Italian Alberto Dainese wins Giro d'Italia stage 11 Sprint

Italy's Alberto Dainese won his first Giro d'Italia stage Wednesday when the DSM rider clinched victory with a perfectly timed sprint to the finish on stage 11

It was a lomng 203-kilometre (126.14 miles) stage from Santarcangelo di Romagna to Reggio Emilia.

The 24-year-old surged past the favoured trio of French sprint leader Arnaud Demare, Briton Mark Cavendish and Australian Caleb Ewan, before sprinting off his compatriot Simone Consonni for victory.

Colombian Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) finished second and Consonni (Cofidis) came in third.

Dainese was led out by team mate Romain Bardet, who started the race third in the general classification, but later dropped to fourth.

"To win so close to home at the Giro d'Italia is unbelievable," Dainese said.

"This morning our plan was to sprint with Cees Bol. It didn't work that way. It's insane that Bardet, who is third on GC, led me out. It's a fantastic feeling to win a stage of the Giro d'Italia."

Italian riders Luca Rastelli and Filippo Tagliani were the early pace-setters, leading the flat stage 11 for the first half of the race, before being caught up by the main group with 91 km to go.

Dutchman Dries De Bondt of Alpecin-Fenix powered ahead with 50 km left, remaining in the lead until he was chased down just over one km from the finish.

Spaniard Juan Pedro Lopez retained his 12-second lead to hold on to the overall leader's pink jersey, while Ecuador's Richard Carapaz leapfrogged Portugal's Joao Almeida into second place in the overall standings.

Stage 12 on Thursday May 19 from Parma to Genova is a 204 km hilly medium mountain stage where breakaways are likely to happen.

VIDEO: 2022 Giro d'Italia Stage 11 Highlights

2022 Giro d'Italia Stage 11 Top 10

01 ITA Alberto Dainese Team DSM 04:19:04
02 COL Fernando Gaviria UAE Team Emirates + 00
03 ITA Simone Consonni Cofidis + 00
04 FRA Arnaud Démare Groupama-FDJ + 00
05 AUS Caleb Ewan Lotto Soudal + 00
06 GBR Mark Cavendish Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team + 00
07 BEL Edward Theuns Trek-Segafredo + 00
08 ITA Sacha Modolo Bardiani CSF Faizanè + 00
09 GER Phil Bauhaus Bahrain Victorious + 00
10 BEL Lawrence Naesen AG2R Citroën Team + 00

2022 Giro d'Italia GC after Stage 11 Top 10

01 ESP Juan Pedro Lopez Trek-Segafredo 46:43:12
02 ECU Richard Carapaz INEOS Grenadiers + 12
03 POR Joao Almeida UAE Team Emirates + 12
04 FRA Romain Bardet Team DSM + 14
05 AUS Jai Hindley BORA-hansgrohe + 20
06 FRA Guillaume Martin Cofidis + 28
07 ESP Mikel Landa Bahrain Victorious + 29
08 ITA Domenico Pozzovivo Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert + 54
09 GER Emanuel Buchmann BORA-hansgrohe + 01:09
10 ESP Pello Bilbao Bahrain Victorious + 01:22