Wout van Aert made his move on the final climb and held on for victory in Benidorm at the penultimate 2023/24 UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup stop for his first season win to end world champion Mathieu van der Poel’s run of wins this winter.
Here is all you need to know:
– Van der Poel suffered with a mechanical during the opening section of the first lap to leave him down in 28th place as Van Aert and British cycling star Tom Pidcock rode inside the top 15.
– With Dutchman Pim Ronhaar setting the pace at the front, Belgian all-round talent Van Aert was joined by Van der Poel, Thibau Nys and Eli Iserbyt with Pidcock a few seconds back in the pack.
– By lap four, the lead group was Van Aert, Nys and Van der Poel with the world champion digging deep on the long climb before he was joined again by Van Aert, Pidcock and Belgian Michael Vanthourenhout.
– Pidcock tried hard to make the next break, but the Ineos leader was reeled in and, with Van der Poel suffering a small slip, Van Aert finally pulled clear to win from Vanthourenhout on the last climb.
– The win represents Van Aert’s first UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup victory of the season in his final cyclo-cross appearance before returning to the road as Nys finished third with Pidcock coming home ninth.
– Van Aert, 29, said: “There’s a little bit of pain on my wrist, but I think it’s meant to be. My mother broke her wrist yesterday. My parents got married on the 13th of July and I had number 13, and I thought ‘it’s my day. There was still some bad luck involved in the race, but I kept going. I felt quite strong today and, obviously, Mathieu was strong too and had quite some bad luck. It’s unfortunate that it didn’t come down to a battle but still, when he crashed in the final, I still had to beat all the others. It’s always a sweet feeling to win, but especially with the good legs today. It was quite a tight race today, so we’ll see a tight World Championships.”
