Lidl-Trek explain why Thibau Nys finished 31 minutes behind Brennan on stage 16: 'We’ll see how the next few hours go'

Thibau Nys and Paul Double made it to the finish of Stage 16 of the Vuelta a España, but don’t ask how. The puncher from Lidl-Trek and the climber from Jayco AlUla crossed the finish line together, a whopping 31 minutes and 36 seconds behind stage winner Matthew Brennan.

In the final, several riders had to let go. They had nothing left to gain in the sweltering heat and the chaos of a sprint. For example, we saw riders from UAE Emirates-XRG finish at the back of the pack, and for Movistar, Iván Roméo and Pablo Castrillo—Enric Mas’s climbing domestiques—seemed to be taking the day off. They’ll need their energy later.

However, Nys and Double certainly didn’t finish just over 31 minutes behind out of sheer luxury. The Belgian rider from Lidl-Trek was still part of the breakaway in Stage 15 last Sunday, finishing a close third.

Double has been struggling for some time now and consistently finishes among the very last riders. So this time, the British climber found himself in company from a surprising source.

It’s not clear exactly what’s wrong with the two of them. What is clear, however, is that Nys and Double didn’t handle Monday’s rest day well. On Wednesday's Stage 17 the two will face another flat stage to give their bodies some much-needed rest, followed by an individual time trial of just over 32 kilometers on Thursday. Not exactly a walk in the park when you’re not feeling well.

Incidentally, Nys wasn’t just a contender in the fifteenth stage; he had also finished third in the tenth stage. Nothing seemed to foreshadow such a slump. Double finished only three times among the top 115 riders in this Vuelta, which says it all about his form in this race. Let’s hope they make it to Granada.

Maxime Monfort, team manager at Lidl-Trek, told Het Laatste Nieuws exactly what happened. Nys was dropped during the hilly opening stage, where the pace was fast. "A few riders who’d been dropped managed to rejoin the peloton just ahead of them, but they [Nys and Double] didn’t. So the two of them had to carry on on their own. They just kept up their own pace."

The reason behind the setback? After his efforts in the heat of Córdoba, Nys had started to feel unwell. That night, he also developed a fever. That has now subsided, but his strength does not seem to have returned yet. "It’s been up and down for Thibau for a few days now. But he’s fine now. He’s not ill. We’ll see how the next few hours go."