He's going to participate after all! The Benidorm World Cup was initially not on his schedule, but Mathieu van der Poel has decided to start after all. "I only made the decision quite late," he told WielerFlits before the start of the race.
"After a strong training week, the urge to race was simply too great. Our world champion will defend his leader's jersey in the World Cup," Alpecin-Premier Tech announced on Saturday with a rather surprising statement.
But when exactly did Van der Poel make up his mind? "Just yesterday morning, so pretty late. In the end, I’m happy to be part of it. I mainly focused on training last week. That was the most important thing for this period. I was able to do that. I think I’ve trained enough to take on this race."
About course changes
The course in Benidorm has been altered in certain sections. The organizers themselves spoke of two 'crucial changes' – with the new straight section at start-finish and a 100-meter-long sandpit.
How does Van der Poel view these changes? "Not much has really changed, except for start-finish. That’s good because it was always a dangerous spot in recent years. It’s a bit of a shame that so much effort was put into the sandpit, while it’s just become a hard path," concludes the man in the rainbow jersey.
| Rank | Rider | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Mathieu van der Poel | 240 | |
| 2 |  Thibau Nys | 220 | |
| 3 | (2) | Niels Vandeputte | 197 |
| 4 | (1) | Michael Vanthourenhout | 187 |
| 5 | (1) | Laurens Sweeck | 186 |
| 6 | Emiel Verstrynge | 165 | |
| 7 | (1) | Tibor Del Grosso | 161 |
| 8 | (1) | Toon Aerts | 158 |
| 9 | Mees Hendrikx | 151 | |
| 10 | Joris Nieuwenhuis | 141 |
