Gianni Vermeersch beats Daniel Oss, Mathieu van der Poel to win Gravel World Championships in Citadella

Belgium’s Gianni Vermeersch won the first men’s UCI Gravel World Championships after a late move to break clear from Italy’s Daniel Oss.

Vermeersch and Oss had been off the front together for more than half of the 194km race in Citadella, Italy. With 8km remaining, Vermeersch made a solo attack stick and rode to victory.

Oss came in second ahead of Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), who won the sprint for third ahead of Belgium’s Greg van Avermaet.

“It’s crazy. It was one of the biggest chances for me to once become world champion. I can’t believe I’ll have the rainbow jersey in my house,” said Vermeersch.

“I knew in the final the single track was one of my favourite parts of the race. I just went full into it and heard metre by metre I gained some advantage on Daniel and I just went full from there to the finish.

“I was hesitating a bit because I knew the final 500m was perfect for me, but also because there was a group coming from behind, we heard their gap was only 2:30, I wanted to go full on that part to get the advantage – then he was dropped and I kept going.”

Vermeersch is a regular cyclocross rider and looked comfortable on a course featuring gravel, cobblestones and dirt.

He attacked around halfway through the race with Oss and managed to open up a lead of over five minutes on the peloton.

As the gap closed, Vermeersch made his push for victory on the paved section near the finish and managed to pull clear to claim a memorable win.

“We just went full the whole day, and the moment we had five minutes I knew that we had a big chance to make it to the finish,” he added.

“We just kept going and it was just a man-to-man fight in the last lap,” he said.

France’s Pauline Ferrand-Prevot won the women’s race on Saturday, beating Switzerland’s Sina Frei in a sprint finish. Italy’s Chiara Teocchi took the bronze medal.

Ferrand-Prevot has now won four world titles in the last two months, adding to three mountain bike gold medals.

“I think I did the perfect race,” she said. “At the beginning it was quite fast and technical, so I just tried to stay at the front. After that the Italian girls really rode and they came back. So then I said I need to recover, just to drink, to eat.

“After that they attacked and I tried to go in the break. Finally I could stay at the front in the break. I tried to motivate the girls to ride with me. I knew if it was a sprint finish with a small group I was able to win. So it was just a perfect tactic for me and I can’t believe I won today.”