Alberto Dainese finally gets his stage win in La Vuelta 2023

The 19th stage of La Vuelta a España 2023 ended according to the script after a flat day, totally transition, prior to the traditional stage through the Sierra de Guadarrama. Victory for Italian DSM rider Alberto Dainese, who achieved a stage win that had eluded him in the previous sprints.

Calm in La Vuelta before the last storm in Sierra de Guadarrama

Completely flat stage of 177 km between the Leonese town of La Bañeza and the Valladolid town of Íscar, in what was intended to be a tribute of La Vuelta to the local cyclist Juan Carlos Domínguez although, sadly, it has ended up becoming a memory of his daughter Estela, run over a few months ago in the vicinity of Salamanca.

Not even the wind, so usual in the Castilian plains, wanted to collaborate in a greater spectacle, turning with respect to what had been blowing in recent days to enter from the south, contrary to the progress of the route.

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With these conditions, the stage was reduced to the usual script of a consensual breakaway of unimportant riders, on this occasion 4 members: Clément Davy of Groupama-FDJ, Paul Lapeira of AG2R-Citroën, Mathis Le Berre of Arkéa-Samsica and Michal Schlegel of Caja Rural-Seguros-RGA who at no time enjoyed sufficient advantage against the tight control of Alpecin-Fenix in a new attempt to lead Kaden Groves to victory.

Without further incident, the breakaway was caught, by mere maturation process, 20 kilometers to the finish. Samuelle Batistella tried, more for show than anything else, but only managed a few seconds. From there, the pace was intense with INEOS Grenadiers taking the lead in the final kilometers with the clear intention of launching Filippo Ganna.

In the middle of the fight for position, 2 kilometers from the finish line an EF Education-EasyPost rider came into contact, practically at the head of the peloton, with another rider in contention for the lead and there was a huge crash that dismantled the DSM and also ended the chances of Kaden Groves himself.

It seemed to be the stage on a platter for the giant from Verbania who launched the sprint at ease. Ivan García Cortina tried to come back but with more will than strength and, when everything seemed to point to the victory of the Italian, from behind, a plethoric Alberto Dainese overcame the loss of his launchers and culminated a superb comeback with which he finally managed to add the stage victory that had resisted him in La Vuelta 2023.

Stage 19 Classification

1. Alberto Dainese (DSM-Firmenich) 3h42’09’’
2. Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers) +00’’
3. Marijn Van Den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) +00’’
4. Davide Cimolai (Cofidis) +00’’
5. Iván García Cortina (Movistar Team) +00’’
6. Maurice Ballerstedt (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +00’’
7. Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) +00’’
8. Hugo Hofstetter (Arkéa-Samsic) +00’’
9. Fernando Barceló (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) +00’’
10. Jonas Koch (Bora-Hansgrohe) +00’’

Overall Classification

1. Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) +69h14’04’’
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) +17’’
3. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +1’08’’
4. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +4’00’’
5. Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) +4’19’’
6. Enric Mas (Movistar Team) +4’30’’
7. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bora-Hansgrohe) +7’37’’
8. Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +8’35’’
9. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +10’20’’
10. Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) +12’20’’