And in the end, the man from Del Monte said yes... Paraphrasing an advertising slogan from a few years ago, here's the announcement from Alpecin Premier Tech: "Surprise, surprise: Mathieu Van der Poel will finally line up at the start of the World Cup race in Benidorm tomorrow." After a week of intense training, the desire to race was simply too strong. Our world champion will thus defend his leader's jersey in the Cyclocross World Cup".

Photo from Alpecin Premier Tech's X profile