Thibau Nys duly delivered at the Cyclocross European Championships on Sunday, with a surging final lap seeing him best Joran Wyseure in an exciting elite men's race in Zeddam. Earlier in the day, Celia Gery won her second title in the under-23 women's race.

With defending champion Toon Aerts out with injury, a new European champion was set to be crowned in Zeddam. After a tightly-contested elite women's race on Saturday, favourites such as Thibau Nys knew that the race had crucial elements such as 99 steps, a prolonged sand section and an uphill finish straight that would mean the strongest rider should ultimately triumph.

The first lap started with a hard pace as Mees Hendrikx led from the front. Of an eight-strong Belgian team, Laurens Sweeck and Joran Wyseure were best-placed in the top five in an eight-rider group. Thibau Nys and Michael Vanthourenhout rode in a group a handful of seconds behind while Cameron Mason endured a poor start, finding himself 17 seconds down.

Felipe Orts came to the front on lap two but it was Nys and Vantourenhout who began to show themselves in a group of around 14 in contention onto the third lap. Ryan Kamp and Joris Nieuwenhuis showed well for the Netherlands while Kevin Kuhn was also prominent at the front as only Mason and Pim Ronhaar seemed absent from the main group.

On lap four, Nys made a big move through a tough technical section as he jumped ahead of the other 13 riders in the group, while Vanthourenhout suffered a dropped chain in chase. Among the chasers, Kuhn left Wyseure behind slightly as the group split in technical sections.

Kuhn and Wyseure formed a chase duo four seconds behind Nys on lasp five while the Dutch led the chase in group three - with Kamp and Nieuwenhuis working hard. Wyseure and Nys soon combined at the front to put Kuhn under pressure and lose touch from the front.

Nys and Wyseure work together to establish leading duo

With gaps appearing repeatedly among the leaders and chase groups behind, the steps and finish straight proved the best ways to gauge differences in a close race. Although Nys seemed strongest in technical sections, Wyseure continued to keep in touch as Vanthourenhout and Nieuwenhuis loomed large just a handful of seconds behind.

Heading into lap seven, both Nys and Wyseure had distanced Kuhn, with Felipe Orts and Niels Vandeputte rallying 15 seconds behind. Previous efforts seemed to be catching up to Nieuwenhuis and Vanthourenhout as they drifted back slightly.

The penultimate lap saw the medals come into view as Wyseure looked to keep at the front in the leading duo, with a technical corner seeing him best Nys as the Belgian champion ground to halt and closed the gap. Cameron Mason upped the intensity in a battle for bronze as he caught Kuhn on the critical steps section.

Mason surges as leading pair hit final lap ahead

As the Belgian pair took the bell for the final lap, the race was poised for a two-up battle in an attritional race while a desparate Mason grappled for assistance in the chase behind battling for bronze. He had Kuhn, Nieuwenhuis and Vandeputte for company in that battle.

Nys came good in the same technical section he lost ground minutes before, but Wyseure doggedly held on before Nys once again put on the afterburners to put three seconds into his compatriot over the top of the steps.

After biding his time in the penultimate lap, a terrific Nys threw the hammer down in the final sections of the course to build the slimmest of margins ahead of Wyseure and push the limits of a difficult course.

Hitting the home straight solo, Thibau Nys had time to celebrate a second elite men's European title with a terrific performance. Wyseure came home in second and Vandeputte rallied in the final lap to take third place and make it an all-Belgium podium.

In the U23 women's race, France swept the podium, taking all three places. Celia Gery followed up her breakthrough season on the road by claiming the U23 women's title in a nine second victory, following up her 2024 win in the same category. Lison Desprez and Amandine Muller completed the medal placing in second and third respectively.

Lars Peers was crowned junior men's European champion after a 15-second victory over Delano Heeren. Bas Vanden Eynde completed the podium in third place.

Results European Championships 2026 elite men

1	NYS Thibau	Belgium	11:37
2	WYSEURE Joran	Belgium	0:07
3	VANDEPUTTE Niels	Belgium	0:19
4	NIEUWENHUIS Joris	Netherlands	0:20
5	KUHN Kevin	Switzerland	,,
6	MASON Cameron	Great Britain	0:22
7	ORTS Felipe	Spain	0:49
8	MICHELS Jente	Belgium	0:55
9	KAMP Ryan	Netherlands	0:57
10	DEBORD Romain	France	1:07

Results European Championships 2026 U23 women

1	GERY Célia	France	22:17:00
2	DESPREZ Lison	France	0:09
3	MULLER Amandine	France	1:12
4	BUKOVSKÁ Barbora	Czech Republic	1:20
5	PELLIZOTTI Giorgia	Italy	1:39
6	LANGENBARG Puck	Netherlands	1:45
7	CABACA Mae	Netherlands	1:53
8	LAMBERT Zélie	France	1:59
9	METTIER Chiara	Switzerland	2:04
10	MOES Noï	Netherlands	2:16