Dust instead of mud, another anthological battle between Van der Poel and Van Aert and a lot of beer in Benidorm

There was no mud and a lot of dust.

There was no mulled wine, but liters and liters of beer.

The cyclocross spectacle, with all its festive paraphernalia, conquered Spain on a sunny Sunday in January.

And big.

Because everything that happened in Benidorm had the aroma of a sport that is religion in the center of Europe and that increasingly captures more hearts outside of Belgium and the Netherlands.

Almost 15,000 spectators who were not disappointed, because their gods took it as always, as if their lives depended on it.

The battle between

and

was, once again, anthological.

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Interview.

Half an hour with Van Aert, the best cyclist in the world: "I feel that we are changing cycling"

• Drafting: LUCAS SÁEZ-BRAVO (Special envoy) Benidorm

Half an hour with Van Aert, the best cyclist in the world: "I feel that we are changing cycling"

's grandson won

, as always between them, due to a detail, due to a twist of fate.

He was smarter this time.

And because there are no mistakes with forgiveness in these agony exercises, an hour with your heart in your mouth.

This time his back pain eased and Van der Poel took his fourth World Cup event this season, the 32nd of his career.

"He has been a bit dangerous, but very nice. He needed a victory," the man from Alpecin, a tiger in Benidorm, later admitted.

But both are sports history.

Or are on their way to being.

A duality that magnifies them in equal parts.

They extend their childhood duels with a brutal respect for the adversary.

"Mathieu always pushes me to the limit," Van Aert confessed the night before.

There are no smiles between them, but there is no hate either.

They are needed to rise to their full power.

And on the Costa Blanca, 11 years after the last time a World Cup event was held in Spain (it was in Igorre), they honored their sport far from their borders.

The very fast circuit in the shape of an eight was very different from what they are used to and also the weather conditions, but it was worth the differentiation and that's how it was sought.

A more technical part, with stairs, jumps and a sandbox (brought from Tarragona), among other obstacles in the Parque de Foietes.

Another power in the forest of El Moralet, almost as if it were pure Mountain Bike.

The laps were completed in just over six minutes and there were few loopholes to overtake and many slips in the sand.

And that brought handfuls of spectacular moments and that the distances with the rest were not after brutal as in other races.

For example,

-who was mathematically proclaimed champion of the World Cup in the absence of the Besançon test- did not lose heart until the very last lap, always making the rubber in the frolicking of Van Aert and Van der Poel.

Earlier, at dawn, it had been

, the brand new winner on Alpe D'Huez, who had burned his only bullet.

Aware that he was not arriving at his best moment after a recent fall, the Englishman from Ineos came out with everything and made the first selection.

Shortly after, on the fourth lap, it was a brutal arreón from Van der Poel, always looking for the sandbox as an ally due to his technical ability there, without putting his foot on the ground, which pushed them all to the limit.

Van Aert solved that first bind and found his own rhythm.

At times, they seemed to rush Formula 1 on the pianos.

Everything was going to be decided in the last lap, in which the man in the Jumbo threw himself with everything, even maintaining his balance in the sand.

The frenzy rose to its maximum expression in the last meters, shoulder to shoulder with Van der Poel, who looked for an impossible loophole to take the lead in the last few turns, already on asphalt.

"Mathieu surprised me", Wout was going to lament, who in the wild pursuit of him was about to collide with the fences.

So he already knew that the winner in Benidorm was his eternal rival, although he didn't have enough breath to raise his arms.

The revenge will look for it within two weeks, in the Hoogerheide World Cup.

Felipe Orts

, the great man of national cyclocross, signed a stupendous ninth position at home, spurred on by the encouragement of the fans.

Earlier, in the women's race, also spectacular, the winner was the Dutch

in a beautiful one-on-one with her compatriot

.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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