Yesterday Sven Nys presented the new Crelan AA Drinks team for which he will ride in the coming years. The cyclo-cross world champion announced that he will continue his career until the spring of 2016.
Sven Nys may be 37 years of age but nothing suggests that the dominant cyclo-cross rider of the past decade is slowing down. At the beginning of the year, he won his second world championships and he has been the most successful rider in the first part of the 2013-2014 season.
In the past, Nys has said that he will continue his career until at least the end of the 2014-2015 season but that he may continue for an additional year if his legs are still up for the challenge. The successful start of his season has convinced him that the time to retire has not come yet and he has decided to keep riding until the end of the 2015-2016 season.
Yesterday Nys announced his decision at a press conference where he also presented the new Crelan AA Drinks team that will be his home for the final part of his career. His current team will fold at the end of the year but a new team has been created to support the sport's super star.
Crelan has been a long-term backer of Nys and will be joined by the Netherlands-based soft drink maker and the US-bike brands Trek and Bontrager. Nys will have his friend Sven Vanthourenhout as his teammate and the team has created a special supporters' club that will promote the sport.
"It's nice to start with a new team for the final part of my racing career," Nys said at the press conference. "Everything is in place: good sponsors, superb equipment and an ideal back-up squad, which will allow us to concentrate on quickly welcoming new members. It's all going to motivate me to even more so that I give my best on the bike right to the last day of my career.
The partnership with Trek and the work we put into the bikes is another dimension for me in cyclo-cross. I am really happy to be part of the family of Trek and to do something special with them."
Nys will ride his first race for his new team tomorrow when he lines up as the big favourite in his home race, the GP Sven Nys in his home city of Baal.
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