Jonathan ‘Johnny’ Milan celebrated his stage victory with a primal scream, but afterwards had nice words for Jasper Stuyven and Edward Theuns. The two Belgian teammates who put his sprint on track. “They are extremely important to me.”
LOOK. Milan: “A victory for the team”
Not two out of two for Tim Merlier.
No matter how many times – twelve times – he won the first bunch sprint in a stage race, it was so difficult to win the second bunch sprint afterwards. Twice: Tour d’Alsace 2019 and this year in UAE Tour.
In Andora things already went wrong for Merlier before the sprint. “On the descent I had to pull the emergency brake twice because they threatened to fall in front of me. I still managed to sprint, but Milan still had to step up their game and I had to pass.”
Merlier (1m88, 76 kilograms) is a top sprinter who lives on his long sprints. Milan (1m93, 84 kilograms) has an extra cylinder. Merlier: “Milan is an animal. His five-minute wattages are even better than me, thanks to his training as a chaser.”
On the Capo Mele (1.3 km at 5.1% and top 2.5 kilometers from the finish), it was Milan’s Italian teammate in the team pursuit, Filippo Ganna, who exploded the final. A fusee.
Jasper Stuyven: “The Tudor team responded alertly, but with enormous acceleration. Punishment, because Capo Mele is not that short. They fell silent and because there were still four of us, it was up to us to take over.”
On Monday – in the run-up to the first bunch sprint – the Lidl-Trek train was also the strongest and best represented, but mutual communication went wrong.
Edward Theuns: “A few small mistakes.”
Stuyven: “During the debriefing we knew one thing for sure: there was nothing wrong with Johnny’s sprint. He showed that he was extremely strong and we wanted to wipe out the clean sheet quickly.”
The two Belgians did their job.
Stuyven: “I took over from the boys from Tudor and tried to gain speed on the descent after the top, which was tough.”
Theuns: “It was necessary that Jasper still had something left. Because Ganna still had a nice gap, I had to make my effort a little too early, but with such a strong sprinter there is a good chance that he will still finish.”
The Italian was afterwards delighted with the two Belgians who put the Johnny car in top gear. “They are very important to me. They have a lot of experience in this type of work and I trust them implicitly. It is also amazing that Jasper is so good so soon after his injury. I would like to thank Eddie and Jasper very much. They were excellent.”
It pleased both Belgians. Theuns himself is a decent sprinter, but just not fast/strong enough to compete with the world’s top. In recent years he was sometimes placed in Mads Pedersen’s train, but did not quite find his place, also because the Luxembourger Alex Kirsch wanted to profile himself at Pedersen at all costs and he succeeded in doing so. Since the arrival of Milan and Simone Consonni, Theuns found his second wind as a lead-out. It has already yielded results in the Tour of Valencia, twice in Tirreno-Adriatico and now also in the Giro. “This feels good.”
It was also good for Stuyven. Because his condition is logically not yet optimal due to the emergency rehabilitation after his broken collarbone in Dwars door Vlaanderen, he left for the Giro with a barrel full of doubts. “Was it the right choice to start?”
After four days that question mark is a thing of the past. “I’m making progress every day. I have already been able to do more than I had hoped for. It’s also nice mentally that I can throw myself in the mix. When a teammate wins, it is always nice if you have actually contributed something.”
Who will Tadej Pogacar do in the Giro and what can Cian Uijtdebroeks and Tim Merlier do? Follow it LIVE and surf to Eurosport!
LOOK. The highlights of stage 4:
Merlier came from too far: “Pulled the emergency brake twice. Then I thought about my life for a moment”
No second victory for Merlier: Jonathan Milan wins pressing sprint ahead of Groves and Bauhaus
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Tags: Johnny car put top gear Belgians Stuyven Theuns excellent Giro dItalia
