I always saw Sven's last name written as Nijs. In the last year or two, I have seen it written as Nys - even his website is now svennys.com. Did he change the spelling of his name? Any other reason for the change?

Thanks for satisfying my curiousity.

i think they made this because it's easyer for non-benelux people, because they often changed ij to ji or something.

I think it has allways been nYs...

I guess it could well have always been Nys in the native spelling, but I would always see the other spelling in the english press.

I guess we can throw this into the great mysteries of life bucket!

Cheers guys.

No shit ...

He is called Sven Nijs, his wife is Isabelle Nys

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That's right Yvan? I was confused by the looks of Isabelle...

It is "Sven Nys" on his frame:





It is possible he changed his name, though I don't see why he would do the effort of going through this procedure. In Dutch "Nys" and "Nijs" are actually pronounced the same (there is a Dutch cyclocross rider called Maarten Nijland for instance).

Is his wife really Isabelle Nys (or Nijs)? Great coincidence then! Or is she easily called after her husband (eg. just like Victoria Beckham)?

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His name is : Sven Nys

His wife: Isabelle Nijs

It's a coincidence, but they would be family when you very deep. Somewhere between now and 100 year ago the names were written differently (God knows why). It's typical for our language (Flemish or rather Dutch).

You have: Jansen, Janssen, Jansens, Janssens, ... All prenounced (almost) the same...

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