Nys Dominant, Belgians Sweep Junior Men: 2020 Cyclocross World Championships, Dübendorf, Switzerland

DÜBENDORF, Switzerland—After a relatively dry first day of racing on Saturday, Day 2 of the 2020 UCI Cyclocross World Championships would deliver a heavy muddy day, as a lot of rain hit the Dübendorf airfield in Switzerland.

The first race of Sunday was the Junior Men’s race, where the son of cyclocross legend Sven Nys, Thibau (BEL), started as the main favorite, after winning the European Championships, the Belgian Nationals and the World Cup overall title this season. Could he do what his father never did, and win a rainbow jersey as a Junior?

Nys took the holeshot today, as French rider Florian Richard went down in the Swiss mud, holding up most of the bunch. The U.S.’ Magnus Sheffield then took over the lead going towards the first stairs on the track, followed by Switzerland’s own Dario Lillo. Sheffield took control of much of the first lap, holding off others’ efforts to get by on a steep run-up.

Halfway through the first lap, Thibeau Nys pushed to the front again, passing Sheffield on a descent, followed by Dutch rider Tibor Del Grosso.

By the end of the lap, five riders had distanced themselves: Nys, Del Grosso, Lillo, Lennert Belmans (BEL) and Davide De Pretto (ITA).

The Italian rider soon dropped away, but when Nys attacked, they all started to struggle. By the end of the second lap, Nys had an 11 seconds advantage on Lillo and 14 seconds on Belmans already.

Belmans caught Lillo again in the second-to-last lap, as they also were joined by another Belgian, Emiel Verstrynge. With one more lap to go and a 39-second advantage, the fans of the Nys family were about to celebrate yet another World Title.

Nys held on to his advantage in the last lap and took his first rainbow jersey.

“I couldn’t believe it, I have no words,” he said after his victory. “I knew I was in good shape, but on this course I didn’t know how I was going to ride. Halfway through the race I had a small gap and I just rode my own thing and it was enough. I rode a really good year, I became European Champion and won the World Cup, so automatically you’re the race favorite. There was so much pressure. But I think it’s a course where the strongest rider wins and it was me.”

In the background, Belmans had successfully started pushing for sliver, as Lillo and Verstrynge were battling for bronze. Last-lap drama then unfolded for Lillo, as he crashed going down one of the last uphills. Verstrynge opened up a gap which he held to the line to deliver an entire Belgian podium sweep.

“Thibau was the strongest, but I’m very happy with silver,” Belmans said.

“In the beginning, I was looking for the good feeling a bit, but in the last lap I joined,” Verstrynge said. “I kept putting pressure on Lillo and he made a mistake.”

U.S.’ national champion Andrew Strohmeyer was first American with a 10th-place finish. Magnus Sheffield, after his spectacular start, took 28th, Nick Carter 41th and Jared Scott 60th.

Canada’s Cody Scott finished 51th, Matthew Leliveld 57th.

Full results are below.

Junior Men Results: 2020 Cyclocross World Championships, Dübendorf Switzerland

Rank	BIB	Last Name	First Name	Country	Result
1	8	NYS	Thibau	BEL	0:38:50
2	9	BELMANS	Lennert	BEL	0:39:21
3	10	VERSTRYNGE	Emiel	BEL	0:39:28
4	29	LILLO	Dario	SUI	0:39:44
5	33	DEL GROSSO	Tibor	NED	0:39:58
6	61	BRENNER	Marco	GER	0:40:03
7	11	MICHELS	Jente	BEL	0:40:19
8	50	RICHARD ANDRADE	Florian	FRA	0:40:24
9	2	MCGUIRE	Rory	GBR	0:40:27
10	57	STROHMEYER	Andrew	USA	0:40:29
11	4	STOCKWELL	Oliver	GBR	0:40:40
12	48	ANANIE	Ugo	FRA	0:40:41
13	36	KARS	Hugo	NED	0:40:41
14	15	ZATLOUKAL	Jan	CZE	0:40:51
15	19	STRÁNSKÝ	Matěj	CZE	0:41:07
16	5	KIELY	Joe	GBR	0:41:14
17	13	LAURYSSEN	Yorben	BEL	0:41:18
18	12	HUYBS	Ward	BEL	0:41:22
19	24	MASCIARELLI	Lorenzo	ITA	0:41:47
20	3	CARRICK-ANDERSON	Corran	GBR	0:41:51
21	21	DE PRETTO	Davide	ITA	0:42:03
22	52	VADIC	Baptiste	FRA	0:42:21
23	63	PAHLKE	Jasper Levi	GER	0:42:33
24	32	MÜLLER	Timo	SUI	0:42:40
25	62	NEFFGEN	Tim	GER	0:42:42
26	65	WENZEL	Mats	LUX	0:42:42
27	18	KOPECKÝ	Matyáš	CZE	0:42:57
28	59	SHEFFIELD	Magnus	USA	0:43:01
29	23	OLIVO	Bryan	ITA	0:43:03
30	6	CHILTON	Ben	GBR	0:43:08
31	31	HALTER	Jean-Luc	SUI	0:43:11
32	37	VAN LIEROP	Danny	NED	0:43:17
33	39	GROENENDAAL	Bailey	NED	0:43:17
34	64	HARTER	Luca	GER	0:43:27
35	49	LELANDAIS	Rémi	FRA	0:43:27
36	35	JANSSEN	Lucas	NED	0:43:33
37	56	SØLVHØJ	Oliver Vedersø	DEN	0:43:35
38	22	AGOSTINACCHIO	Filippo	ITA	0:43:43
39	51	CASTILLE	Noé	FRA	0:43:44
40	41	ARRIETA LIZARRAGA	Igor	ESP	0:43:54
41	60	CARTER	Nick	USA	0:44:12
42	79	RAFFERTY	Darren	IRL	0:44:14
43	20	JINDŘICH	Pavel	CZE	0:44:32
44	66	WALLENBORN	Arno	LUX	0:44:49
45	72	MURAKAMI	Yujiro	JPN	0:44:49
46	44	SUAREZ FERNANDEZ	Alain	ESP	0:45:08
47	69	LIND	Oscar	SWE	0:45:10
48	67	URY	Noé	LUX	0:45:19
49	68	PAQUET	Tom	LUX	0:45:36
50	16	FIALA	Matyáš	CZE	0:45:38
51	75	SCOTT	Cody	CAN	0:45:55
52	76	MUSIALIK	Jakub	POL	0:45:55
53	42	SASIETA ANTXIA	Aitzol	ESP	0:46:02
54	25	LOCONSOLO	Ettore	ITA	0:46:16
55	43	DIEGO CARRASCO	Sergio	ESP	0:46:38
56	46	DIAZ PEREZ	Miguel	ESP	0:46:42
57	74	LELIVELD	Matthew	CAN	0:47:13
58	73	SUZUKI	Raito	JPN	0:47:19
59	70	KAGEVI	Carl	SWE	0:47:44
60	58	SCOTT	Jared	USA	0:47:52
61	77	JANISZEWSKI	Patryk	POL
62	71	KOREŇ	Matúš Jakub	SVK
63	78	LUKOW	Antoni	POL
64	80	VETISCH	Erik	AUS
DNF	54	WANG	Gustav	DEN
DNF	30	SOMMER	Lars	SUI

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