Mathieu van der Pol (Alpecin Deceuninck) crashed on the last lap of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Benidorm and restarted to win, 12 seconds behind Wout van Aert (Wisma-Ries-a-Bike) in 5th place. Finish.

The world champion was racing in the lead group on the eighth of nine laps when live streaming footage showed him suddenly falling to the ground on a dusty section of the circuit's hardpack.

"I hit a spot after the sand pit. I thought I was going a little soft, but I wasn't. I fell to the ground and knew the race was over. My shoulder hurts a little bit, but I'm okay," van der Pol said in a post-race interview.

The event was the 13th and final round of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup. And many spectators were there to see the final clash of the season between the favorites for the win, Van der Poer and van Aert.

In addition, Benidorm's important geographical and calendar position meant that it attracted some of the biggest stars in cyclocross from the January training camp.

Van der Pol admitted that he suffered mechanical problems on the opening lap and got off to a slow start.

"I had to chase after a chain that came off early on, but it was no problem. But after the sand pit on the last lap, my shoulder hit me a little too hard and I thought I was done for."

Van der Pol carefully restarted his bike after the crash, losing valuable time and position. He returned to the race but was 22 seconds behind the leader. At the finish line, he closed the gap to just 12 seconds, finishing in fifth place.

"It's better to be unlucky. It was a super hard race and I didn't have as fresh legs as I would have liked, but maybe I could still have won.

Van der Pol had won 10 in a row before he tied Benidorm, and had won four in a row at the World Cup in Antwerp, Gavel, Hulst, and Zoghoven.

Asked if missing the streak bothered him, he replied, "No, not really," but added, "Of course, I would love to win, but I knew I had to end it at some point. This is a super hard race to win. It's hard to make a difference and I think we have to be happy with today's standings."