Jonathan Milan gets his weight: Italian sprints to stage victory and takes over the points jersey from Tim Merlier

Pink jersey: Tadej Pogacar (Slo)

Purple jersey: Jonathan Milan (Ita)

Blue jersey: Tadej Pogacar (Slo)

White jersey: Cian Uijtdebroeks

How did the victory come about?

In the second bunch sprint of this Giro in which Milan was perfectly piloted by Simone Consonni. His team also hoisted him perfectly over the Capo Mele, which was still a serious obstacle deep into the final. Milan won by a clear margin against Kaden Groves and Phil Bauhaus. No matter how perfectly launched by Christophe Laporte, Olav Kooij had no real recourse against the three sprinters quoted in this fast sprint.

Filippo Ganna still disrupted the sprint trains. The world hour record holder attacked for fun at the beginning of the stage, but on the Capo Mele it was a different story. At 4 km from the finish, or the distance of a chase, he started an impressive solo. Van Poppel and Pasqualon tried to call him to order. In vain, but in the end he had to bow to superior power.

Compared to what happened in the first three days, we now had the most boring price development of what has already passed. What happened at the beginning of the ride? Well, Filippo Ganna (Ineos-Grenadiers) made sure that the race was straight away. He went after the attacker Franceso Muñoz (Polti-Kometa), who had escaped during the first kilometer, and was soon joined by Lilian Calmejane (Intermarché-Wanty) and Stef de Bod (EF Education-Easypost). Under Ganna’s pounding, the lead had already increased to one and a half minutes after 23.5 km. Lidl-Trek was already busy pulling the pack together. Then, after consulting with the other escapees, Ganna called it a day four kilometers further. The trio was given a free track in the rain by the world hour record holder. The rain jackets were put on and the lead immediately shot up. After 70 km the trio was already 5’21” ahead.

Behind the three, Groves, fourth in Calizzano, took six points in the first intermediate sprint, while Merlier took four. This put Merlier four points ahead of the Italian, who was equal with 63 points after Monday.

Milan’s thumb. — © REUTERS

On the Colle del Melogno (106.1 km), Jan Tratnik put himself at the head of the peloton and the three at the front immediately lost a minute of their lead. The pace of the Omloop het Nieuwsblad winner was too high uphill for Fabio Jakobsen and also the tall Max Walscheid. Julius van den Berg initially took care of the first sprinter of Team DSM-firmenich PostNL. At the top he was one and a half minutes behind the peloton. Gaviria also had to leave there and was met by Pelayo Sanchez. Towards the end of the climb, Tim Merlier also released, who was waited for by many teammates and was able to quickly catch up. After a long chase of about thirty kilometers, Jakobsen came back again when the Intergiro sprint loomed. Behind the three escapees, Olav Kooij won this prestige match for a handful of points ahead of Biniam Girmay and Kaden Groves. It was the last achievement of the leader of Intermarché-Wanty in this Giro. There in Altare, 73 km from the finish, Lilian Calmejane let his two fellow escapees run. The South African and the Spaniard believed in it. But twenty kilometers from the finish the trains were already on the rails. So it’s an impossible task. The metronomes in the peloton had calculated well and were already 25 seconds from the finish at 12 km, but then allowed Muñoz and De Bod to struggle a bit before squeezing them to death at 4.5 km from the finish.

What did the favorites do?

Leader Tadej Pogacar actually opted for a day off, but now it was a big fall in the peloton 65 km from the finish that cut the peloton in two. Both Geraint Thomas and Daniel Felipe Martinez had fallen behind, but the Slovenian allowed them to catch up again in Savona. Although there was a third group behind with the victims of the fall of Cadiboni. There, Ben O’Connor and Einer Rubio were the biggest names in terms of classification riders and who had to hunt battered to try to catch the tail of the peloton again.

The drama of the day was the loss of Biniam Girmay. The Eritrean was one of the stars of this edition, but two serious crashes in five kilometers were too much. First he hit his right side hard in a ten-count fall. A little further on it was all over when, all alone in pursuit, he slipped again on the wet asphalt in a descending section and ended up rolling against the guardrail. He also injured his left side. The second Girmay Giro was over after three and a half stages.

What did the Belgians do?

Tim Merlier was aiming for a two on two, but he dropped too far on the Capo Mele and had to make too much effort to get to the front. In addition, a disappointed Merlier in Andora was particularly impressed by the quacking he had experienced a thousand meters from the finish. The Wortegem-Petegem native also had to start the sprint from far too far away. He had no chance against a Milan that took his second ever on the day one year after his first Girorit victory in San Salvo. In the battle for the maglia ciclamino, Milan now has a 31-point lead over Merlier.

Jasper Stuyven and Edward Theuns joined in the celebration because they both clearly contributed to the group success of Lidl-Trek, which has been taking responsibility for the Giro for two days in a row.

Cian Uijtdebroeks finished third in the bonus sprint in Savona. With this he regained his fourth place in the rankings. He gained a second on Pogacar, but that was not his intention. It was because of his third consecutive white jersey that he was able to collect.

Pieter Serry had to get to work immediately to ensure that the lead of the group with Filippo Ganna did not increase too much. He did this in function of Merlier. When Ganna dropped to the front, the thirty-something from Maria-Aalter indicated to Ganna that he should have given up. A joke à la Serry. Together with Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Lidl-Trek) he controlled the match. Making sure that the three musketeers did not drive too far away so that they could still sprint. Fortunately, Tratnik came to support them, because they had to work hard in the last hour of the race to make it clear to De Bod and Muñoz that it would be a bunch sprint.

Anything else you should know?

* Tadej Pogacar now wore black pants in this stage and not those granata shorts, which referred to the 75th anniversary of the Superga plane crash that killed the FC Torino selection. The UCI had already filed an objection. It was la petite histoire of the start, which was nicely magnified due to the lack of other news.

* Bram Welten (dsm-firmenich-PostNL) was the fourth rider to leave this Giro. The Dutchman did not start. He had a fever and a cough when he came to breakfast. On Monday we lost Simon Carr (EF Education-EasyPost) with knee pain and Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla) did not start for the same reason. On Sunday, Robert Gesink (Visma-Lease a Bike) did not start again because he suffered a broken hand in a fall in the opening stage.

* Torstein Traeen also dropped out after 45 km. The Norwegian from Bahrain-Victorious had been in trouble since his fall on Saturday. One climber less for Caruso and Tiberi.

* Filippo Fiorelli rode with his brand jersey for the first time, but he did wear the red jersey number. The Italian was voted the most combative rider of Monday on the Giro d’Italia website.

* Jonathan Milan wore the green jersey number because he is the leader in the Intergiro, a classification that is contested daily.

* Lilian Calmejane will start on Wednesday in the blue mountain jersey. The Frenchman from Intermarché-Wanty was the first to cross the Colle del Melogne (category three), putting him over Daniel Felipe Martinez with the nine points acquired. The Colombian wore that jersey on Monday and Tuesday because he was second in the mountains classification. In other words: all forms of publicity are welcome for the Hainaut World Tour team.

* Jhonatan Narvaez collided with Ethan Vernon at 85 km, but luckily it was no material bad luck for the ex-Giro leader and the Israel-Premier Tech sprinter.

Ride result:

1. Jonathan Milan (Ita)

2. Kaden Groves (Aus)

3. Phil Bauhaus (German)

4. Olav Kooij (Ned)

5. Tim Merlier

6. Davide Ballerini (Ita)

7. Fernando Gaviria (Col)

8. Enrico Zanoncello (Ita)

9. Madis Mikhels (Estonian)

10. Giovanni Lonardi (Ita)

General classification: