Reggio Emilia is the birthplace of the red, white, and green Italian tricolor flag, and Alberto Dainese defended Italy's pride in the gradual decline of cycling with his first Italian stage win at this year's Giro d'Italia.

With no Italian WorldTour team in the peloton and Vincenzo Nibali having announced his retirement after this season, after decades of success, there is a sense of demise for Bel Paese.

But the tide of fortune is changing. Former Italian national coach Davide Cassani has announced that he is working on a professional team for 2023, and has apparently secured a pasta brand, a coffee brand, and a Bianchi bike as title sponsors.

Dainese's first Grand Tour win shows that a new generation of Italian riders exists and needs more time to emerge.

"Italian cycling is not dead yet," he said at the post-stage press conference.

"We don't need to learn from others, we just need to keep doing things our way and success will return.

"Italians are always quick to criticize, but in pro cycling there is always a cycle of success and it is not easy to stay at the top. We have produced European and world champions, and Nibali is one of the sport's greats, but generational change always takes time."

Dainese has come close to Grand Tour success on several occasions, but has never been able to combine a late surge with a clean ride to the line.

In the Reggio Emilia, he was not even Team DSM's designated sprinter, but was replaced by Ciesse Boll due to his poor form. In the last kilometer, he came from behind and passed Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) and Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) to cross the finish line. Another Italian, Simone Consonni (Cofidis), also passed Demare to take third place.

In the past four editions of Gili, Italy has won the first week of stages, with Filippo Ganna winning the first stage and the Maglia Rosa in 2020 and 2021. The last time the host country won a stage past the opening week was in 2017, when Nibali won stage 16. Dainese finally ended the 2022 drought on stage 11 in Reggio Emilia.

"I actually didn't wake up very well, I didn't sleep well, and I felt out of shape today, but you always have to believe in yourself," Dainese admitted.

"Cee should have run the sprint, but we switched. It worked out for me and I can't believe I won. I was a little behind, so I couldn't accelerate when I wanted to, but I had the speed to catch up from behind."

Dainese won the under-23 European Championships and raced for the Dutch SEG Development Team before turning pro in 2020. Leaving the comfort of Italy to hone his sprinting talents, he joined Team Sunweb in 2020 and immediately took a stage win at the Jayco Herald Tour; in 2021 he took second and two third places in the sprint at the Vuelta a España in La Manga.

He shared sprinting duties with Bol in Team DSM, but fate smiled on him in Reggio Emilia, where he showed his speed and beat the great sprinters of the peloton to take his first Italian win in the Corsa Rosa in 2022.

"After turning pro, it wasn't easy," Dainese admitted. After winning the European title, there were a lot of expectations." It might have seemed easy to win, but professional cycling is different than what you see on TV. It's difficult. I never thought I could beat the great sprinters, but now I have proven that it is possible."

Dainese was immediately compared to Mark Cavendish for his size and sprinting speed. He gave up basketball because he never grew tall enough to slam dunk, but is convinced that jumping and hoop shooting helped his sprinting speed.

"Cavendish is not my idol. But we must not forget that Italy also had Mario Cipollini and Alessandro Petacchi. [Every generation has its great sprinters. I hope to join their ranks.