On January 22, Benidorm vibrated with the return of more than a decade after the elite cyclocross to Spain. A host of stars met in Alicante. Felipe Orts (the great national asset), Tom Pidcock, Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel… and these last two had a duel to remember in which the Dutchman prevailed with the Belgian at the wheel (Van Empel triumphed in the women’s). All this in front of 13,000 fans, most of them Spanish as expected, but also with a large representation of Belgians, Dutch… a first edition to remember and that, after the success, They aspired to continue being part of the UCI calendar in the World Cup of the discipline: “Hopes after what we have seen are very high”, highlighted AS Pascual Momparler, RFEC coach and organizer of the event. He was right.
The fee that must be paid for the race is 50,000 euros, which goes mainly to Flanders Classics, organizer of the World Cup events, and with that accomplished, the UCI announced the calendar for the 2023-2024 season. In that list, Benidorm appears, as the 13th and penultimate round of the World Cup. On January 21, 2024, the cyclocross elite will meet again in the city of skyscrapers. “When we launched this initiative, one of the objectives was to alleviate the low season of tourism in Benidorm; put a grain of sand so that the hotel and restaurant industry would also have work in January. We did it, and we hope to do it again next year,” Momparler said after hearing the news.
The calendar
The 2023-2024 edition of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup will comprise 14 rounds in seven countries, including a new venue: Troyes in France. We review the calendar with the different tests:
- Round 1: Sunday, October 15, 2023, Waterloo (USA)
- Round 2: Sunday, October 29, 2023, Maasmechelen (Belgium)
- Round 3: Sunday, November 12, 2023, Dendermonde (Belgium)
- Round 4: Sunday, November 19, 2023, Troyes (France)
- Round 5: Sunday, November 26, 2023, Dublin (Ireland)
- Round 6: Sunday, December 3, 2023, Flamanville (France)
- Round 7: Sunday, December 10, 2023, Val di Sole, Trentino (Italy)
- Round 8: Sunday, December 17, 2023, Namur (Belgium)
- Round 9: Saturday, December 23, 2023, Antwerp (Belgium)
- Round 10: Tuesday, December 26, 2023, Gavere (Belgium)
- Round 11: Saturday, December 30, 2023, Hulst (Netherlands)
- Round 12: Sunday, January 7, 2024, Zonhoven (Belgium)
- Round 13: Sunday, January 21, 2024, Benidorm, Costa Blanca (Spain)
- Round 14: Sunday, January 28, 2024, Hoogerheide, Noord Brabant (The Netherlands)
As a reminder, the 2024 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships will take place in Tábor (Czech Republic) from February 2-4, 2024.
