Sven Nys: I am not worried

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Along side the great results from Lars Boom and Bart Wellens over the weekend, the next biggest news was that Sven Nys was beaten. "No panic," the cannibal from Baalen told Sport.be. "I will be back in Hasselt."

After Nys' third place in Niel and fifth in the Pijnacker round of the World Cup, the Belgian was in just as much, if not more, demand by the press. They all wanted to know the same thing - why the leader in the UCI ranking was in such 'bad' form over the weekend.

"This is indeed a problem," Nys said a day after Pijnacker. "So you see, everyone has been sitting waiting for the day that Sven Nys doesn't win. The impossible has occurred, now it is up to me to rise above it. And that will happen, no problem."

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Dismissing speculation that the reason for the apparent bad form is a signal that Nys is suffering the effects of overtraining, the captain of the Rabobank 'cross team said that the day after Pijnacker he was up at seven in the morning, "…and at nine I was already out training on the bike. Believe me, with full determination and in the pouring rain! This is certainly not a signal that this crosser is on his last legs, on the contrary."

Nys still stands by his earlier explanation, which he gave after the last round of the World Cup that his lack of form is due to a back problem that, "most likely occurred during a training run last Tuesday. But so as to not dramatise, after treatment everything was already back in order by Friday. Come to think of it, who hasn't ever had a problem with their back?" he questioned.

"It came back again on the weekend due to using so much strength, just at the moment that we get two very hard races, and then there is nothing that you can do."

The winner of seven races this season already is confident that he will be back to form by this weekends race in Hasselt, "I am confident that by next weekend in Hasselt, there will be nothing more to worry about. It already went better in Pijnacker than in Niel," he explained.