Jonathan Milan powers to sprint victory on stage 2 of Critérium du Dauphiné

Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) won stage 2 of the Critérium du Dauphiné in a bunch finish in Issoire ahead of Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

The 10-second time bonus for the stage victory was also enough to lift Milan into the yellow jersey of race leader. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) drops to second overall on the same time as Milan, while Van der Poel is third overall at two seconds. 

The rugged terrain threatened to burn off some of the pure sprinters in the finale, but Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard et al kept didn't replicate their skirmish from the opening day, and the only attack on the last classified climb, the Côte de la Nonette, came from Romain Bardet (Picnic-PostNL).

The Frenchman escaped alone with 18km remaining, but he never had much more than 10 seconds in hand on the peloton, and he was swept up on the fast run-in to Issoire. From there, a bunch sprint was inevitable, and Lidl-Trek took up position at head of the bunch in the final kilometre to tee up Milan for the win.

“We knew we had to take this last corner in the front, it was just a perfect lead-out,” said Milan. The sprint might have looked easy after Simone Consonni, Jasper Stuyven and Edward Theuns led him out, but Milan’s victory was a hard-fought one all the same. He was dropped on the day’s toughest climb, the category 2 Côte du Château de Buron, but a delegation from his Lidl-Trek team dropped back to pace him back up to the bunch.

“That was really tough,” Milan said. “Our goal was to come here to keep building up the condition and do some nice results. Yesterday I have to say I was suffering a lot, it was my first race in a long time. Today I also suffered a lot. I was dropped at one point and I was really on the limit. I have to stay thanks to my teammates, they brought me back and guided me to the last metres. I have to say massive thanks to them. 

“If I had been alone, it would have been super tough to come back, but when you have a team that supports you and believes in you, it’s easier. That’s what happened today in the end. That gave me extra motivation.”

The win was Milan’s seventh of the season, and his supremacy was never in any real doubt here thanks to a pitch-perfect lead-out from his Lidl-Trek squad. 

After Theuns swung off, Milan scorched to a convincing victory ahead of an impressive Wright, while Van der Poel had to make do with third place for the second successive day. Stian Fredheim (Uno-X Mobility) took fourth ahead of Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ).

Milan will hope the win – and the stint in yellow – will be a portent of things to come in July.

“Of course, it’s pretty nice,” he smiled. “We will see, day by day.”

After the late drama to Sunday’s opening stage, there was a relatively tranquil start to stage 2 of the Dauphiné, with Paul Ourselin (Cofidis) forging clear alone after a brief flurry of attacking in the opening kilometres. The Frenchman established a maximum lead just north of four minutes as he led over the day’s first four classified climbs to secure another day in the king of the mountains jersey, with Lidl-Trek among the teams taking a controlling interest in the peloton.

It looked set to be a day of relative détente among the GC contenders, with none of them inspired to chase bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint in Olby midway through the stage. By then, Ourselin’s lead was beginning to contract, and that inspired a trio of counter-attackers to bridge up to him. Romain Combaud (Picnic-PostNL), Christopher Juul-Jensen (Jayco-Alula) and Victor Guernalec (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) joined Ourselin in front with 92km remaining, and they carried a lead of a minute into the day’s toughest obstacle, the category 2 climb of the Côte du Château de Buron with 56km to go.

That climb caused splits at the front and the back of the race. Juul-Jensen and Guernalec dropped their breakaway companions, while Jonathan Milan (Lild-Trek) was distanced from the peloton under the forcing of Visma | Lease a Bike and Alpecin-Deceuninck. The Italian was able to latch back on over the other side after a delegation from Lild-Trek dropped back to pace him.

Juul-Jensen and Guernalec were caught by the Alpecin-led bunch shortly before the race crossed the finish line for the first time with 43km left. The run-in to the category 4 Côte de Nonette saw rising intensity in the peloton and a notable battle for positions at the front between UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Visma, but the climb itself saw no frissons between Pogacar and Vingegaard.

Instead, it was local favourite Bardet who emerged from the peloton with 18km remaining. In his final race as a professional, Bardet was eager to leave his mark, and he crested the summit of the Nonette with 10 seconds in hand on the bunch. Bardet could have done with company, however, and his solo raid died out inside the final 10km.

Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG guard was very prominent on the run-in to Issoire, but their aim here was simply to protect their leader rather than set him up for a late rally. Lidl-Trek took up the reins ahead of the sprint, and their effort helped secure Milan the stage win and give Pogacar at least one day off podium duties at this Dauphiné.