{"id":506555,"date":"2026-04-01T05:51:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T05:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/506555\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T05:51:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T05:51:16","slug":"thibau-nys-not-afraid-to-take-on-tadej-pogacar-at-world-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/506555\/","title":{"rendered":"Thibau Nys not afraid to take on Tadej Pogacar at World Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<br \/>\nRefusing to dwell on the setback, Nys has reset his goals and is targeting the European championships in Slovenia and, above all, the Worlds in Montreal. He made it clear in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9bSzghoWgOQ&amp;time_continue=0&amp;source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&amp;embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wielerflits.nl%2F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">comments to WielerFlits<\/a>: &#8220;I definitely have ambitions for both races.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Worlds route, he\u2019s been told, fits his characteristics well, which adds fuel to his motivation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But everything can be irrelevant with Tadej Pogacar on the start line,&#8221; the Belgian sighs.<\/p>\n<p>Even so, Nys won\u2019t shy from the presented challenge: &#8220;I won\u2019t be discouraged if Tadej is on the start. So it\u2019s very possible I\u2019ll set my sights on racing the Worlds in Canada.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ambition with feet on the ground<\/p>\n<p>At 23, Nys is clear he wants to measure himself against the WorldTour elite, without drifting into bravado. His focus is not only Pogacar, but also riders like Remco Evenepoel and Mathieu van der Poel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think I can compete with them. But I\u2019m also very realistic and I\u2019m not going to claim I\u2019ll beat them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Belgian trusts his trajectory, especially in races like the Ardennes, where he believes he can make a significant step in the coming years.<\/p>\n<p>Between road and cyclocross<\/p>\n<p>Nys also left the door open to rethink his career if the expected progression on the road does not materialise: &#8220;If I didn\u2019t have that impression, or if I no longer had it in the future, my career could take a different path.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In that sense, cyclocross remains a real alternative. For now, his head and heart pull in different directions: while he admits La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne suits him better, his ambition pushes him to dream of Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And yes, against Pogacar. In my opinion, the best of all time. The edge he has in this era is simply incredible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/tadej-pogacar-tom-pidcock-mathieu-van-der-poel-69caac56d88c8.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"Tadej Pogacar attacks at Milano\u2013Sanremo 2026 with Tom Pidcock and Mathieu van der Poel on his wheel\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Tadej Pogacar attacks at Milano\u2013Sanremo 2026 with Tom Pidcock and Mathieu van der Poel on his wheel<\/p>\n<p>Long-term dreams<\/p>\n<p>Looking beyond the present, Nys won\u2019t give up on big goals. A race he dreamed of as a child also reappears on the horizon: the Tour of Flanders.<\/p>\n<p>For now, his attributes point elsewhere, but the Belgian rules nothing out in the future. His season has been derailed, yet his ambition holds firm: to race the best\u2026 and one day, try to beat them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Refusing to dwell on the setback, Nys has reset his goals and is targeting the European championships&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,109119,101,8782,113697,56,54,55,49085],"class_list":{"0":"post-506555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-lidl-trek","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tadej-pogacar","12":"tag-thibau-nys","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom","16":"tag-world-championships"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506555","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=506555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}