World Cup Benidorm brings cyclocross to the parks of a Spanish Mediterranean resort in mid-January. The ground is usually dry and fast, so the race is decided on stairs, short steep ramps, tight turns and sand rather than in mud, and since 2026 the finish has come at the top of a flight of stairs and an uphill straight. Benidorm joined the World Cup in January 2023, the first World Cup race in Spain for more than a decade, and Mathieu van der Poel won that first edition. In 2024 Wout van Aert won with a move on the final climb, ending Van der Poel's run of ten straight wins after the Dutchman had dropped his chain and crashed. Van der Poel won again in 2026, with Spain's Felipe Orts second to the delight of the home crowd. Its fast, dry course gives the speed riders their best chance of the winter.