Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet) aims to return to his former dominance of the sport of cyclocross this winter, as he outlined in a press statement entitled “Fight for every classification” today. The “Kannibaal van Baal” was knocked off his perch as undisputed number one of the winter sport by young rivals Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) and Zdenek Stybar (Telenet-Fidea) last year; he intends to win back that status in the 2010/11 season.
“To put it mildly,” said Nys, “trying to win each classification suits my ambition. I know better than anyone else that there are two guys [Albert and Stybar – ed] that are very hard to beat if they are going well. But last year, I was still up alongside those two and I would like to keep it that way.
“My duels against Stybar and Albert are my new challenge,” he explained. “In previous years it was big news when I didn’t win; now it’s big news when I can beat those two. My ambition to be the best is still there.”
Nys won his first Superprestige title in 1999, at the age of 22. Since then he has dominated the sport like no one ever had before, winning the Superprestige eight more times, as well as the World Cup, the Belgian Championship and the GvA Trofee, all seven times. The only major competition he has been unable to dominate in the same way has been the World Championships, which he has won just once, in 2005; even so, his five bronze medals make him the most successful riders there.
At 34 years of age, Nys is heading towards the end of his career, both Albert and Stybar are ten years his junior and still at the beginning of theirs. Nevertheless, Nys still sees himself as on the same level as his younger riders, and feels the three of them are at a level above the rest.
“I can’t see any new names at the same level,” he said. “Well, I know that Tom Meeusen will be getting closer to the top level; and I also know that [Kevin] Pauwels, [Klaas] Vantornout, [Sven] Vanthourenhout and [Bart] Wellens will win the occasional race, but they won’t dominate a whole season.”
Nys also expects the races to play out differently this time. A dry autumn last year meant that many of the courses were run on hard surfaces, making races much faster and less technical.
“I expect a heavy season,” he explained, “summer is over and it has been raining a lot, which is different to last year. We almost got an entire season of fast cyclocross last year; it’s different now and that is not to my disadvantage.”
While riders like Stybar, Albert and Meeusen are the future of cyclocross, Sven Nys is not quite ready to be confined to the history books just yet.