Benjamin Sweet of Canada who grew to become 18 5 days sooner than the race. Joining Nys in the highest 10 on Sunday had been two riders elderly 23 or more youthful, his Baloise Trek Lions teammate Pim Ronhaar in 6th and Nils Vandeputte (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in 8th.