The Spaniard won Olympic gold in Beijing. The Frenchman became world road champion in 1997. The Dutchman wore the polka dot jersey at the Tour. The three won the gravel world championship among amateurs on Sunday in Veneto
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ghisagazzetta
In a world where some cycle amateurs act and feel like professionals, who said that professionals, at least former ones, cannot be cycle amateurs? They can do it, and that’s right. And when they do, they more often than not put things back where they belong. With pedal strokes they make it clear that they weren’t great by chance. On Sunday in Le Bandie, province of Treviso, yet another demonstration at the finish line of the Gravel World Championship.
Johnny
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Among the master men 40-44, the winner is the Dutch Johnny Hoogerland, who wore the polka dot jersey at the 2011 Tour, with the Spaniard Dani Moreno 6th and the former Italian cross-country skier Enrico Franzoi 9th. The Dutchman, who normally conquers the granfondos he takes part in, won in 5.14’07”. Valverde, on the same route, finished in 5.00’45”. But the stainless Bala raced among the Elite, even finishing just a whisker away from the podium: 4th.
Samu
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In the class just above, that of 45-49, the winner was another Spaniard, Samuel Sanchez who won the Olympic gold on the road in Beijing. Third place for his compatriot Juan Horrach. Sanchez and Hoogerland are also linked by a curious coincidence. In 2011 the Dutchman wore the climbers’ polka-dot shirt at the end of the sixth stage. He loses it in the eighth and regains it in the ninth, a fraction in which he is the protagonist of a sensational and painful fall. Flecha, his escape companion, is hit by a French TV car and overwhelms Johnny who ends up in the barbed wire. the wounds are sewn up with 33 stitches. Hoogeland loses the jersey again in the 12th stage, which is won by Samuel Sánchez who will take it to Paris.
laurent
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Staying on the “gold” theme, here comes the Frenchman Laurent Brochard, 1997 road world champion who wins the title here among the Age Group 55-59. The Italian Giorgio Chiarini, however, has never been a pedal professional. He was a professional bus driver. However, last year in Trento he won the road world championship in his category (60-64) and this time he was held back by a crash which did not prevent him from finishing in 6th place.
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