Sven Nys was only 13th in today's Bpost Bank Trofee race in Essen, nearly three minutes behind winner Wout van Aert. He also lost his leadership in the BPost Bank Trofee. "I can forget about this ranking. I do not know what's wrong. For me this is also a big question mark." On Twitter, he announced that he will take a break from racing.

Belgian champion Sven Nys has been performing below his usual level for a while. Two weeks agot he abandoned the race in Overijse. He did a training camp in Spain, hoping to turn things around, but things were not better in today's race in Essen.

"It's just not right," he told Sporza afterwards. "I can forget about this ranking. At the moment, I am only at 50% of my potential. As soon as I want to accelerate, I feel that I have no strength. I just do not ride at my usual level.

"I have to draw conclusions and scale back my ambition. I hope that I will become better but it is very difficult in this busy period.

"Also, I'm only human. In recent weeks, I have been trying to do everything that nwas eeded to be good today, but I note that it is still just as before: I am not at my level.

"It's the first time in fifteen years that things have been so bad for such a long time. I have to learn to live with it. I do not know what to do now. Rest? I do not know."

Later Nys announced a break from competition via Twitter. "No Namur, no..." he tweeted. Whether Nys will be at the start of his own race on January 1 is not yet clear.

Even coach Paul van den Bosch does not know what's going on with Sven Nys. "After Overijse we did some tests but they showed nothing.

"If I had a crystal ball, I had already given the solution, but we do not know what is going on. It is clear that something is wrong. Therefore, it is better that Sven will now rest a while.

"He won't ride in Namur. It makes no sense to already speculate about Heusden-Zolder (December 26, ed.), Or any other races. Together with Sven, I will decide when he can ride again. Every sportsman has a bad period at some point in his career. For Sven it is very exceptional, but we do not panic and take our time."