Milan wins rain-soaked Stage 17 as crash disrupts sprint finish in Tour de France

Jonathan Milan won a chaotic Stage 17 of the Tour de France after a crash under the flamme rouge eliminated key sprinters. The Lidl-Trek rider edged out Jordi Meeus as his team controlled the stage to protect his green jersey hopes.

Hyderabad: Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) won a chaotic Stage 17 of the Tour de France, pipping Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) in a rain-soaked finale in Valence. With Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) closing in on Milan in the race for the green jersey, Milan’s team was determined to ensure the stage would finish in a bunch sprint and maximise the Italian’s points haul.

Although not what Milan would have wanted, that task was made easier by a crash that occurred beneath the flamme rouge banner, with a kilometre to go. Only the front ten riders were completely unaffected, with most of the rest of the bunch impeded by a wall of bodies and bikes. They included the rider most expected to challenge Milan for the stage, Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep), who stayed upright but was forced to slow to a standstill and was unable to contest the final sprint.

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It all came at the end of a short, somewhat punchy stage that wasn’t even guaranteed to finish in a bunch sprint. That it did was almost entirely down to the efforts of Milan’s Lidl-Trek team-mates throughout the stage.

Their first task was to restrict the size and make-up of the breakaway. Narrow roads out of Bollene made that an easier one. Once four riders had disappeared up the road, a wall of riders mostly wearing red, yellow and blue appeared at the front, slowing the bunch down and repressing any further efforts to make the jump. Kasper Asgreen (EF Education EasyPost) was the most apparently keen of those who had missed out, but the Danish rider was put in a box and prevented from finding a way through.

By the time Axel Laurance (Ineos Grenadier) was able to bust out it was too little too late. The Frenchman spent about 20km with his nose in the wind before being reabsorbed into the peloton.

It was soon clear that Vincenze Albanese (EF Education-EasyPost), Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Mathieu Burgaudeau (Total Energies) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) were going to be allowed the most limited of leads. Although they worked hard and cooperated well, for most of the afternoon, they were about as invisible as a break could be. Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) was charged with keeping the gap below three minutes, and mostly much less.

The first of two 4th category climbs was when Milan and Lidl-Trek found themselves most under pressure. Ineos Grenadiers and Movistar looked to increase the pace with Milan and Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) two of the biggest names cut adrift from the peloton. They could have been permanently distanced had Alpecin-Deceuninck, among other teams, realised sooner that they were the main beneficiaries and been quick enough to take advantage. Although Kaden Groves’ team-mates did eventually come to the front, it was not soon enough to prevent Milan and Merlier from making it back to the front.

Once they had, Lidl-Trek retook charge over the peloton and gradually worked to bring the break back at the time of their choosing. The arrival of heavy rain made that a more stressful responsibility but one Jasper Stuyven and Tom Skujins were ideally suited to.

Between them they kept Milan close enough to the front to avoid being impacted by any crashes, made more likely by the conditions. When a big accident occurred, directly under the flamme rouge banner with 1km to go, he not only avoided it entirely but later said he was unaware it had even happened. Only ten other riders escaped the incident. They did not include double-stage winner Merlier, or last year’s green jersey, Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty.)