{"id":800927,"date":"2026-10-13T05:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T05:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/800927\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T05:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T05:32:13","slug":"sven-nys-call-out-treatment-of-van-der-poel-and-van-aert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/800927\/","title":{"rendered":"Sven Nys call out treatment of Van der Poel and Van Aert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sven Nys<\/a> isn\u2019t too happy that the cyclocross calendar<\/a> is getting extra packed toward the end of the year and the World Championships in January 2027, now that the schedule seems to be bending a bit to accommodate Mathieu van der Poel<\/a> and Wout van Aert<\/a>. In recent years, the season hasn’t started until late December, which means more and more races are crammed into a shorter period.Cyclocross should not bend to suit van der Poel, says Nys\u00a0Last Sunday, the cyclocross season officially kicked off<\/a> with the HG Cross in Dendermonde,<\/a> and, as expected, van der Poel and van Aert weren\u2019t there yet. They competed in the Road World Championships back in September and will therefore enjoy some rest for quite a while<\/a> before gearing up for a new road season. Cyclocross plays only a minor role in that.<\/p>\n

Nys understands that the cyclocross world is still under the thumb of the sport\u2019s two giants at the moment, especially since van der Poel was still competing in cyclocross last winter and clinched his eighth world title in Ostend this past January. However, the Belgian\u2014team manager of the Baloise Verzekeringen-Het Poetsbureau Lions\u2014is also warning the sport about the future.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

\"lucinda-brand\"\/<\/p>\n

Lucinda Brand, a member of Nys’s team, won last Sunday in Dendermonde.<\/p>\n

Sven Nys outlines cyclocross schedule for van der Poel and van AertIn an interview with Sporza<\/a> last weekend, Nys stated that he is not a fan of the late start to the season for the top riders. \u201cI like the traditional approach,\u201d said the cyclocross legend, who made a name for himself as a full-time cyclocross rider.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe calendar has changed over the past ten years to accommodate the wishes of a few riders who are competing in cyclocross for increasingly shorter periods. I just have to go along with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nys mentioned van der Poel and van Aert by name and expressed understanding for the organisers\u2019 desire to have the two at the start.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at some point, those guys are going to turn their backs on the sport, and then you\u2019re left with a whole bunch of races during the short Christmas period. Then you have to start disappointing people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo<\/p>\n

\"van-aert-van-der-poel-mol\"\/<\/p>\n

Van der Poel and Van Aert during the past cyclocross season.<\/p>\n

Nys has watched his son Thibau race seven times during the Christmas season<\/p>\n

Nys hopes that \u201ca traditional calendar\u201d remains an option, because: \u201cYou can\u2019t race ten days in a row. That\u2019s unfeasible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, in a cynical tone, regarding the much-discussed and jam-packed Christmas period: \u201cSoon we\u2019ll have to race twice in one day just to get them to the starting line. I often get calls asking if Thibau can still race, but he\u2019s already doing seven races during that period.\u201d<\/p>\n

In November and most of December, there are usually one or two races a weekend, and Nys would like to keep it that way. He has respect for all the organisers who are keeping their heads above water during the busiest weeks of the year, knowing that even a race between Christmas and New Year\u2019s Eve is no guarantee that Mathieu and\/or Wout will be there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sven Nys isn\u2019t too happy that the cyclocross calendar is getting extra packed toward the end of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,121965,133220,99800,101,115508,56,54,55,8783],"class_list":["post-800927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-cyclo-cross","tag-latest-cycling-news","tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","tag-sports","tag-sven-nys","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wout-van-aert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800927","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=800927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}