- Hello everyone.
I'm Jeremy Powers, and I am here today
with one of the greatest of all time, Sven Nys,
and Sven thank you for coming on.
- Thank you.
- We're here at the cycling center,
your cycling center,
The Sven Nys Cycling Center in Baal, Belgium,
which is home of the GP Sven Nys
and now the Sven Nys Cycling Academy.
So we're spending a day with you
as you teach the next generation of cyclo-cross riders.
Tell me what we're going to do today.
- We're going to learn a lot of cyclo-cross skills,
not especially cyclo-cross, we have also kids who are
riding on the mountain bike.
When they are young,
they need to develop everything so we let them drop,
we let them ride rock gardens.
Try to learn some reaction up and on the bike,
cornering, everything.
So it's during the whole week from Monday until Friday,
kids between five and 14 years.
- I think it's really cool that these kids
are going to be able to learn with you,
and hang out and spend an entire day.
(yelling in foreign language)
(upbeat music)
Belgium's dominance in cyclo-cross
has been the storyline from the birth of the sport.
The country, undeniably has more medals
in the discipline of cyclo-cross
than any country, and probably some combined.
So getting to spend a day with a guy
who has had such a big part of putting the sport
on the map, well, it was pretty cool.
I was also able to participate in the day's festivities.
Here Sven's showing the kids how to properly
put me into the tape, and then we teamed up
to take the kids on and start practice.
Then he taught us all about
the basics of explosivity training.
(whistle blowing)
- [Sven] Up, up, up, up, up, up!
Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on!
- And a little bit of stretching.
(Sven speaking foreign language)
Okay, it's clear that we can all learn
a few things from Sven Nys.
Sven Nys is regarded as one of the most
prolific cross-racers of all time.
Not just for his results,
which include four world championship medals,
13 Overall Superprestige victories,
and 50 World Cup wins.
It was also his determination, style, and technique
that captured fans attention all over the world.
Nicknamed the Cannibal from Baal,
which is his hometown in Belgium.
And I have to say with a nickname like that,
I think he's a little more light hearted these days.
But that determination that he used in his racing career
has turned into a desire to inspire
the next generation of great cross-riders,
and give back to the sport that he loves.
- [Sven] Come on, come on, come on.
Come on! (speaking foreign language)
- This is the Sven Nys boot camp.
It's a little bit like military training,
but with Sven's panache and the kids are loving it
and they're, it's great.
It's absolutely perfect.
(speaking foreign language)
Sven styled it up, and demonstrated
how to ride off a six-foot drop,
and then sent the jaw-dropped kids off to lunch.
But there was no way that we were leaving that property
without a tutorial on how to ride
the infamous air set that broke the internet last year
when Sven uploaded a video of his son, Thibau,
riding the stairs of the GP Sven Nys.
- [Sven] Even I feel adrenaline if I'm doing that.
(laughing)
- This section is also part of GP Sven Nys,
which is the iconic Sven Nys Classic race that's happening
I believe it's every January 1st.
It's the first race of the New Year, so really cool,
because everyone comes out in their new kit
if they've signed to a new team,
or if their team has taken on new sponsors,
this is the race where everyone gets to show that off.
Very iconic race,
and that big picture that's up top of Sven winning,
I believe was the last time that he won
in his world champions kit,
so very cool to be here with so much history.
But obviously being able to see this section
and then look at it, it really is daunting.
If you look at, and you think ah,
I didn't know if I could ride it,
especially from the videos on the internet,
so like you think, you have to see it to believe it.
The thing that makes it so unique,
is the narrowness of this post here.
So this post is actually, when you come up here,
if you weren't very skilled and you didn't do it,
you would hit, you would hit your bars.
So the idea that you would sort of have to come into this
with the right amount of speed,
you have to be at an angle,
and then when you're here you pull over.
You pull the front wheel to this side,
and then you're here, but then you have to do like a lunge,
a lunge forward with the bike
to be able to get it over these last two stairs,
because there isn't enough space.
How cool that we were able to be here and check this out
and do it with the master himself.
So I'm going to to try and get out of the way
but Sven's going to hit this
and then I'm going to to take some pointers.
(rock music)
Not bad.
(laughing)
(electronic music)
(laughing)
- Perfect.
He still has it.
- Day one of Sven's clinic is in the books.
The children grabbed some more pictures
and rode around a bit after things concluded.
We changed out of our kits and headed over to the museum,
which is also at the property for a quick walk through
and a history lesson about the sport
from the man himself.
Sven is going to take us through,
what I would call a shrine, but it's more than that.
It is a very inclusive space
that tells us all about the history of the sport.
Of course, all of your accolades and the things
that you've been able to do in your career,
but this is a really fun spot.
Tell us a little bit about what we're going to see in here.
- Well all things that come together on an event,
that's called cyclo-cross.
The starting line and here it all starts
and then you see all pictures of riders from the past,
bikes from the past, but also that we are racing with
the last few years.
We're learning a little bit more about tires,
trophies, stories from the fans.
- [Jeremy] Yeah.
- Everything is involved.
Of course, jerseys from all the champions from World Cup.
Erwin Vervecken, Bart Wellens, Paul Herygers,
all the champions from the past.
But also from Wout Van Aert when he was
the Belgian champion in the past.
The girls are involved, Prevot is here.
- [Jeremy] Yes, of course.
- All these disciplines are on the wall.
Cyclo-cross, Mountain Bike, BMX, Trial,
and then you have this, follow the course.
From the start with all the pictures
from the nice event that we have for the moment,
like (speaks foreign language) like we say it in Belgium.
- [Jeremy] What does that mean?
- (speaks foreign language) that means, it's--
- [Jeremy] Like a sloping--
- [Sven] Yes.
- [Jeremy] It's like a theater.
- [Sven] Yeah it's like a theater,
it's like a football stadium.
- [Jeremy] Yes, yes.
- [Sven] Really the atmosphere from the people
that cheer you on, it's really nice.
- [Jeremy] Yeah.
- So and then you have all my victories during my career.
They are standing on top from '98
until the end of the experience center 2016,
when I won my last two races of the year.
- And I don't want to say, but I think,
is it 50 World Cup wins?
- Yes.
- That's pretty cool and is it nine national titles?
- Nine national titles.
I have four world titles, two under 23,
two at the elite category.
- Yes.
- And then yeah,
I think 13 Superprestige Overall rankings.
- A lot of great things.
- Yes, all right down the road, down the track.
- Down the road.
- Well actually, yeah.
- Stories from all the people that are involved
in cyclo-cross now, but also in the past.
Girlfriend of Eli Iserbyt, my coach,
Brook Watts, organizer of Cross Vegas in the past.
The father of Bart Wellens.
- [Jeremy] A very iconic face.
- Yes, and we have it in three different languages.
- Yeah, which is very inclusive also.
- You can see it in English, in French,
and in Dutch of course.
- Yes.
- Pictures of big heroes in cyclo-cross.
- I know, this guy looks so familiar.
- I don't know if you know him, but he was an American guy,
he won a lot of races, and he's very, very important
for cyclo-cross in the US.
It's Jeremy Powers.
- Thank you, thank you.
(laughing)
Okay.
The man at the moment.
- He's the man at the moment.
He was really young when he won
his first world title in Tabor.
Unbelievable, I think he was just,
his first world championship's in the elite category.
Unbelievable what he's doing now,
he won Amstel Gold Race this year.
- [Jeremy] I know.
- [Sven] He doesn't know his limits yet.
- [Jeremy] I know.
- [Sven] It's crazy.
- We don't know what else he'll do.
- Yeah.
(laughing)
- He doesn't maybe.
- This is my guy.
- Yes.
- And organizing everything around,
Telenet Fidea Lions.
Antonne is the leader of the gang
in the Telenet Fidea Lions.
My son is already here with the story of his dad.
- I love it.
- Maybe I need to tell them with the next plate,
that about the next champions, we'll see.
(laughing)
- I love it, I love it.
- I don't know.
This is actually, something really special in
all around cyclo-cross that makes cyclo-cross also bigger,
the postcards.
- Of course.
- Everybody wants to have a postcard
with a picture of their riders.
- Yes.
- Signed them.
It comes actually from France.
Trophies of course.
- [Jeremy] Yes.
- [Sven] Are here.
- [Jeremy] In which of these, would be your favorite?
If you had to pick one.
- Of course.
- Can we see it?
- Ah, it's glued.
- Okay it's glued.
Yeah, okay, yeah, we'll leave it there.
We don't want people to touch them anyway.
- [Sven] And then you have the stories and actually--
- This is very Belgium Sven.
- It's really cool.
You can take a beer, but you can listen to a story
that's involved in cyclo-cross.
- Hello?
- A story that's coming out of cyclo-cross,
a story about the race in Baal,
a story about the coldest world championship,
a story about fans of Bart Wellens
and all in different languages.
- I love it, I love it.
That's so cool.
Very, very, very cool.
- [Sven] The campers, how you say it in English?
- [Jeremy] Yes, it's right, yeah, it's a mobile home.
- You can actually see in the window of a mobile home.
- [Jeremy] I love it.
- The story of Tone and Tess Aert
that are preparing their race
and a lot of people are standing there
and they say, "What's happening in that car?"
- [Jeremy] Yeah.
- [Sven] For me this is how it all started.
- [Jeremy] Yeah.
- I won my first world championships in Munich,
on the 23 jumping barriers.
Really quick and that helped me to win
my first world championship.
It made me famous and a lot of kids after me done it.
- I know.
- Now it's, if you now don't jump--
- [Jeremy] You're off the back.
- Yes.
So, Anton Mersa is talking about how he's doing it,
he's jumping actually really high.
- I know.
- He is more than 70 centimeters.
- He is arguably, the best.
- Yeah.
These are images of how I trained.
These are images from my last year.
They made a documentary of my last year
and you can see how we train in Mallorca,
in the training camp, preparing a race,
training on the road.
It's not only about riding your bike,
but also being flexible, core stability,
running in summer, in winter, everywhere.
So people can learn a little bit more about the watts.
- All right.
- How many power you need to know
to have 200 watts, 425 watts.
- Yep.
- Because before we only talked about heart rate.
And now if you're watching TV,
it's all about how many watts you can pedal.
- Yeah.
- They need to learn step by step what it is.
- Right.
- To feel the difference between 200 and 425 watts.
- I love it, yeah, or 1500 here.
- Yeah, but that bike we don't have,
because it's a little bit too much.
(laughing)
This is actually Niels Albert zone,
Niels was famous for his riding through the sand.
- [Jeremy] Yes.
- [Sven] He won Koksijde world championships in the sand.
- [Jeremy] Yes.
- And he talked about how he's riding through the sand.
But also you can experience yourself
what it is to ride through the sand.
So you can play a game and there is the handlebar,
so you push on the bottom,
and then you can ride through the sand
and it's the course in Zandduivel
and you need to ride through the sand.
You can go left and right, and you see the hard trail
where you need to ride.
After a few seconds, you need to do a corner.
You can even crash if you want.
(laughing)
Look, I'm going to ride into the fence.
- [Jeremy] Oh no!
- Yeah, yeah, there's a crash.
(laughing)
All bikes, from all champions,
10 times national champion.
Roland Liboton, five time world champion.
How he rides cyclo-cross.
- [Jeremy] So crazy.
- [Sven] You know all those things,
it's unbelievable. - It's so crazy isn't it?
- And now if you see this bike,
you know why they need to run more than we.
- Right, yeah.
- Narrow tires.
- It's a different sport.
- They need to make a decision
before they came on the barrier what they're going to do,
because they are not clicked in, but they are,
how you say it?
- Yeah, yeah, stuck.
- Stuck, they are stuck.
And then you have the world champion bike
from Paul Herygers, in the sand pit in Koksijde.
- Wow.
- This is actually a little bit more like it is now.
- Yeah, but also with the really big tires,
34 tires, which--
- It's not allowed anymore.
- I know, at the beginning of my career you could have,
but now is not allowed.
- Then you Niels Albert' bike,
Koksijde World Championship.
Same course, different bike.
Much lighter.
Mine also, but yeah, here is a lot of technology,
IsoSpeed in the back,
electronic shifting, that's not there yet.
- Yep.
- So, its completely different,
and the next step is disc breaks.
So we need to have--
- A disc brake bike.
- [Sven] A disc brake bike over here.
- [Jeremy] Soon.
- [Sven] Yeah.
- [Jeremy] I love it.
- Almost everyday I'm here and I love it.
- Yeah.
You can see the passion.
- This cyclo-cross energy, it gives me so much good feeling,
and see all those kids,
all those older people that also coming with their E-bikes,
and yeah, for me that's a dream come true.
- Sven, thanks so much for having us today at the camp.
That was really, for me, having also done a lot
of cyclo-cross camps, just the amount of kids that are here,
and all of the things you're teaching them,
and the skills that you're giving them,
and obviously the passion that you have
with so many great results.
I think for them, it's not only inspirational,
but it's a part of the sport
that I think everyone is going to really enjoy seeing,
and so for you, I'm just curious to know,
giving these kids the pointers,
and giving them the drills, and the reaction time,
and these like ideas of things to go home with,
what does it encompass for you?
Obviously it's special,
you can see the energy and the passion.
- Yes, it's amazing to see how many things
they can learn on a few days.
- [Jeremy] Yeah.
- [Sven] And coming afterwards on a race,
and see the kids, and they say "Hi."
and "Hey, I can show you what I learned at home."
And afterwards they going to a race,
they have a license, they start racing,
they are the first podium,
they sent me a mail with the pictures of the podium,
and the I say, "Oh yeah, for me, this is what I want".
I learned so many things during those 20 years,
that I want to give them to the young kids now,
because that's the future.
And we have all the experience over here,
we have the infrastructure over here.
We need to let the sport grow and I can't do this alone,
it's a small country.
It's an important part of cyclo-cross,
but we need to do this with other champions
in other countries, like you did in the past,
we need to do this all over the world,
and then we can step by step let the sport grow,
and that's my dream.
- That's right, yeah and I agree,
and I think that we have so much momentum with the sport.
- Yes.
- We are at a place now where it's so well televised.
There's so much infrastructure like you said,
and there's all this publicity
and there's more and more coming in.
So yeah, you have to just say, I'm doing something.
- Yes.
- And this is just part of doing something.
You can't just say, aw, I'd like to do it,
I think it'd be good.
No, doing something and you're out here
as a multiple time world champion,
literally the most successful by the numbers rider
that we've ever seen, so to see you literally out here
working with these kids, one to one,
I think everyone should be humbled.
And it's not just for Dutch or Belgian riders,
you speak great english.
- I do my best.
- Canadians want to come over and they want to do something,
English speaking people want to come over
and spend the day with you, they can.
They can bring their kids,
come on a holiday, stay at the B&B
Have a snack and beer.
- Everything is here, everything is here.
- Your cycling playground.
Cyclo-cross playground in fact.
- Yeah that's true, no.
That's what we try to do.
To bring kids from all over the world.
Learn them all skills of cyclo-cross,
and see them on races,
see them winning against other competitors,
that's what cyclo-cross is all about.
- I was inspired and I think a lot of other people were.
Thank you for the time today and we'll see you soon.
- Have a great trip in Europe,
and maybe we'll see each other in Waterloo or Iowa
or on the other races.
- Yes, very well.
So that was a day with Sven Nys.
I hope you guys liked this video,
if you do please leave a comment and give it a thumbs up.
If you want to see some other great cyclo-cross videos,
check those out right there on your screen.