UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup – Benidorm

The UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup round in Benidorm is a cyclocross race through two parks on Spain's Costa Blanca, first held in 2023. Officially the Copa del Mundo de Ciclocross UCI - Benidorm Costa Blanca, it is raced on a Sunday in mid-January, with an elite women's race followed by the elite men's. The lap of about three kilometers runs first through the Parque de Foietes, an urban park of slopes and lawns, and then up into the Mediterranean forest of El Moralet.

Why the World Cup comes to a beach resort in January

In mid-January the World Cup swaps mud for sun and goes to Benidorm, the tourist capital of the Costa Blanca. The round was first held in 2023, in the parks of Foietes and El Moralet, and it was the first World Cup race on Spanish soil since Igorre in 2011. Pascual Momparler, who heads the organization, has said that one of the main aims from the start was to help Benidorm draw visitors outside its high season. Between 12,000 and 16,000 people came to each of the first four editions. In 2023, when Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock all started, more than 13,000 fans came to the Spanish coast to watch.

A city park below, a Mediterranean forest above

The lap has two parts that have little in common: first the urban Parque de Foietes, then the forest of El Moralet. In the design for the first edition the riders entered Foietes straight after the start, and its slopes and lawns carried the technical part of the lap: off-camber stretches, obstacles, stairs, and the pits. From there a hard climb took them up into El Moralet, a Mediterranean forest where the riding was faster. All of it lies a few hundred meters from the beaches. Miguel Ángel Ortega, the technical head of the race, said before the 2025 edition that the ground in Benidorm makes for a very fast lap, quite unlike other World Cup courses.

The route through the two parks was redrawn for each of the three editions after the first. It measured 3.15 kilometers in 2023 and 3 kilometers in 2024, when the finish straight was made a little longer. In 2025 the lap went up toward the highest part of El Moralet and gained 300 meters, while the Foietes part stayed as it was, because spectators there see the riders pass several times.

Van der Poel against Van Aert in 2023 and 2024

The first men’s race, on January 22, 2023, went nine laps and was not decided until the last corner. Van der Poel was the first to ride all the way through the sand pit on the opening lap, and Van Aert took his wheel. Four riders started the last lap together. On the final climb Van Aert attacked and only Van der Poel could follow, and on the descent Van der Poel took a risk to pass him. The two took the last corner together, and Van der Poel won the sprint on the short finish straight by a few meters.

A year later Van der Poel had a mechanical problem at the start and trailed the leaders by 27 seconds. He rode back to the front and took the lead, with Van Aert second. Then Van der Poel fell, and Van Aert rode away. On the last lap Van Aert dropped Michael Vanthourenhout uphill and won in spite of a fall at the barriers and a broken saddle.

Fem van Empel’s three wins, each settled on the last lap

Fem van Empel won the first three women’s races in Benidorm. Ten riders started the last lap of the third, in 2025, together, with Lucinda Brand setting the pace. At the last passage of the barriers Van Empel accelerated from second position and ran past Brand. She led into the finale and started the sprint first; Brand finished second. Two years earlier Van Empel and Puck Pieterse had swapped places corner after corner on the last lap, side by side, until Van Empel won a long sprint that also made her sure of the overall World Cup. In 2024 Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado led into the last lap, and Van Empel won with a move just before the finish.

Two solo wins on the sand and uphill finish of 2026

For the fourth edition, on January 18, 2026, the old finish straight was turned into a sand pit 100 meters long and 40 centimeters deep, filled with 260 cubic meters of sand. The new start and finish straight ran uphill and came after a flight of stairs.

Both elite races that day were won alone. Van der Poel took over from his teammate Tibor Del Grosso on the sloping finish straight, was by himself at the end of the first lap and won by 28 seconds. Lucinda Brand pushed hard on the uphill stretches in the fourth lap and started the last lap 19 seconds ahead; that day she became sure of a fourth overall World Cup, a record. Behind Van der Poel the Spanish champion Felipe Orts attacked on the fifth lap, and the Spanish crowd went wild. Orts finished third, behind Thibau Nys.