Ceylin Alvarado on becoming World Cup overall winner: "This was the only thing I was missing"

Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado became the overall winner of the Women's World Cup. With a third place from Benidorm, the 25-year-old Dutch mathematically won the main regularity competition in advance with final round in Hoogerheide yet to take place.

"It is the first time that I have won this classification. I'm happy that I finally have it," Alvarado said after the race. "I also lost the rankings again in the last race. Now I finally have it. This was the only thing I was missing. This completes my career."

Read also

Stephen Williams wins the final stage and the overall GC of Tour Down Under ahead of Jhonatan Narvaez and Isaac del Toro

Alvarado had a yo-yo experience in Benidorm often getting dropped and later coming back to the leading duo. "My chain once came off on the second staircase," she looks back on one of the moments when she lost connection. "I had to get off the bike to put it back on. That was a long chase. In the end it worked, but they dropped me again because I was tired, haha. The legs were empty. That's how it went the entire race."

In recent weeks, Alvarado had been suffering from back problems. How did that go now? "It was pretty good, until halfway through the cross. After that we had to fight the pain, but it was better than the last few races. I'm glad there is some improvement, but it still needs to be better."

Read also

"The entire peloton will be happy that Tadej Pogacar's not participating" - Biniam Girmay sees opportunity in rival's absence at Tour of Flanders

Alberto Contador on Remco Evenepoel's Tour de France, and Tadej Pogacar's possible crazy challenge: "If Pogacar wins the Giro and the Tour, he will go for the triple in the Vuelta"