Emotional fourth place for Dainese in 'hometown finish' at Giro d'Italia

The stage that Tudor Pro Cycling's sprinter Alberto Dainese had looked forward to for months before the start of the Giro d'Italia turned out to be an emotional one. The Italian rider sprinted to fourth place in front of his friends, family, and fan club.

Padova was the setting for another mass sprint finale, and Dainese desperately wanted to win Tudor Pro Cycling's first Grand Tour stage in his hometown. He launched his final effort to the line early, but the stage was 50 meters too long for the sprinter.

“The team did a great job," an emotional Dainese said after the finish. "Florian pulled the whole day, and in the final, Trento pulled so strongly for 2 km. We wanted to control the last two bends and take the last one at 900 m in front, which we did."

"When Theuns and Consonni passed me, I was on their wheel, and when they realized Milan was not there, they stopped pulling. I then took Hofstetter’s wheel and started the sprint, but the wind was stronger than expected. I tried to be as aerodynamic as possible, but I was eventually overtaken in the final meters.”

“This was definitely a special day for me. My school was right here, and I started racing on track exactly in this velodrome, so I knew the route very well. Every bend, hole, and manhole—there are no secrets here for me."

"It hurts a lot, this fourth place. I was very close, but we’ll try again in Rome.”

Stage 21, the last stage in the Giro, finishes in Rome after a flat day in the saddle.