He has amassed 312 points in the competition and leads the only rider with a mathematical chance to overtake him, race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates–XRG), by 72 points. To win the Škoda Green rsey, the Slovenian would have to win the two mountain stages (stages 18 and 19) and three of the four intermediate sprints left in the race, and hope that Milan fails to collect any points.
But it’s hard to imagine that Pogačar would risk crashing in the high-speed intermediate sprints to win a prize he doesn’t appear to want. However, Milan still has to survive the approximately 10,000m of climbing in Thursday’s and Friday’s stages in the Alps to claim the green jersey on Sunday in Paris.
“For sure, it was a tough Tour de France up until now, I have to say, but [for] the green jersey we achieved today 61 points, so I’m really happy for that,” Milan said afterwards. “It was one of our goals in the beginning of today. I think it’s never easy to have a real specific plan and then to achieve it, so I’m really happy for that. In the next days we will try to give our best to take as many points as we can in the intermediate sprints, and then we will see.”
Asked about competing with Pogačar, Milan said, “With Tadej, he’s a cycling rockstar, so we will see also with the points that he will achieve. From my side, I will just try to give my best to bring this jersey as far as we can.”
The 24-year-old Italian was fortunate that he was near the front of the peloton when more than a dozen riders hit the deck as the bunch accelerated down the rain-drenched finishing straight. Some of Milan’s sprint rivals, such as Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), who is third in the green jersey standings with 179 points, were taken down in the crash. Most of the others – including the only other sprinter to have won two stages in this Tour, Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) – were held up by the riders sprawled across the road. That left only a handful of riders left to contest the race, with Jordi Meeus (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) coming closest to depriving Milan of the win. Tobias Lund Andresen (Picnic PostNL) finished third.
Milan’s victory was a relief for his Lidl-Trek team, who had appeared to miss a big opportunity in Tuesday’s stage 16 to snatch 20 points at an intermediate sprint. The team’s sports directors had apparently failed to recognize the chance for him to join a breakaway group of over 35 riders that formed with about 120km left to ride on the 171.5km course from Montpellier to Mont Ventoux. TNT Sports reported after the stage that, according to the team, Milan had been on a comfort break at the side of the road when the group broke away, and he rejoined the peloton too late to be a part of it. The good news was that no sprinter, or Pogačar, joined the breakaway and the 20 points went to riders in the lead group who didn’t want or need them.
One rider who will not be in theŠkoda Green Jersey race – as he kept insisting he wasn’t – is Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who abandoned the race after stage 15, suffering from pneumonia. He certainly left the Tour with his head held high. He won a stage, finished on the podium twice and wore the yellow jersey twice in the race. And he kept everyone guessing about his green jersey intentions after the team’s primary sprinter, Jasper Philipsen, crashed out on stage 3.
Only two more stages remain in the race in which a rider could earn 50 green jersey points with a victory, Saturday’s stage 20 and the final stage on Sunday in Paris. However, Saturday’s stage includes four categorized climbs, including a steep category 2 ascent (3.5km @ 9%), and the final stage has three ascents of the Côte de la Butte Montmartre (1.1km @ 5.9%, with a max of 9.6%).
With many teams still lacking a victory in the race, it seems likely that both stages will be contested by multiple breakaway groups and won by the likes of Wout van Aert (Visma–Lease a Bike) or Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa–B&B Hotels). In fact, if I were to bet on the outcome of that final stage, I’d put my money on the plucky young Frenchman. Vauquelin has had an excellent Tour but risks slipping out of the GC top 10 in the Alps and may therefore want to give his many local fans a gift in Paris.
But this has been the most dramatic and surprising of Tours, in which anything could happen and did. So I will just keep my money and enjoy the rest of this remarkable race.
