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Nys guys finish first - Thibau, second of his name, Coronation Thread

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I don't see Nys doing the Tour with Trek having Milan and Pedersen. Week 1 suits him well, but I don't think Milan is skipping the tour second year in a row so they will probably send him to the Giro.
Planning wise TDF would be best for Nys. Vuelta too close to CX, and Giro to close to classics. He said he wanted to be at his absolute best at Fleche, he would burn out during Giro, and that isn't good for his development and rest of the year.
 
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New European cyclocross champion.

One thing his old man never managed!




Let's just ignore the fact that there were no European CX Championships when Sven was active.

I don't see Nys doing the Tour with Trek having Milan and Pedersen. Week 1 suits him well, but I don't think Milan is skipping the tour second year in a row so they will probably send him to the Giro.

I would have assumed he'd be able to handle hillier stuff than either of the two.
 
With Milan, Nys and Pedersen Lidl Trek will really have some distribution issues for the upcoming season.
All three are one of the best in the world in their speciality, so of course everyone will have their demands.

Milan is from the three more the typical sprinter type of the three, while he is also able to survive hills and can be good on short not so steep uphill finishes.

Pedersen is especially good on short uphill finishes, but is also good enough on flat sprints to win against good competition.

Nys is also especially good on short, punchy uphill finishes. The climbs can be a bit longer and steeper than for Pedersen, but also not too long. Unlike Pedersen and Milan, Nys doesn´t like to participate in bunch sprints, but in sprints from a reduced field.

So there is a lot of similarity between Pedersen and Milan and Pedersen and Nys.
 
With Milan, Nys and Pedersen Lidl Trek will really have some distribution issues for the upcoming season.
All three are one of the best in the world in their speciality, so of course everyone will have their demands.

Milan is from the three more the typical sprinter type of the three, while he is also able to survive hills and can be good on short not so steep uphill finishes.

Pedersen is especially good on short uphill finishes, but is also good enough on flat sprints to win against good competition.

Nys is also especially good on short, punchy uphill finishes. The climbs can be a bit longer and steeper than for Pedersen, but also not too long. Unlike Pedersen and Milan, Nys doesn´t like to participate in bunch sprints, but in sprints from a reduced field.

So there is a lot of similarity between Pedersen and Milan and Pedersen and Nys.
You'e right, although I see Pederson in a rather more squeezed middle with two riders edging into his territory.
Interestingly Nys snr has suggested junior could be capable of winning La Fleche.
 
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Interesting interview from Sporza with Nys.

The first part of his season will be
- GP Miguel Indurain
- Itzulia
- Amstel
- Flèche
- Liège to be decided
- Eschborn-Frankfurt

After this, its still not decided if he will ride the Tour or the Vuelta, Nys would prefer the Tour because Vuelta its close to the cross season and could affect his winter preparation but the decision will be done by the team. He also added that he is still not prepared to shrink the cross season to a few races like Van Aert or Van der Poel do but he also said that he has already dreamt about riding Strade and Sanremo one day.
 
Why doesn't it make sense for his schedule? Wout always rides opening weekend, and he does cross races too.

Only starting the season at Romandie like last year was ridiculous.
Nys does a much longer CX season where he completely focuses on CX compared to WVA and MVDP. Number of CX races this season:
WVA - 5
MVDP - 8
Nys - 23

Nys being still quite young and not having achieved the goals he wants in CX, he still prefers to do a longer full season. He'll do the same next year. He probably wants at least 1 year like his father where he is able to dominate.

As long as he does this, you can't expect him to immediately ride Strade Bianche in early March since he's riding from October - February already. While WVA is training for the road season, and just rides these races for fun, Nys trains and rides for CX. Luckily this year he starts again early April and he'll ride bigger races. Just not Strade and MSR because that doesn't fit with his (training) schedule.
 
Nys does a much longer CX season where he completely focuses on CX compared to WVA and MVDP. Number of CX races this season:
WVA - 5
MVDP - 8
Nys - 23

Nys being still quite young and not having achieved the goals he wants in CX, he still prefers to do a longer full season. He'll do the same next year. He probably wants at least 1 year like his father where he is able to dominate.

As long as he does this, you can't expect him to immediately ride Strade Bianche in early March since he's riding from October - February already. While WVA is training for the road season, and just rides these races for fun, Nys trains and rides for CX. Luckily this year he starts again early April and he'll ride bigger races. Just not Strade and MSR because that doesn't fit with his (training) schedule.

Yes, I know about Wout and Mathieu this year, I'm comparing to when they had longer cross seasons and still started the road races so they could ride all the classics.
 
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Yes, I know about Wout and Mathieu this year, I'm comparing to when they had longer cross seasons and still started the road races so they could ride all the classics.
Back then they weren't as serious with their road career as Nys is now. Mostly dipping their toes in the water.
Otherwise why wouldn't WVA, and MVDP not just ride a whole CX season and then do road? Since they love the sport so much. It's mostly because they feel it's necessary to only do some races since otherwise it's not possible to be at their best during the Spring classics.

It's not that weird, right? More altitude trainings, more preparation and less races. Peak more specifically and harder for a period.
 
Feels like Toby is a bit oblivious about CX-riders.

At Thibau's age (22), the biggest road race that Wout and Mathieu had ridden was the Tour of Belgium. The first time they really were ambitious for the bigger road races was at around 25, after completely dominating the CX-scene.

Everything Berniece says here makes total sense, for those in doubt.
 
Feels like Toby is a bit oblivious about CX-riders.

At Thibau's age (22), the biggest road race that Wout and Mathieu had ridden was the Tour of Belgium. The first time they really were ambitious for the bigger road races was at around 25, after completely dominating the cyclocross scene.

Everything Berniece says makes total sense, for those in doubt.

True (not the first paragraph), but I hardly think there's much reason to believe that Wout and Mathieu couldn't have pursued big road goals earlier in their careers. You have to remember that six-seven years ago, it was much less common for very young riders to be really successful on the international road scene. Remco and Pogi were the trailblazers for that trend with their respective 2019 seasons, and since then, we've seen many more young riders exploding unto the scene.

Because that hadn't happened before Wout and Mathieu had turned 24, it is understandable that they didn't think it would've been possible to turn to the road earlier (and still combining it with a semi-full cross calendar). That doesn't, however, mean that it would have been impossible, especially considering the fact that they immediately were at classics winning level in 2018 and 2019.

So I do think that Nys is overly cautious.
 
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Yeah, Wout's first Spring Classics campaign came in 2018, after a busy CX season (winning the Worlds). Starting with the epic ride in the wet & muddy Strade Bianchi.

Mathieu was a year later in 2019, after an impressive CX season, winning 32/34 races, from memory.