'We have to stay calm' - Milan locks in for Giro sprint duel with Magnier

Sprinting is a binary sort of a business, especially for the very best. A win is a win, and no amount of mitigation dampens the frustration on a second-place finish. In cycling, as in politics, if you’re explaining, you’re losing.

Jonathan Milan knows the rules of the game as well as anyone. His Grand Tour record to date is an imposing one, with his three appearances yielding three points classification victories. After netting two stages and the green jersey at last year’s Tour de France, the bar was set as high as possible for his return to the Giro in 2026.

It hasn’t gone to plan just yet. On the opening day in Burgas, Milan was unshipped from his Lidl-Trek train in the finale, losing hold of his pink jersey dream in the process. He recovered sufficiently to take fourth, but the spoils fell to Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step).

Two days later, Lidl-Trek’s execution was better, but Milan had to settle for second in Sofia as Magnier scorched to his second win of the race. The result saw the Frenchman buttress his lead in the points classification and it also left Milan with a frustrating few days of waiting for the next opportunity.

It surely helps that Lidl-Trek sports director Bernhard Eisel is well versed in reading the room in situations like this. The Austrian was a key element in Mark Cavendish’s lead-out train for many years, and his ability to navigate a finale was matched only by his understanding of the pressure the main man carried on his shoulders. 

The post-stage debrief is always a key part of the process, and in Eisel’s experience, there is no harm in the frank expression of emotions when the occasion demands it. 

“He’s very humble and straight with his teammates, and he’s controlled in what he says, but we also shouldn’t forget that he’s still super young,” Eisel told Domestique. “He’s not like Alessandro Petacchi, who started winning at the age of 30 and dominating the sport. It means we have a really young and super talented sprinter, so of course emotions sometimes come out, but this is also what we want to see. I think that’s what the sport stands for, and let’s be happy we still have people that let it out at some point.”

Eisel joked that there was one notable difference between Milan and Cavendish’s post-defeat discussions. “Cav let his emotions out, but that was Cav – but now you have a 90kg unit in front of you and if he loses his temper a little bit, then it sounds different to someone who’s 70kg…

Milan and Cavendish are united, of course, by the same desire to bounce back quickly from defeats, and the Italian’s next opportunity should arrive in Naples on stage 6, where the flat run-in to the Piazza del Plebiscito finale looks destined to produce a bunch sprint. Eisel insisted that Milan could draw heart from his Bulgarian efforts, despite losing out to Magnier.

“Our only question mark before the Giro was maybe about his climbing, but we saw no issues in his sprints so far,” he said. 

After stage 1, Milan was visibly annoyed at how he had wasted energy by moving up alone in the finale after losing contact with Simone Consonni and disappointed at missing out on the chance to wear pink. Two days later, he was more measured after being pipped by Magnier, accepting that he had opened his sprint a touch too soon.

“He knew there were still little mistakes and that by going too early, he opened it up for Paul,” Eisel said. “He knows that, and that’s why he wasn’t so frustrated.”

Milan and Lidl-Trek will aim to get their calibrations just right on the cobbled finale, which features two right-angle turns inside the final 500 metres. Castel Nuovo and Palazzo Reale will be blurs on the periphery as they home in on the Arrivo banner.

Picking up Milan’s first win of the Giro is the immediate aim, but slashing his 41-point deficit to Magnier in the maglia ciclamino standings is a related goal. Like at last year’s Tour de France, where Milan’s jousts with Tim Merlier defined the sprints, the Soudal Quick-Step man looks his principal obstacle here.

“We would prefer to be in the other situation, to have that ciclamino and this nice lead like Magnier has at the moment, but we don’t,” Eisel said. “We’re in the chasing role at the moment, but we have to stay calm and let’s bring out the old saying: the Giro is long. 

“Johnny has the speed, he has the power, he’s climbing really well, and the team is coming together. We have what we need, but you just have to say chapeau to Paul Magnier. He’s on a good level, but we can match him. We know that, and Johnny knows that too...”