Getting the best out of a close battle with his rival Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel conquered on Sunday the first place at UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Benidorm.
“To win is always super nice, but in the end, I think it was just a really nice race. It was quite dangerous, slippery and really difficult to ride faster than we were doing. In the end, it was a great battle against Wout. I’m really happy to win,” said the Alpecin-FENIX team captain after his victory in Spain.
The same day, another exciting duel was fought in Benidorm between Fem van Empel and Puck Pieterse. In the final lap of the women course, van Empel got a terrific acceleration that only Pieterse could keep up with. It ended with the silver podium for the Alpecin- Deceuninck rider, who followed van Empel by 3 seconds.
“Fem and I made really good race until the end. She was just a tiny bit better today,” Pieterse commented.
