Let's start the new year muddy: GP Sven Nys, without Sven Nys

To use Douglas' words (finding my own words is not going very successfully this morning):

Finally, there is the final day off of racing on New Years Eve... but no racer in Belgium will be staying up to watch the ball drop in Times Square or ringing in the New Year with glasses of champagne, for they must drive to Sven Nys' personal playground the following day. As a bonus, the race is one of the bpost Bank series stops, so everyone should be there for the party. Delving into the den of the cannibal is never a good idea, as Sven has made it his goal to prove for the past thirteen years the race has been in existence. With 11 Nys wins in 13 years, we would call it the GP Sven Nys even if it were not formally named as such. Last year was horrendously muddy, and with hope all the races will be this week for there is no snow nor freezing weather in the forecast, just chances of rain interspaced during the week for Belgium.

Nys is ill and and will not start though, so he'll have to cede the top podium step of his own race to someone else... Tom Meeusen en Dieter Vanthourenhout are DNS as well.

ps - I'm currently at my grandma's, so you'll have to do your own translating.