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Alberto Dainese’s winning watts were even more bonkers than you’d expect at the Giro

The DSM rider took a stunning Stage 17 win

24-05-2023 Giro D'italia; Tappa 17 Pergine Valsugana - Caorle; 2023, Dsm; Dainese, Alberto; Caorle; Photo by: Jonathan Milan, Michael Matthews
May 24, 2023
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DSM’s Alberto Dainese took a stunning Stage 17 win at the Giro d’Italia on Wednesday, putting out some impressive dat. He beat the maglia ciclamino Jonathan Milan and Michael Matthews for his third career stage in a photo finish.

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The 197 km, flat race from Pergine Valsugana to Caorle was expected to end in a sprint, but that didn’t stop others from trying. There were several large breaks that attempted to go clear, but ultimately, the pack knew it would end in a gallop. With 5 km remaining. Belgian Senne Leysen of Alpecin-Deceuninck got ahead, but it was doomed. The sprinter’s teams came together, lining up their fast men, and it was game on. Canada’s Derek Gee (Israel – Premier Tech) snagged some intermediate points early on, but was too knackered to try and give it a go in the finale.

And what a finale it was for Dainese! The Italian cranked out some serious power to take the win. In the final 21 seconds, he averaged 1020 W in average power, maxing out at 1130. He averaged just under 66 km/h, topping 70.4 at his quickest.

After the race, the Italian said how happy he was to win by such a small margin, as opposed to lose. “It never happened to me to win by this little advantage. I’ve lost that way before. Even once as a junior I lost for raising my hands up in the air,” he said. “I remained tense till I was told that I had won. Maybe it’s nicer to win this way. We took the lead with 2 km to go, I think. Until yesterday, I didn’t think I could win a stage of the Giro this year. I got relegated on the first day I sprinted for myself on stage 5. I even managed to fell sick on the rest day but I slept well last night and I was feeling good for the first time today.”