Lars Boom and Zdenek Stybar have done it with success. Will Wout van Aert also turn his attention to the road? His team leader Niels Albert will not stop him. Commentator Michel Wuyts remembers why Sven Nys never made the transition. “EPO ruled back then,” he said when the topic was discussed at the Sporza show Extra Time Cross. “I have no regrets," said Nys.

In recent years Lars Boom and Zdenek Stybar have left cyclo-cross in favour of a road career and perhaps Mathieu van der Poel will do so in a few years as well. What will happen if Wout van Aert makes a similar decision, Albert was asked.

"Then I wish him all kind of success," Van Aert’s Vastgoedservice sports director said. "I do not want to be a team leader who stands in the way of someone's career. I will never prevent someone from trying something.

"But he needs to know one thing: the road will not be easy There are many guys who have tried it in the past and there are only two (Boom and Stybar) that are actually successful.”

"Van Aert will make the decision himself," Michel Wuyts said. "In terms of ability he belongs to the category of the better road racers but he will be able to earn as much on the road as he does in cyclo-cross?

"I don’t think that Stybar earns as much as he did when he was in cyclo-cross and it will also depend on that.”

"Nys has also tried it at some point," Paul Herygers said. "He did a spring season and had a great Paris-Roubaix but he never focused fully on it.”

"It was my own choice not to leave the cross scene," said Nys. "I never wanted to skip cyclo-cross. And combining the road with a full cyclo-cross season is not possible."

"He has had the misfortune that EPO ruled in the peloton," said Wuyts. "Sven did not want to be part of that and that cost him a road career. It had to be completely different.”

"They were difficult times,” Nys responded. “I did not know what was going on and I saw that I came up short which was not the case in cyclo-cross. I was the best of the season.

"I also saw that cross could still evolve and I wanted to be part of it. When you see how cross has evolved, I'm glad I was part of it. I have no regrets. Cyclo-cross is now at a higher level.”