The 2022 Giro was very un-Italian. News from home was almost always out of the running. Nibali announced his retirement at the end of the year, coinciding with his arrival in Messina, his home. On Tuesday, a tribute was paid to Scarponi as he passed through Filottrano, where he lived and where he died while training. Without Ganna in the running, Sobrero could only finish fourth in the Budapest time trial.
Until in Reggio Emilia, the young sprinter Alberto Dainese (DSM) surprised all the fast men in the peloton. Eleven stages have had to wait for the first local victory in the Corsa Rosa. Nor has the jersey ever been on the shoulders of a transalpine. In the 2017 edition, the victory took even longer. It was in the 16th stage.
Far away is the Giro of 1949 when all the partial victories and the final podium (Coppi won) were Italian cyclists.
In Reggio Emilia, without Biniam Girmay, who left due to a cork blow in the eye on the podium the day before, Démare's triplet was expected. Or perhaps the second of Cavendish. And why not have Ewan or Gaviria premiere? Van der Poel did not get into the battle and saved his strength. Among the Italians, a country of great sprinters like Cipollini or Petacchi, Nizzolo was looked at. But the one that appeared on the left of Gaviria, who was fighting with Consonni and almost savoring the finish line, was the Dainese black jersey to the delight of the locals.
At 24 years old, the Italian already made several high-level positions in the Vuelta last year, but in the Giro, with more level in the volatas, he had only been able to be seventh. The victory is a great result for the DSM that is having a strong presence in the mountains with Bardet (fourth) and Arensman (twelfth).
The DSM is one of the teams that works best with the youngsters in the platoon. He always has a desire for training. And his good performances serve as a springboard for cyclists. From his academy, and from that of the Giant and Sunweb, his previous sponsors, have come Tom Dumoulin, Barguil, Hirschi, Hindley, Oomen or Degenkolb, among others.
In the fight for the Giro, Richard Carapaz (Ineos) got into an intermediate sprint and took three bonus seconds, with which he climbed to second place, also 12 seconds behind Juanpe López, pink for the eighth day in a row, who took with philosophy. “It's hard to sprint like Richard. I have no options there”, explained the Sevillian from the Trek. By the way, the bottles on the podium are now delivered uncorked to avoid scares and more casualties.
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