Alberto Dainese 4th in Rome sprint, Andreas Leknessund secures 8th on GC

The final day of racing at the Giro d’Italia saw the traditional processional start as the riders headed through Rome towards the finish circuits, before the action began to unfold. Working well as a group, the team looked to reel in the attackers with Jonas Iversby Hvideberg doing a lot of work on the front of the bunch, aiming to set up finisher Alberto Dainese for the finale.

Heading onto the last lap the break was caught but unfortunately Marius Mayrhofer suffered a puncture and despite a quick bike change, he wouldn’t make it back to the front. Andreas Leknessund and Niklas Märkl did well to keep Dainese in a good position before he surfed the wheels in the technical and fast finale. Launching from deep, Dainese surged past several riders and fought all the way to the line, claiming a fine fourth place finish. With no gaps on the run in, Dainese also holds onto a hard-fought and well-earned eighth place on GC, rounding out a good three weeks of racing in Italy for Team DSM.

Dainese expressed: “I felt really strong all day. The guys looked after me and put me in a good position for the finish. I struggled a bit to sprint properly on the cobbles though and I think if it wasn’t on them I could have done an even better result. Overall it was a good Giro. If you said at the start of year that I would have won another stage at the Giro with the team then I would have been really happy with that, so I’m pleased with it.”

Team DSM coach Matt Winston added: “We came here with the expectation to hunt stages and go for results there and I think we had a really successful time with that. We had the stage win with Alberto, second with Andreas on stage four, several other top ten finishes and then of course the five days in the pink jersey and an eighth on GC too, to round it all off in Italy. I think everyone on and off the bike can be really proud of how we’ve all worked together to get to this place.”