{"id":376999,"date":"2026-01-18T14:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T14:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/376999\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T14:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T14:28:10","slug":"pathway-to-potential-success-broadens-for-mathieu-van-der-poel-at-benidorm-world-cup-after-michael-vanthourenhout-withdraws-ill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/376999\/","title":{"rendered":"Pathway to potential success broadens for Mathieu van der Poel at Benidorm World Cup after Michael Vanthourenhout withdraws, ill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Belgian cyclo-cross star Michael Vanthourenhout<\/a> has become the latest rider to pull out of the Benidorm World Cup,<\/a> further weakening the already dwindling odds of a challenge to Mathieu van der Poel<\/a>‘s expected domination in this afternoon’s race.<\/p>\n

The winner of all his cyclo-cross races this year, Van der Poel is widely predicted to deliver another crushing performance<\/a> this afternoon.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Vanthourenhout was one potential obstacle for the Dutch star, but after falling ill, will have to watch from the sidelines.<\/p>\n

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Fifth last year and second in 2024 at Benidorm,<\/a> Vanthourenhout has won one World Cup this season in Sardinia and was a bronze medallist last week in the Belgian National Championships<\/a>. The 32-year-old is running third overall in the World Cup series, 13 points behind Van der Poel and three adrift of Thibau Nys.<\/p>\n

Nys will be taking part in Benidorm, but Vanthourenhout is one of several important absences, including Wout van Aert , injured, Emiel Verstrynge and Laurens Sweeck. In the women’s race, Puck Pieterse will be missing, also because of injury.<\/p>\n

For days it seemed as if Van der Poel himself was not going to take part, but a last-minute change of heart on Saturda<\/a>y means he will, finally, be at the startline.<\/p>\n

The course itself is expected to be much muddier than usual, after a downpour in the Benidorm area on Saturday left several large puddles. Sunday, however, is forecast to be dry.<\/p>\n

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Long-term, Vanthourenhout’s absence also means that Van der Poel’s victory in the World Cup series looks even more certain in a week’s time.<\/p>\n

After Benidorm, there will be just two more rounds to go in the series, in Maasmechelen next Saturday and Hoogerheide on Sunday January 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belgian cyclo-cross star Michael Vanthourenhout has become the latest rider to pull out of the Benidorm World Cup,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-376999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}