{"id":405859,"date":"2026-01-13T04:25:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T04:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/405859\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T04:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T04:25:12","slug":"thibau-nys-heads-belgian-team-for-uci-cyclo-cross-world-championships-in-absence-of-wout-van-aert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/405859\/","title":{"rendered":"Thibau Nys heads Belgian team for UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in absence of Wout van Aert"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Belgium national team is down half of the riders the coach Angelo De Clercq expected to fill the country’s eight-man squad for the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships<\/a> elite men’s race, but have filled out the roster with new national champion Thibau Nys<\/a> at the helm.<\/p>\n

The team is without Wout van Aert, who broke a bone in his right foot<\/a> in a crash during the Zilvermeercross in Mol earlier this month, Eli Iserbyt to an early retirement<\/a>, Laurens Sweeck to an injured shoulder, and Emiel Verstrynge, who has brought his season to a close to focus on preparation for the road season.<\/p>\n

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That leaves Nys to lead the selection alongside Michael Vanthourenhout, Toon Aerts, Niels Vandeputte, Joran Wyseure, Toon Vandebosch, Jente Michels, and Gerben Kuypers.<\/p>\n

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The UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships take place in Hulst, The Netherlands, on January 31 and February 1.<\/p>\n

Although the team is missing some top names, Belgian Cycling is still looking for medals, even if dethroning seven-time world champion Mathieu van der Poel on his home soil.<\/p>\n

“The puzzle was not so difficult anymore and had already been laid for a while,” De Clercq said to Sporza<\/a>. “I knew for a while that there would be absentees. I had been in contact with Emiel Verstrynge for the past few weeks, and we also knew that Wout and Laurens would not be there.<\/p>\n

“They were all four medal contenders, so it’s a shame to have to miss them. But the focus is now on the guys who are there.”<\/p>\n

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Verstrynge was a close second to Nys in the recent Belgian championships and has had a stellar season with six podiums, including third in the Zonhoven and Antwerp World Cups. However, he is starting his second neo-pro year with Alpecin-Premier Tech, and has already planned to stop his cyclo-cross season with the Belgian championships in order to rest up for the road season.<\/p>\n

For Nys’ part, the new Belgian champion knows that topping Van der Poel will be an uphill battle, but De Clercq has confidence in the team’s medal potential.<\/p>\n

“Thibau should be able to follow [Van der Poel] for a long time. He has to have ambition to be on the podium, and you never know, Mathieu could have a bad day and Nys end up on the highest step anyway. Anyway, we have a very strong team to go to Hulst.”<\/p>\n

The team is hoping to win four medals total, including the non-elite races.<\/p>\n

“This is a realistic goal. In a number of categories, we are with medal candidates and with the men’s juniors and under-23s, we can perhaps even become world champions with a good day. It’s interesting to see how far we get there.”<\/p>\n

Belgium for the 2026 UCI Cyclo-cross World ChampionshipsElite MenThibau NysMichael VanthourenhoutToon AertsNiels VandeputteJoran WyseureToon VandeboschJente MichelsGerben KuypersReserves: Anton Ferdinande, Wout Janssen, Witse Meeussen, Victor Van de PutteElite WomenMarion Norbert RiberolleJulie BrouwersU23 MenViktor VandenbergheMats Vanden EyndeSil De BrauwereKay De BruyckereYordi CorsusAaron DockxArthur Van den BoerReserve: Kenay De MoyerU23 WomenFleur MoorsShanyl De SchoesitterJunior MenGiel LejeuneJari Van LeeBas Vanden EyndeLars CorsusJunior Women<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Belgium national team is down half of the riders the coach Angelo De Clercq expected to fill…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-405859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}