Italy’s Dainese takes centre stage at Giro

ALBERTO Dainese became the first Italian winner in this year’s Giro d’Italia yesterday, clinching victory with a well timed sprint in stage 11, a 203-kilometre (126.14 miles) ride from Santarcangelo di Romagna to Reggio Emilia. The 24-year-old surged past the favoured trio of French sprint leader Arnaud Demare, England’s Mark Cavendish and

Australian Caleb Ewan, before sprinting off his compatriot Simone Consonni to secure his maiden stage win. Colombian Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team

Emirates) finished second and Consonni (Cofidis) came in third. Dainese was led out by DSM team mate Romain Bardet, who finished fourth in the general classification. ‘To win so close to home at the Giro d’Italia is unbelievable,’ said Dainese’. Spaniard Juan Pedro Lopez retained his 12-second lead to hold on to the overall leader’s pink jersey. Today’s stage 12 is a challenging 204km ride from Parma to Genoa which features numerous climbs and a long descent.