Jonathan Milan powers to sprint win as crash mars finale in Valence
Jonathan Milan won stage 17 of the Tour de France in a bunch sprint, while Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) finished in the peloton to retain the yellow jersey ahead of the final mountain stages.
Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) powered to victory stage 17 of the Tour de France after outsprinting Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Tobias Lund Andresen (Picnic-PostNL) to the line in a rain-soaked Valence.
A crash beneath the flamme rouge removed fast men Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) from contention and left a group of just a dozen or so riders to contest the win.
Milan was full value for his victory, although Meeus pushed him all the way to the line. Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) was well placed but he lost ground after narrowly avoiding a touch of wheels with Milan and he had to settle for fourth.
Milan’s second victory of the Tour sees him tighten his grip on the green jersey and gives him a fighting chance of holding off Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) for the points classification. He now leads the points classification by 72 points with four stage remaining.
The stage was animated by a four-man break featuring Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education-EasyPost), Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Johannes Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) and Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies), but a group of that size was never likely to pull off an upset win on what was the last clear and obvious sprint opportunity on the Tour.
Abrahamsen, already a stage winner in Toulouse, was the last man standing from the break after he accelerated clear alone with 11km remaining. The Norwegian put up fierce resistance but he was swept up with 4km to go.
A sprint was inevitable from there, though the crash with a kilometre to go changed its tenor. Girmay was among the fallers in the crash, while Merlier was held up though he managed to avoid coming down. Milan was just ahead of the incident and the Italian was full value for his second victory of the race.
Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) finished safely in the peloton to retain a lead of 4:15 over Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) ahead of the Tour’s entry into the Alps.
How it unfolded
The last clear opportunity for the fast men was always liable to result in a bunch finish and it was clear from the opening kilometres that an alliance of sorts had been formed among the sprinters’ teams.
When the flag dropped outside Bollène, a four-man escape quickly established itself, with Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education-EasyPost), Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Johannes Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) and Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) forging clear of the peloton.
The composition of that break was clearly to the satisfaction of Lidl-Trek, Soudal-QuickStep and Alpecin-Deceuninck, who blocked the road to prevent further escapees, to the frustration of Kasper Agreen (EF Education-EasyPost).
The four escapees built up a maximum lead of 2:45 as Lidl-Trek controlled affairs behind, with Jonathan Milan comfortably winning the gallop for fifth place at the intermediate sprint behind them. The break’s margin was already contracting rapidly by the time the race hit the midpoint and the category 4 climb of the Col du Pertuis.
The injection of pace there saw a split in the peloton, with Milan among those caught behind. For 10km or so, the green jersey floundered a minute or so behind the peloton, but teams like Intermarché-Wanty, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Lotto were strangely reluctant to press home the advantage.
Lidl-Trek, meanwhile, eventually dispatched men back to help Milan, with Quinn Simmons playing a key role in stitching the race back together.
A crash in the peloton with 50km to go saw Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) and Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos) come down, though both men quickly rejoined the peloton.
The break’s lead was down to a minute when they hit the day’s second climb, the Col de Tartaiguille, where Milan was tucked in comfortably near the front of the bunch. On the slopes of the climb with 45km to go, Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) ripped clear of the peloton with a spirited attack, but he surely hoped for some company on his raid.
As it turned out, Van Aert found himself caught in no man’s land between the break and the peloton for the bones of 10km before he finally relented.
By then, the heavens had opened, and the race was doused in rain, which added to the apprehension in the peloton and gave the escapees an outside chance of an upset when they hit the final 30km still with a minute in hand on the bunch.
In the finale, Johannesen rolled the dice with a solo effort from 11km out, but his attack was snuffed out with 4km remaining. A bunch sprint was inevitable, but there were still complications for the fast men to negotiate, as the late crash proved. But Milan found a way through the chaos to claim the spoils.
