'Until the last kilometre I did the perfect race' – Florian Vermeersch misses defence but keeps his Gravel World Championships podium record intact in Nannup

Florian Vermeersch (Belgium) came into the Nannup UCI Gravel World Championships with a perfect podium record and as defending champion, and when he was coming toward the finish line with four riders, it looked like there was every chance he would spend another year in the rainbow stripes. That was even despite the challenge of a climb-heavy course, with 3,713 vertical metres of climbing across 144km, which in theory should have worked against the WorldTour Classics specialist who races for UAE Team Emirates-XRG.