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The ultimate Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert cyclocross conflict of this season shall be battled out in entrance of near-sold-out crowds on the Benidorm World Cup on Sunday, January 21.
Tickets in 2023 had been sold-out earlier than the occasion with only some hundred accessible on the day. Large crowds are anticipated once more in 2024 with TuttoBici reporting that the identical quantity has already been offered (10,000) with an prolonged capability of 15,000 permitting extra gross sales.
Benidorm’s place each geographically and on the calendar means it may well appeal to the most important stars of the game from their January coaching camps, a lot of which occur within the Calpe and Denía space which could be very near the coastal city.
Cyclocross has grown efficiently in Spain outdoors of its usually restrictive Belgian and Dutch calendar the place the self-discipline is hottest.
The draw of the so-called ‘massive three’ definitely has an impact with Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) additionally on the beginning record with Van Aert and Van der Poel, regardless of opting to overlook a few of his vacation cyclocross programme.
Van Aert and Van der Poel swapped the lead all through the opening laps of final 12 months’s Benidorm race, the primary look of the Spanish race on the World Cup calendar, earlier than Van der Poel dive bombed into the lead and outsprinted Van Aert to the road on the ultimate lap. Van Aert pushed his long-term rival to absolutely the restrict in 2023 and practically crashed into the limitations attempting to take the win in Benidorm.
Nevertheless this season has seen a higher dominance from the Dutchman with a equally shut battle trying unlikely.
The World Champion made it an ideal 10 for the season at his final race in Zonhoven, taking all 10 wins on the races he has began. Van der Poel’s victories haven’t been shut both, the Dutchman usually pulling away from the struggling chase behind on the opening laps and never being seen till after the ultimate lap.
Van der Poel has been coaching in Spain in current weeks and was noticed on Wednesday on a trip with Tadej Pogačar and his UAE Workforce Emirates teammates Jan Christen and Pavel Sivakov.
Males’s World Cup chief Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels-Sauzen-Bingoal) shall be current within the Costa Blanca to try to defend his total lead from the Baloise Trek Lions trio of Joris Nieuwenhuis, Pim Ronhaar and Lars van der Haar.
Iserbyt sits a slim 25, 35 and 40 factors forward of the respective chasers, however needs to be assured of scoring a stable haul after claiming the Belgian nationwide title final weekend.
Benidorm is the penultimate spherical within the World Cup with Hoogerheide offering the finale on January 28. The utmost variety of factors accessible for a win is 40.
A stacked girls’s subject will hit the sand in Spain together with final 12 months’s winner in Benidorm – Fem van Empel, Puck Pieterse, Lucinda Model and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado.
The quartet has claimed all however one of many 12 rounds of the World Cup thus far, with Mannon Bakker taking the opposite within the snow of Val di Sole. Alvarado leads the World Cup total standings by 52 factors over Pieterse.
“Fem Van Empel got here to Benidorm final 12 months and gave us nice feelings,” mentioned Pascual Momparler, supervisor of the organizing firm of the Benidorm World Cup.
“She, Alvarado and Pieterse are the three nice world cyclocross champions within the girls’s subject and shall be at our race. Even within the males’s subject, we managed to have the Huge Three and this exhibits how ours is an egalitarian race, which treats girls in the identical approach as males, each for consideration and for prizes.”
Pieterse’s confidence shall be sky-high having triumphed at 4 of her final 5 races, however she was bested by Lucinda Model on the Dutch nationwide championships, regardless of Model struggling a damaged nostril only a week prior in Zonhoven.
Van Empel has been absent for the previous two weeks after heading to a Visma-Lease a Bike coaching camp and recovering from minor knee accidents sustained within the rounds previous her small break, however we are able to count on the World Champion to be again at her finest as she gears as much as defend her rainbow jersey on February 3 in Tabor.
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