Giro d’Italia 2022 : Stage 11 – Dainese surprises for the sprint win

Flatter than a flat thing from Flat Town was Stage 11 of the Giro d’Italia. So with 203km to ride, it looked to be pretty uneventful until the final kilometre or so. And so it was, except for a little echelon action in the middle, but other than using up energy, nothing really came of it. But for a no-surprise stage, it really did have the twist in the tail – or a rocket in its pocket. Team DSM’s Alberto Dainese came out of nowhere, hoodwinking the lot of them, to take the bunch win from a very frustrated Fernando Gaviria (UAE). Simone Consonni of the Mighty ‘Dis was third. Did the GC change at all? Only marginally – Richard Carapaz picked up 3 bonus seconds at the second intermediate sprint and is now in 2nd overall, on the same time as Joao Almeida. Did the jerseys change at all? No. They did not.

How did it happen?

Who knows? The guy came out of nowhere!

Just under the 60km mark, Alpecin-Fenix rider Dries De Bondt decided to do a van der Poel and take a long shot to victory. The peloton let him go, knowing they would reel him in just before the flamme rouge. Which they did. But we did see an awful lot of the baby-poo green Alpecin jersey so that’s a result of sorts.

The sprint trains were formed and were running on rails, with Groupama-FDJ and QuickStep bossing the run in, but Arnaud Demare went too early, getting bested by Fernando Gaviria, who was SO on his way to victory … he was nearly there! INCHES AWAY! And, whoosh … Dainese happened. Here’s the thrill of the final kilometre.