Nys and Vacek combine again for another impressive uphill victory
Fresh from a dominating performance at the Tour de Hongrie, Thibau Nys hits out again in the first stage of the Tour of Norway – the site of his first professional win one year ago – to take his fifth win of the season after 13 days of racing.
The first stage of the four day race took the peloton on a 142km loop around the Norwegian fjords, starting and finishing in Voss. With Nys showing such strong form ahead of the race, a natural responsibility to control the breakaway fell to Lidl-Trek, which required a big effort from the team: Dario Cataldo, Fabio Felline, and Natnael Tesfazion.
As the peloton reeled in the breakaway, Jacopo Mosca rode on the front to position Czech champion Mathias Vacek, with Thibau Nys tucked on his wheel. Other teams came to the front, upping the pace to try and drop Nys, but in fact the opposite happened. Once Vacek increased the pace further, the group split, finding just himself and Nys with a significant gap to the shattered peloton.
After Vacek emptied himself, Nys took over 300 meters from the finish, using his last reserves of strength to stay ahead of the chasers and take the win.
credit: Szymon Gruchalski
In case you missed the action…
The unstoppable duo of @thibau_nys4 & Mathias Vacek in that final km 🔥👌🤩#ToN24 pic.twitter.com/QzztRXvvyg
— Lidl-Trek (@LidlTrek) May 23, 2024
Thibau’s reaction
“The team did a super good job, like the last few weeks every single day. Without the radios it was a bit difficult to control, but it’s an amazing group and we made it work in whatever scenario. The did a hell of a job to control the break and keep everything in control. On the final climb, Mathias was the Mathias we know from the last weeks and he was there at the right moment to drop everyone. At 500 meters to go I was thinking to let him have the win and do a 1-2 after all the work he did for me in the past weeks, because I would really love to see him win…
credit: Szymon Gruchalski
…But then we came about 250 meters too short and I could not take the risk to wait more, so I had to go. I’m super happy to win and be in the leader’s jersey again, it will be really difficult to keep it tomorrow but it’s already a super start so we’ll try to keep going.”
