{"id":251895,"date":"2025-11-08T20:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T20:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/251895\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T20:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T20:58:10","slug":"ill-have-to-be-at-the-top-of-my-game-thibau-nys-targets-title-defence-at-european-cyclocross-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/251895\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I’ll have to be at the top of my game\u2019 – Thibau Nys targets title defence at European Cyclocross Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

After claiming the first major championship victory of his career last year in Pontevedra, Thibau Nys<\/a> is looking to defend his European title this weekend in Middelkerke, but the Lidl-Trek<\/a> man is wary of a course that wouldn\u2019t usually suit his characteristics.<\/p>\n

Nys closed out his road season early in August after a debut Tour de France to fully focus on the 2025-26 cyclocross season, making a winning start at the Koppenbergcross<\/a> last weekend.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Turning 23 next week, Nys heads up a talented Belgian elite men’s squad for the European Championships that also contains the likes of Toon Aerts (Deschacht-Hens-FSP) and Michael Vanthourenhout (Pauwels Sauzen – Cibel Clementines).<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Cyclocross stars Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) are either yet to begin their winter campaigns or are skipping the mud altogether<\/a> this season.<\/p>\n

Other rivals for the title include Joris Nieuwenhuis (Ridley Racing), who won in Lokeren last weekend and an in-form Pim Ronhaar (Baloise Glowi Lions).<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning certainly won’t be easy. I realise I’ll have to be at the top of my game to win,\u201d Nys told Nieuwsblad<\/a> ahead of the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m here with the feeling I want to have. And yes, this is an important race. There are three jerseys to win during the season. This is one of them, so this is a race I want to be at. Every jersey adds prestige.”<\/p>\n

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

Nys may be one of the favourites to win the men\u2019s elite race on Sunday, but he is wary of the course in Middelkerke, which contains long and difficult sections of sand.<\/p>\n

“There are courses that should suit me much better than this. But it doesn’t scare me off. I’ve had my problems in the sand in the recent past, and it’s up to me to turn that around.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my view, this is also a sand cyclocross, but I’m equally convinced that I have a chance on this course as well. But everything has to be right,” Nys said.<\/p>\n

As defending champion, the Belgian feels the pressure from the home fans, but remains grounded about his chances of victory on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“Not winning would be a disappointment. I can only lose, but I have no guarantee of victory. Luckily, I have [the Belgian champion\u2019s] jersey in the closet that I can wear next weekend, in case things go wrong on Sunday.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After claiming the first major championship victory of his career last year in Pontevedra, Thibau Nys is looking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-251895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}