Florian Vermeersch of Team UAE Emirates has had the rainbow jersey well over a week and has shown it off a few times. Although not with wins. Unlike his Slovenian teammate Tadej Pogačar, Vermeersch has had to settle for a few seconds in his brand new kit. But he’s fine with that. In fact, according to a Sporza interview, his chances of winning were greatly reduced early on.
“I had a puncture. Luckily I had a CO₂ cartridge and plugs with me,” he said. “As a result, I was about a minute and a half behind. But after 20 to 30 kilometres I was able to catch up with the rest.”
There was no problem at UAE Team Emirates HQ getting some rainbow kit made A.S.A.P., since they’ve made some for his famous teammate the past few years. In fact, in true Pogi fashion, the road world champion was one of the first to send his congrats to Vermeersch.
Hermans denies Vermeersch the win in his rainbow jersey debut at Serenissima Gravel
“He sent me a message with congratulations,” Vermeersch said. “I appreciate that. Knowing Pogačar, he will also want to participate in the gravel world championships in the future.”
Pogačar has never raced the gravel worlds—although he’s dabbled in ’cross, easily winning some local races in Slovenia. Despite his megawatts and technical prowess in those races, he’s often been humble about his abilities on the dirt. Strade Bianche isn’t exactly a gravel race per se, but the worlds courses don’t resemble some of the races in the U.S. like Unbound. The world gravel championships are on a mix of asphalt and mostly hard-packed gravel. It becomes a pack race, almost like Paris-Roubaix. That, by the way, was another race Pogi did for the first time this year. And despite a late crash, he was definitely going toe-to-toe with eventual winner Mathieu van der Poel.
Meanwhile, Vermeersch is thrilled to have finally won the worlds after two years of being runner-up.
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