"With Mathieu you try to go with him then, but he and Wout can do that several laps" - Pim Ronhaar blows him up in chase of van Aert & van der Poel in Benidorm

For the first time since Boxing Day, Pim Ronhaar wasn't in the mix for the podium, finishing 16th at Sunday's UCI World Cup in Benidorm.

"Maybe I blew up a bit at the start, but normally it's something I should be able to do if it's a mud cross. We are not really made for those fast rounds, I already talked about that with Joris Nieuwenhuis and Lars van der Haar," the 22-year-old Dutchman reflected post-race. "Waterloo, for example, is also a fast lap, but there is flow in it. Here it's more like constantly standing still in those corners, I still need to train on that."

Wout van Aert was victorious on the day, ending the season-long winning streak of Mathieu van der Poel in the process. Ronhaar is just in awe of both of his rivals. "If you blow yourself up... then you only face it the next lap," he says of trying to keep pace with the superstar duo.

"With Mathieu you try to go with him then, but he and Wout can do that several laps in a row and we can do that for two or three laps at most," Ronhaar assesses. "For the rest I didn't get much out of it, because I was just in my slump at the time."