Thibau Nys doesn’t understand why everyone is so strong in the Tour, father Sven secretly already considering "other options"

Before the start of stage 7, which finished atop the Mûr-de-Bretagne, Nys was still able to smile. Speaking to Sporza, he expressed the shock he felt at the guys surrounding him during his Tour debut. “It’s crazy, man. Okay, I’m not the best version of myself - how I move through the peloton, my numbers… But on the other hand, I sometimes also wonder: what are all these guys doing the rest of the season? Why don’t I ever see them?”

A fair question, because there are so many riders who underperform all year long, only to shine at the Tour de France. “When you see how ‘easily’ I win races sometimes, it makes you think these other guys are leaving a lot on the table, right? Here, they’re riding two or three levels above anything I’ve ever seen. It’s a shame I’m just missing those two or three percent. And still, I’m pushing numbers that are insanely high. But then I look around and see that barely 10 or 15 riders have been dropped.”

Read more below the photo.

Things need to improve, and father Sven Nys believes they can. He sees his son chasing the facts since the crash on day one. “He’s not feeling great in terms of top condition, and when that’s the case, you experience the race very differently. It feels like the entire peloton is riding 5 kilometers per hour faster. I also see behind the scenes that the power and performance he’s showing now in the Tour are definitely not the values that he normally puts out in a race. His numbers are much lower,” he told Sporza.

The illness Thibau experienced leading up to the Belgian National Championships didn’t help either, and the crash only set Nys back further. “Of course everyone’s at peak level here, but he’s not where he needs to be. That creates a situation where he’s never in position and always just happy to reach the finish line,” Nys senior explained.

“But it shouldn’t become an ordeal,” he emphasized. “Things should improve, but the question is whether that’s still possible. For now, we’re monitoring his recovery. How he wakes up in the morning and how he communicates. If suddenly there’s a dip, then you have to start considering other options. For now, he’s not getting into trouble, but he also can’t push his max power. Sometimes sport is very simple, and sometimes it’s very complex.”