VALENCE, France — Sprint specialist Jonathan Milan pounced at the finish to win the 17th stage of the Tour de France after a crash down the stretch derailed his rivals’ hopes Wednesday.
The 24-year-old Italian cyclist, already wearing the green jersey as the top sprinter in this year’s edition of cycling’s most prestigious race, consolidated his lead in the points classification with an explosive finish to get his wheel just over the line ahead of Jordi Meeus, Tobias Lund Andresen, Arnaud De Lie, Davide Ballerini and others in a rain-soaked sprint finale.
It’s Milan’s second stage win of the Tour de France, with his first coming in similar fashion this past Saturday in Laval. This one, though, was arguably more dramatic with rival sprinter Tim Merlier and others involved in a crash under the “flamme rouge” — the triangular red banner over the road signaling the final kilometer.
Merlier finished 25th and more than a minute behind.
“The last 25 kilometers were really, really, fast,” Merlier said. “I think I did a mistake. I took one roundabout on the wrong side, and I lost a lot of positions. And then I knew I needed to move up. The moment I wanted to move up, I crashed.”
Milan was in trouble earlier in the stage when the peloton split into two groups, finding himself in the second one. He had Lidl-Trek teammates Quinn Simmons and Jasper Stuyven to thank for dropping back to help.
“I didn’t survive alone, I survived with the help of my teammates, and I have to appreciate this. Without them, I would still be on one of the climbs, I wouldn’t be here,” said Milan, who clocked 44 mph and is the first Italian to win two stages in the same Tour de France since Vincenzo Nibali in 2014.
There was no change atop the overall standings, with three-time champion Tadej Pogacar maintaining his lead of 4 minutes, 15 seconds over main rival Jonas Vingegaard, a two-time champ, with four stages remaining.
Milan stretched his lead in the points standings to 312, with Pogacar next at 240.
There were attacks from the start of Wednesday’s action, with Jonas Abrahamsen, Wout van Aert and others all agitating to get away on the largely flat route of 99-plus miles that started in Bollene. Four riders — Abrahamsen, Vincenzo Albanese, Mathieu Burgaudeau and Quentin Pacher — managed to escape and led for most of the stage.
Abrahamsen, who won the 11th stage after Pogacar crashed near the finish last week, went on his own with 7 1/2 miles to go, but the gap was getting smaller and smaller as Tim Wellens drove the pursuit pack, followed by UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates Pavel Sivakov and Pogacar. Abrahamsen was swallowed up by the bunch inside the 3-mile sprint finish; he dropped back and received an encouraging pat on the back from a teammate.
Now the fun’s over for the sprinters as the race heads to the Alps, with Thursday’s 18th stage taking the riders 106 miles from Vif to a mountaintop finish on the 7,559-foot Col de la Loze above Courchevel. It’s arguably the toughest stage of the Tour, with 18,000 feet of vertical gain, including the 6,280-foot Col du Glandon. Then there’s a 12-mile climb at 7.9% to the Col de la Madeleine, where the riders will reach 6,500 feet for the first time in this year’s race.
It won’t be the last time on Thursday, which could provide another opportunity for Vingegaard to test Pogacar.