Van Houts wins seaside Kermesse

Sun, sea and the spirit of competition characterized the third day of the Maremma Cup in Porto Santo Stefano on Tuesday. Multivan Merida's Rudi Van Houts took home victory in the Kermesse event.

The sea proved to be the perfect backdrop for the Kermesse. The Italian Marco Aurelio Fontana (Cannondale Factory Team) won the first round, but in the finale, two Merida Team riders worked together to net a win for Van Houts.

Fontana, always very aggressive and motivated, managed, after a chase from Van Houts and Massa Marittima Kermesse winner Andreas Kugler, to overtake the latter, but Van Houts held on for the win. Fourth place went to Swiss Patrik Gallati (Scott Swisspower).

In the small final for fifth place, Michele Casagrande faced off against Marcel Wildhaber (Scott Swisspower), Tim Wynants (Trek Brentjens) and 1996 Olympic champion Bart Brentjens (Trek Brentjens).

Another Kermesse will be run Thursday in the city of Grosseto. Saturday sees a final Kermesse at Massa Marittima, and on Sunday, the Maremma Cup will wrap up with a cross country race that also serves as the first race of the racing Internazionali d'Italia series. That's when two additional Olympic Champions, Miguel Martinez and Julien Absalon, are expected to race, too.

Results

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#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Rudi Van Houts (Multivan Merida)
2Marco Aurelio Fontana (Cannondale Factory Team)
3Andreas Kugler (Multivan Merida)
4Patrick Gallati (Scott Swisspower)
5Michele Casagrande (Elettroveneta Corratec)
6Marcel Wildhaber(Scott Swisspower)
7Tim Wynants (Trek Brentjens)
8Bart Brentjens (Trek Brentjens)
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Maremma Cup Classification after three events
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResultHeader Cell - Column 3
1Nino Schurter10pts
2Marco Aurelio Fontana9Row 1 - Cell 3
3Andreas Kugler7Row 2 - Cell 3
4Rudi Van Houts5Row 3 - Cell 3
5Ralph Naef 44Row 4 - Cell 3
6Moritz Milatz3Row 5 - Cell 3
7Lukas Kaufmann2Row 6 - Cell 3
8Tony Longo2Row 7 - Cell 3
9Florian Vogel1Row 8 - Cell 3
9Hannes Genze1Row 9 - Cell 3
9Patrick Gallati1Row 10 - Cell 3

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