Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) has won the second stage of the Tour de Romandie from Fribourg to Les Marécottes. And how! Our compatriot joined the breakaway of the day with 150 kilometers to go, together with Xandro Meurisse, held firm on the tough final climb and then beat Vendrame in the sprint.
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Thibau Nys lost the wheel of his lead-out a day earlier, in the first stage in line, but more than made up for that with a phenomenal stage win in the difficult second stage, where the finish was on a tough climb of 7.6 kilometers at 7.5 percent.
“I was so disappointed that I couldn’t show my good legs yesterday,” said an overjoyed Thibau Nys after his third day of racing of the season. “The plan was to join the breakaway when a strong group formed. I think I made the escape at the perfect time.”
“I had strong guys with me and tried to save as much energy as possible along the way, but I didn’t know what to expect. (Laughs) It’s the first time in my career that I was in a breakaway and I didn’t know the final climb. I have to thank the team for guiding me perfectly through the last kilometers from the support car.”
When Thibau Nys survived the nasty final climb and was able to complete his strong sprint against Vendrame, victory seemed to be impossible for him.
“Yes, but if you start thinking that you can’t lose, then things can get difficult and victory can slip away from you. I tried to cool to stay, not to risk anything and to time it well. I can’t describe what this victory means to me. I worked so hard for this (Nys went on an altitude internship, ed.) and it was the first goal of the road season to be good here. That’s one thing, but winning is another. I’m going to remember this for the rest of my life. Now there is a time trial and my time trial is not strong enough to keep the leader’s jersey, but I am going to enjoy wearing it tomorrow.”
On the road with Xandro Meurisse
The escapees (including Xandro Meurisse) had started the final climb Les Marécottes with a bonus of just over two minutes, but there the peloton started to chip away at the lead so that we had a blood-curdling finish.
Luke Plapp jumped away from the peloton and outpaced the two strongest climbers of the five escapees – Nys and Vendrame – but Nys’ climbing legs were strong enough to hold on and ride towards the finish together with Vendrame while the peloton came awfully close. Thibau Nys played to his explosiveness and beat the Italian quite easily.
Nys thus completed a flight of about 150 kilometers, because in addition to Nys and Meurisse, Roger Adrià (BORA – hansgrohe), Andrea Vandrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) and Sean Flynn (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) also had the flight. of the day formed. Who could have predicted then that Thibau Nys would throw his hands up many hours later?
Tags: Thibau Nys takes phenomenal stage victory Romandie flight kilometers leader remember life
