'Give Mathieu those five seconds, and you won’t see him again' – Thibau Nys chasing Van der Poel's level of cyclo-cross dominance

After scoring his second career European Cyclo-cross Championships title in Zeddam on Sunday, Thibau Nys has said that he aspires to reach the level of Mathieu van der Poel in terms of of not just winning races but dominating them.

The 23-year-old Belgian soloed to glory after leaving behind Joran Wyseure on the final lap of the race, adding the 2026 title to his triumph two years ago.

Nys won five 'cross races last year, including three rounds of the UCI World Cup en route to second place overall in the series – behind Mathieu van der Poel. Now, he's set his sights on being able to convert his strength into the sort of victories Van der Poel has pulled off year after year.

"Just now on the podium, one side of me was happy with what I had already achieved, while the other side was already thinking about what could be better," Nys told Het Nieuwsblad after the victory, his second in two starts this season after opening his account with glory in the opening round of the X2O Trofee Koppenbergcross in Oudenaarde.

"Where can I find those extra percentages? Why can’t I just keep riding alone from lap four? In that fourth lap, for example, I unexpectedly gained a small gap, but I immediately felt that I didn’t have the legs to ride at the front by myself for the rest of the race.

"Give Mathieu (van der Poel) those five seconds, and you won’t see him again for the entire race. That is what I want to get to too, although I don’t know if I will ever be able to."

Nys and his Belgian teammate Wyseure were neck-and-neck for much of the race, with Nys unable to go clear at the front before his final-lap effort. In the end, it wasn't a performance reminiscent of Van der Poel's dominant best, but Nys knows what he's aiming for.

"I felt I was really good, but not good enough to just ride ahead on my own for six or seven laps. So it was a bit of a feeling-out process and trying to see where I could create a gap, to then really explode on the last lap," he told WielerFlits.

"Joran was riding at a very high pace and was simply able to maintain a strong tempo. In that respect, he was perhaps slightly stronger than me, but I did have that burst of energy a bit more in the final lap.

"We are really talking about details here, but I did feel, especially in the penultimate lap, that I perhaps had just a little more in reserve on those stairs to strike there in the final lap. And in the end, I managed to do just that."

Nys has put a challenging road racing season blighted by knee surgery behind him to get off to a 100% start on the 'cross bike. Sterner tests lie ahead, including the World Championships at the end of January, as well as battles against Wout van Aert and possibly Van der Poel, who has yet to confirm his cyclo-cross plans for the winter.

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