Swiss champion wins alone, ahead of Emils Liepins (Trek Segafredo) and Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Swiss national road race champion Robin Froidevaux, 23, of Tudor Pro Cycling Team, won the 2nd Serenissima Gravel in Piazzola sul Brenta today, after 195.9km and 20 gravel sections. He celebrated his win under the watchful eye of the imposing Villa Contarini, Andrea Palladio’s 16th century masterpiece, and the equally impressive Fabian Cancellara, the team founder.
1- Robin Froidevaux (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) 195.1 km in 4h45’14” ave. 41.040 kph
2- Emils Liepins (Trek Segafredo) at 13”
3- Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck) s.t.
Race Description
In the first part of the race, the field split, with 19 riders forming the group from whom the contenders would emerge. They included newly crowned gravel world champion Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck), his teammate Mathieu van der Poel, Italian gravel champion, Samuele Zoccarato (Bardiani CSF Faizane’), and Miguel Ángel López (Astana Qazaqstan Team). Before the second passage of the finish line, with 22km to go, van der Poel had slipped 25 seconds behind the leading group, with Martin Urianstad (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team) in the race lead ahead of Gianni Vermeersch, López, his Astana Qazaqstan teammate Davide Toneatti, Urianstad’s own teammate William Levy, Geoffrey Soupe (TotalEnergies), Florian Vermeersch (Lotto Soudal) and Robin Froidevaux (Tudor Pro Cycling Team).
On the approach to the race finish, with fast finishers Emils Liepins (Trek Segafredo) and Gianni Vermeersch well placed, the 23-year-old Robin Froidevaux tried his luck with an attack, and it stuck. He won the race with a 13-second advantage over Liepins, Gianni Vermeersch, Florian Vermeersch and Urianstad.
Post-stage comments:
Robin Froidevaux (Tudor Pro Cycling Team): “I’m not too much of a gravel specialist, and even MTB I”m not so good technically but I took the opportunity and went on the attack, because I nkew that if I stayed int he goup, it would be hard technically against the best int he last lap, and it worked. I didn’t believe it until the last kilometre. I feell realy happy. I had unjury in my fingers two and a half months agao. I had to rest for a month then start training again, so I’m fresher that the other riders because I didn’t have a midseason.”
Of his team owner Fabian Cancellara, present in the finish line area today, he said: “It’s really great to have Cancellara in the team, we learn a lot and he looked really happy, so that’s nice.”
Ride the Dreamland 2022
Ride the Dreamland 2022 continues tomorrow, Saturday, October 15, with the VENEtoGO social ride, which previews the second part of the Veneto Classic route, where the professionals will compete the next day. Participants will have the opportunity to ride with Italian, European and Paris-Roubaix champion Sonny Colbrelli, and the peerless Fabian Cancellara, who counts in his palmares a Milano-Sanremo, three Tours of Flanders, as many Paris-Roubaix, four world championships and two Olympic gold medals in the time trial. Unmissable alongside them is a former champion who will do the honors here, Filippo Pozzato. There are two routes of the VENEtoGO, starting and finishing at Villa Cà Cornaro in Romano d’Ezzelino: 98 km (and an elevation gain of 1,100 meters) and 80 km (for an elevation gain of 800 meters). Common to both are the climbs of Tisa, Rosina and Diesel Farm, but above all a wide range of refreshments, culminating in a gourmet lunch of fried fish. It will be a prelude to the grand finale on Sunday, October 16 with Veneto Classic, 197 km from Treviso to Bassano del Grappa.
Photo Credit: Poci’s
