Thibau Nys continued his impressive neo-pro streak of success with Trek-Segafredo, winning the GP Kantons Aargau in Switzerland, the one-day race that precedes the Tour de Suisse.
Nys emerged from the shadows on the rising finish to win by several bike lengths ahead of Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), Marco Haller (Bora-hansgrohe) and Alexander Kamp (Tudor Pro Cycling Team).
"It's unbelievable. If you had told me before the season I wouldn't have believed you," Nys said after the victory. "I'm fully aware that it will go with ups and downs in the future but I can only enjoy from the moments we have right now. I'm really grateful for the opportunities that the Team gave me and I'm happy to finish it off already for the second time this year.
"It's like living on a cloud and I hope I can keep it going.
"We had a really strong team with different options in the final. We came with a plan that could have gone a lot of different ways, but in the end I felt really good and I told the team I would try to survive over the last climb and that if it came to a sprint and they placed me in a good position then I had a good chance of winning.
"I felt really confident going into the sprint. I told Baro [Filippo Baroncini] to go third or fourth into the last corner and then sprint all out, and then I could finish it off. It was like something out of a book, everything went perfectly in the last kilometer. Also, Tony did a perfect job to get us in the best position in the last 500 meters. Baro launched the sprint and with 200 to go I was in the wheel and already felt like I would win. It feels amazing!"
The 173.88km GP Gippingen, now officially known as the Grosser Preis des Kantons Aargau, covers a hilly circuit around the canton west of Zurich. The Rotberg climb is covered seven times but leaves the race finely balanced.
Results powered by FirstCycling
-
The gravelliest UCI Gravel World Championships of them all – A detailed look at the 'perfect storm' of terrain that riders will face this October in Western Australia
Liège-Bastogne-Liège style climbs in a course carved out from the thousands of kilometres of pristine gravel roads on offer -
'AI is going to change women's performance research from the bottom up' - Kristen Faulkner inputs 4,400 hours of personal training history and gains 'actionable' output
Olympic Champion attributes data analysis for winning three gold medals across track and road disciplines at this year's Pan American Championships -
'An unprecedented commitment' - Remco Evenepoel signs with Specialized for life
Olympic Champion will never race on a bike from any other brand
