{"id":254037,"date":"2025-11-10T01:08:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T01:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/254037\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T01:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T01:08:12","slug":"i-was-struggling-to-breathe-and-started-hyperventilating-panic-sets-in-for-joris-nieuwenhuis-as-disappointing-european-championship-sees-favourite-fail-to-crack-top-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/254037\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI was struggling to breathe and started hyperventilating\u201d \u2013 Panic sets in for Joris Nieuwenhuis as disappointing European Championship sees favourite fail to crack top-10"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was supposed to be the day <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/joris-nieuwenhuis\" title=\"Joris Nieuwenhuis\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Joris Nieuwenhuis<\/a> confirmed his rise into the elite hierarchy of men\u2019s cyclocross. Instead, the Dutchman endured a harrowing afternoon in Middelkerke, fighting not for medals but for air.Nieuwenhuis had lined up among the pre-race favourites after victories at Rapencross Lokeren and the Heerderstrand round of the Superprestige. But on the demanding sand and dunes of the North Sea course, the 29-year-old never looked comfortable. As <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/toon-aerts\" title=\"Toon Aerts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Toon Aerts<\/a>, Thibau Nys and Joran Wyseure battled for the title up front, Nieuwenhuis was already fading from contention, slipping down the order and eventually crossing the line 15th, 1:50 behind new European champion Aerts.\u201cAlready after the second lap I could tell I wasn\u2019t in a good place,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indeleiderstrui.nl\/veldrijden\/joris-nieuwenhuis-heeft-verklaring-voor-minder-ek-waar-hij-maanden-naartoe-leefden-alles-liep-daardoor-in-de-soep\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nieuwenhuis admitted afterwards to In de Leiderstrui.<\/a> \u201cI was struggling to breathe and started hyperventilating. I couldn\u2019t breathe properly through my stomach and just couldn\u2019t get through the sand sections. It was a bad day all round.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>The Dutchman revealed he\u2019d realised early that his body wasn\u2019t responding as it should. \u201cI couldn\u2019t go deep at all, and when that happens everything falls apart,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just incredibly disappointing. I\u2019d built up to this for months and it was a great chance to become European champion, but I have to accept the result and move on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve got a series to defend \u2013 on Tuesday we go again\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With his breathing issues likely linked to a stress or cold-weather response, Nieuwenhuis was quick to draw a line under the setback. He\u2019ll be back on the start line in Niel on Tuesday, where he currently leads the X2O Badkamers Trofee standings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s life \u2014 it doesn\u2019t always go the way you want,\u201d he said. \u201cI could feel sorry for myself, but that won\u2019t help. On Tuesday, we go again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For a rider who\u2019s spent the autumn and much of last winter establishing himself as the Netherlands\u2019 new cross leader, Middelkerke was a rare off-day \u2014 a reminder that even form riders aren\u2019t immune to the body\u2019s limits when the stakes are highest.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was supposed to be the day Joris Nieuwenhuis confirmed his rise into the elite hierarchy of men\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-254037","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\/254037","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=254037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}