Florian Vermeersch wins Serenissima Gravel

Florian Vermeersch (Lotto-Dstny) has won the third edition of Serenissima Gravel, the Belgian coming out on top of a seven-man lead group at the end of the 149km race in Cittadella.

The Belgian gravel Worlds silver medallist beat former gravel world champion Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in a two-man sprint at the finish line. Frederik Dversnse (Uno-X) followed soon after to round out the podium in third place.

The trio were joined racing on the final lap of four 37km laps of the race in a small group of elite contenders. Simone Velasco (Astana Qazaqstan), Filippo Fiorelli (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), Mark Donovan (Q36.5), and Arkéa-Samsic pairing Matis Louvel and Anthony Delaplace were all up there.

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That front group formed with 65km to go as the harsh gravel roads took their toll on the peloton. Florian and Gianni Vermeersch got away along with Dversnes and Delaplace in the final kilometres of the race, leaving the remainder of the group behind for the final run-in.

First Velasco, then Delaplace, and then Dversnes dropped, leaving the two Vermeersches to battle it out for the win.

In the end, it was the Lotto youngster who prevailed in the sprint for the line, just edging out his namesake to take his first win of the season.

"It was a tactical race. In the last lap, we were left with seven riders and there weren't really any pairs left," Vermeersch told WielerFlits after taking the victory. "That made it more interesting for me to attack, because before that it was difficult with pairs and sometimes even three riders from the same team.

"At around 10km from the line I tried several times, despite being confident about my sprint.

"I tried to keep everything together to then go all out in that sprint. In the end, I was left with Gianni, who started his sprint from very far away. It was a long sprint, but in the last 20 metres I was able to pass him.

"I am happy that I was able to finish. It's nice that I was able to make a mark on the Italian block at the end of the season. That's a nice feeling."

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