Relaunched with his victory in Overijse, Thibau Nys has the Koppenberg and the Euro in his sights

With his authoritarian victory, after a nice duel with the Belgian champion Eli Iserbyt, Sunday, on the demanding Overijse track, Thibau Nys was reassured. After a start to the season in the plowed fields which did not correspond to his high expectations. Because of a cold following his vacation, organized after his excellent season on the road. His legs weren't responding as he hoped. But he broke free in the explosive bumps of Overijse.

“He announced that he wanted to be ready on November 1st, he is obviously a little earlycommented on Sunday on the set of Pickx SportMaxime Monfort, his sports director, for the road, at Lidl-Trek. Thibau is quite impressive. He amazed everyone on the road. I think he surprised himself, with nine victories without having raced too much. I think he won more than one race out of four he entered!”

He made an impression with his explosiveness in the mogul finishes, with his three stage victories at the Tour of Poland, his stage success at the Tour de Suisse, but also at the Tour of Norway, at the Tour de Romandie, or with two bouquets of the winner on the Tour of Hungary, where he also won the final classification. “It's a pleasure to work with him, he's an affable, kind young person, also very grateful. We feel that he is still discreet, he does not consider himself a leader in the road team.”

After a complicated start to the cyclo-cross season, Thibau Nys relaunched in Overijse

Where does its future lie? In the plowed? On the road? Or in the disciplines? “I think things will come naturallyreplies Maxime Monfort. We must not forget that he is still very young. Cyclo-cross is his favorite discipline. Let him continue. With a better studied program this season, with 20 to 22 events and more training areas. But he also understood that he has potential on the road. Great potential. We would be curious to see him at work on a grand tour. But this remains to be determined, because it must be planned well. The Tour de France, everyone knows, is not easy… The one in Spain comes a little too late compared to the cyclo-cross season. And the Italian one a little early after the classics.”

The Ardennes classics in the viewfinder

The Ardennes, which Thibau Nys could discover next spring. With the Amstel Gold Race, the Flèche Wallonne and its terrible Mur de Huy which should suit it and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He has already shown good things in classics, such as his fifth place in Plouay, for his last road race of the season. And he had failed at the foot of the podium of the Belgian championship, in Zottegem, behind Arnaud De Lie, Jasper Philipsen and Jordi Meeus but ahead of Wout van Aert or Tim Merlier, cooked after a hard and trying race.

“Thibau is also a very well surrounded athlete, with a lot of experience around him, like, obviously with his father Sven, but also his coach Paul Van Den Bossche. An entourage who has a very good collaboration with the team. We are curious to see what happens next with him.”

And the rest will be directly this Friday, on the Koppenberg, one of the flagship meetings of the plowing season. Before, on Sunday, the European Championship organized in Spain, in Pontevedra, in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, devastated by the terrible floods in the Valencia region. Two events that he approaches as favorite? “It's evenevoke Thibau Nys. Until recently, I didn't feel in the game and I didn't imagine winning in Overijse…”