Alberto Dainese stuns Mark Cavendish and big names to win Stage 11 sprint at Giro d’Italia 2022

After Domenico Pozzovivo’s successful moonlighting as a leadout man for teammate Biniam Girmay on Tuesday it was Romain Bardet’s turn to play a huge role in a superb victory for his DSM teammate Alberto Dainese in Wednesday’s Stage 11 to Reggio Emilia. Frenchman Bardet piloted Dainese around the final bend ahead of the home straight after Team DSM shook up their tactics and backed the Italian 24-year-old instead of their regular Dutch fast-man Cees Bol in what could be the last mass bunch sprint of the 105th edition of the race.

Ad/> Dainese was forced to come from deep but the 24-year-old expertly passed the likes of Mark Cavendish, Caleb Ewan and Arnaud Demare on the home straight before emerging from the slipstream of Simone Consonni (Cofidis) and surge past Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) to deny the Colombian what looked like a certain win. /> Giro d'ItaliaStage 21 profile and route map: Verona — VeronaAN HOUR AGO “I was a bit boxed in but I found a gap on the left and found Gaviria on the right and the last 20 metres I could pass him – and that feels super,” Dainese said after becoming the first Italian to win a stage in this year’s Giro.

“This morning the plan was to go for Cees [Bol] in the sprint but at the last few kilometres we swapped because he wasn’t feeling so good. Then I was just trying to stay relaxed and follow the guys.

It’s insane that Romain [Bardet], sitting third in GC, gave me a lead-out to the last corner. That shows that we really work as a team.” Bardet may well have been third in the general classification in the morning, but some canny riding from Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) saw the 2019 winner pick up three bonus seconds in the second intermediate sprint to jump above