Van Aert dominated the race in Benidorm. World champion slowed down by a rough crash into a pole

In the penultimate part of this year’s cyclocross World Cup, Belgian Van Aert took the victory. The race in Spain was marred by several hard crashes, neither the winner nor the reigning world champion escaped.

During Sunday’s race in Benidorm, Spain, three cyclocross kings, Dutchman Van der Poel, Belgian Van Aert and Briton Pidcock, met at the start for the last time this season. In a thrilling race, the star Dutch rider attacked for a long time for his eleventh win in a row this year, as expected.

However, in the penultimate of nine circuits, Van der Poel was unable to avoid the marked pole and fell into the sand after a hard impact. He was unable to claw back the big deficit and eventually finished fifth.

“I was expecting it to be softer, but I’m not worried. Of course it would have been nice to win, but the streak had to end sometime. It’s better to take the bad luck now,” said Van der Poel after the race. He will defend the rainbow jersey of the world champion at the cyclo-cross world championships in Tabor in just 14 days.

The reigning world cross country champion also had to deal with a collision at the Benidorm circuit. Pidcock, who had been battling at the front of the race for a long time, failed to make a jump over one of the obstacles and after a long delay finished ninth.

Van Aert lost his saddle before the finish

Van Aert, the winner, also ended up on the ground just before the finish. He fell while hopping on his bike and lost his saddle. However, he was able to recover quickly and ride to his first World Cup win of the year.

“I felt good. It’s agreat feeling to win, even if it wasn’t easy,” said the Visma-Lease a Bike star after the race.

“Mywrist just hurts. I guess it was meant to be, my mom broke her wrist yesterday. Plus, she and my dad got married on July 13 and I started with number 13 today, so I knew I would have to pick some bad luck too,” Van Aert commented on his crash, smiling at the finish.

The race in Benidorm was the last race of the cyclocross season for the Belgian as well as for Pidcock, so neither of them will take part in the championship in Tabor. Both riders will instead move on to prepare for road races.

Source: CT Sport, CyclingNews