Why isn’t Nys cracking the time trials yet? "He hit his highest watts on the TT Bike"

This year, Nys completed one time trial. In the first stage of the Tour of the Basque Country, he finished an unremarkable 157th, and last year, his best result was 71st in the Tour de Romandie while wearing the yellow jersey. “With Thibau, it was mainly a question of focus and motivation,” Lidl-Trek team leader Maxime Monfort told Het Laatste Nieuws. "In last year's Tour de Romandie, for example, that was completely lacking. The day before, he had won the stage and taken the leader's jersey. But he rode from left to right, lost time due to a lack of concentration, and threw away the yellow jersey."

It was a striking image: Nys was allowed to start last, but it quickly became clear that he was not prioritizing the time trial. His position on the bike was far from ideal, and he lost more than a minute and a half in just over 15 kilometers. “The reality is that he had never worked on it before. But he realized that it was necessary,” said the 42-year-old Belgian, who was no bad time trialist himself as a professional rider.

Perhaps that stage in Switzerland was a wake-up call for the cyclo-cross rider, who is now taking things much more seriously. Father Sven says his son Nys has been making progress 'since last winter at least.' "In the first phase, we worked on his position with the Sport Vlaanderen Heusden-Zolder Velodroom Limburg team. We invested time in improving his aerodynamics and tested some equipment. In recent weeks, Thibau has been regularly doing laps on the outdoor track in Hulshout, here in our neighborhood. And he achieved his highest wattages on the time trial bike there."

"He then started training more often and intensively with the time trial bike, including a recent altitude training camp in the Sierra Nevada. This was done in line with the limitations he still had. Transferring the power he usually develops on his regular bike to his time trial bike proved no easy feat." At the training camp, it was clear that Nys felt more comfortable on the time trial bike than ever before: he even did a wheelie.

Paul Van den Bosch is the coach of the 22-year-old Flemish rider. He explains why there is such a big difference between time trials and ‘normal’ cycling. “You can't compare the two. Very often, you see that high-performance levels that can be achieved on a road bike over five or ten minutes, and Thibau undoubtedly has the potential for that, cannot be achieved on a time trial bike. This is because you adopt a completely different posture on a time trial bike and are more ‘bent over’."

What does Nys Jr. himself think about it? The Lidl-Trek rider has noticed that working on his time trial is paying off. "Actually, for the first time, I'm completely satisfied with my position. I no longer see getting on that time trial bike as a burden. Because I feel that I can put my strength to better use. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the discipline. But I would really like to be very good at it. That's why I'm working so hard at it."

This week will be the first test: on Friday, Nys will start in a 9.7-kilometer time trial during the Baloise Belgium Tour. Monfort knows who his biggest opponent is. “Himself. In theory, he shouldn't look at others and just concentrate on his performance. The goal is to lose as little time as possible against specialists like Ganna, Segaert, and Vermeersch.”

Nys does not yet consider himself a top time trialist, but he is curious to see how big the gap will be between him and the top riders. “Finish within half a minute of Ganna? Is that realistic? We'll see. In any case, I'll try to limit the damage.”