'A double victory' - Milan brothers share podium in UAE Tour sprint

Matteo Milan spent the past two seasons at Lidl-Trek Future Racing, but his graduation to WorldTour level has come with Groupama-FDJ United rather than with his older brother’s team.

The move meant that the pair would inevitably come up against one another in bunch sprints, and their first contest came in Matteo Milan’s maiden WorldTour appearance. A late crash eliminated Jonathan Milan from contention in the sprint on stage 1, but both brothers were to the fore on Thursday.

Jonathan Milan duly scorched to his third win of 2026, beating Ethan Vernon (NSN) to the line, while Matteo Milan claimed the most significant result of his young career when he came through to claim third place.

“It’s really beautiful,” Jonathan Milan said afterwards. “I’m really happy for him, because it’s his first race on a new team, his first WorldTour race, and the UAE Tour is like the World Championships of sprinters. Okay, there are guys missing, like Tim Merlier and Jasper Philipsen, but there is super strong competition in this race. It’s never easy to move and find your spot in the final metres. He moved well and I’m really happy and proud for him. He also has to be proud too. For me, it’s a double victory today.”

Two years Jonathan Milan’s junior, Matteo Milan joined Lidl-Trek’s Continental set-up at the same time his older brother signed for the WorldTour squad. The brothers’ hope was that they would one day line out for the same team. That hasn’t materialised, at least not for now, but this week at the UAE Tour they have raced against one another for the first time as professionals.

“I think it’s really special, because we were dreaming of this moment since we were really small,” Jonathan Milan said. “Since we started, we always dreamt of competing on the same team or maybe against each other at the highest level like we’re doing now. It’s a big achievement and I’m really happy for this. To see him there fighting for the victory is really nice. I’m really proud of what he did and how hard he has worked in these months in the beginning of the season.”

Jonathan Milan’s Lidl-Trek squad performed the bulk of the pace-making to pull back the day’s spirited break, which was only swept up deep into the finishing straight. His last sighting of his young brother amid the tumult of the finale came with on the final corner on the parcours.

“I think to finish there he had to move really well,” Jonathan Milan said. “I saw him in the last 3k, he was always on the right side, and he took the last corner in a good position, I think. That’s the last memory I have from him and their lead-out, but I will go back to look at it and study it.”

Jonathan Milan’s came after he suffered a crash on the opening stage of the race, and he had received treatment for a hand injury in the days since.

“It’s been a bit up and down in these days,” he said. “With the crash I was really wondering if I would be able to perform today. I was really worried for my hand, but I was able to have many treatments in these days that really worked on the hand because I was struggling to pull on the handlebars. Today I was feeling good, and super motivated, of course.”