Jonathan Milan strikes blow for green jersey at Tour de France

Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) powered to his first Tour de France victory with a devastating uphill sprint in Laval on stage 8. 

The Italian was wearing the green jersey on behalf of overall leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in recent days, but he now moves into the outright lead in the points classification thanks to his victory on Saturday.

Milan judged his effort smartly on the final rise to the line, and he held off a resurgent Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) to claim the spoils and make amends for his near miss on stage 3, when he was pipped to the line by Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep).

“I think I still don’t understand what we did,” Milan said afterwards. “We came with some expectations and dreams to bring home a result, but to predict and then to bring home the result are two different things. 

“But I was confident with the team, and we were really close on the last sprint. On the third stage, we were pretty close to the victory and we knew that we just went a bit too early. Today we were really focused, really believing in it. 

“My guys did an amazing job until the final, which was really tough and a bit stressful. In the last kilometre and a half, I knew I had to wait as long as I could, but I like this kind of final.”

Lidl-Trek have been one of the outstanding teams of the 2025 season, with Mads Pedersen sprinting to four stage wins and the points classification at the Giro d’Italia. The Dane was left out of the Tour squad in favour of Milan, and after opening his account, he will aim to emulate his teammate by landing the points classification. To that end, Milan also won the intermediate sprint on Saturday.

“I think so, the level is so high, everyone is looking for a win, and they deserve one,” Milan said. “But we also really deserve one at this point, so I’m really happy for all of us with this result. Now let’s try to rest as much as we can tonight, and then we’ll try again tomorrow.”

Milan’s victory bridges a six-year gap to the last Italian stage win on the Tour, which was achieved by Vincenzo Nibali at Val Thorens on the final weekend of the 2019 race. He acknowledged the importance of his achievement for Italian cycling.

“Winning with this jersey on the shoulders also means a lot for me and also for my country,” Milan said. “I’m really happy with the result, and I’ll try to bring others home, of course.”

Milan now has 192 points in the green jersey standings, 36 clear of Pogačar, while Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) lies third, 68 points down. Earlier on Saturday, dangerman Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) indicated that he would not make a target of the points classification.