Gianni Vermeersch wins opening Gravel World Championships, van der Poel in the medals

The first edition of the UCI Gravel World Championships saw a lot of action in the roads of Veneto, and Alpecin-Deceuninck rider Gianni Vermeersch came away with an important win and the rainbow jersey.

The almost 200-kilometer race featured a lot of gravel sectors, and early on in the race Gianni Vermeersch and Daniel Oss went up the road and built a gap of over five minutes.

The duo worked together smoothly and with a small peloton and tricky roads to chase on, they would end up staying out in front until the very end.

A small chasing group formed behind containing the likes of Mathieu van der Poel and Greg van Avermaet inside the final 30 kilometers which started bringing down the gap, but it was a fight only for the bronze medal.

Inside the final kilometers Vermeersch went solo however, and rode into the gold medal, whilst Daniel Oss survived to take the silver medal. From the group of chasers it was Mathieu van der Poel who rode into third place.