Sven Nys failed to finish the race in Loenhout as he went after the beer man
Sven Nys was at the end of his rope as he suffered a mechanical and two crashes at the muddy course in Loenhout as he was trailing the race leader Niels Albert with a huge margin of 1 minute.
On top of that, the Belgian was assaulted with a beer stream on each lap in the same stretch of course however, he decided to let go the race and went on to take his revenge on the man behind the beer-bombardment.
Nys still could have fought for the third overall position but he decided to let go the race and went after the annoying spectator after a beer cup hit on his leg for the seventh consecutive lap.
"I could continue my pursuit, but I had had enough," Nys said to Sporza afterward.
The Belgian jumped into the crowd to catch the offender, who then started running in the opposite direction upon seeing the angry Nys running towards him.
The 36-year-old stated that he had already planned to teach the beer-man a lesson if he throws the cup on him for the seventh time and that is exactly what he did.
However, upon catching the insane spectator, Sven was rather courteous, using words over fists to a man who threw beer barrages on him seven times.
"I asked him, 'Why? Does this make sense?' He apologized. But nothing more than 'sorry' came. He was obviously pretty drunk. I did not get aggressive. Throwing beer is low-down and does not belong in cross. We are not animals. After the seventh time I was
tired. Everyone deserves a little respect".
"I did not finish and I can forget about the classification," Nys said. "I could have continued my fight for second place in the rankings. But I had had enough. That gentleman may place that in his list of achievements".
Sven is now five minutes behind down the classifications as he failed to finish the race and is now six minutes behind the series leader Niels Albert after the final classifications.
Race organisers should take necessary measures to ensure such incidents do not recur in sports and the offender should have been stopped after the first lap.
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