Florian Vermeersch has become the new rainbow jersey at the Gravel World Championships earlier this month, after coming second to Mathieu van der Poel last year. The UAE Team Emirates – XRG rider is incredibly talented in the flat and treacherous one-day races, and was a close supported of Pogacar at Paris-Roubaix, where he should also play a crucial role next year. However, he believes his teammate may also take part in the race at some point soon in the future.Talking to Sporza, Vermeersch provided more insight into his triumph in South Limburg, where a long-range attack together with Friets Besterbos saw them evade the competition in the finale. But it was a victory that seemed unlikely at the start of the race where he punctured, and in such an event you simply do not have a team car to quickly switch bikes.
“Luckily, I had a CO2 cartridge and plugs with me to plug the hole in my tire. That put me about a minute and a half behind, but after 20 to 30 kilometers, I was able to catch the rest”. What followed was a memorable performance, where despite having suffered bad luck early on, he still looked to be the man with the strongest legs on the day, not only timing his move to perfection but also carrying his momentum all the way to the line.
After the finish he talked to Pogacar and shared that he could see him also taking part at some point. “He sent me a message with congratulations. I appreciate that. Knowing Pogacar, he’ll probably want to compete in the World Gravel Championships in the future.” This could’ve happened this year already as the event was initially set to take place in Nice, close to home for the Slovenian and the day after he finished his season at Il Lombardia, however the change to the Netherlands put an obstacle in the way. Tom Pidcock did combine the two races, but ultimately did not obtain the desired outcome in neither.