VALENCE: Italy’s Jonathan Milan escaped a spectacular pile-up of flying bikes and bodies to win stage 17 of the Tour de France in lashing rain on Wednesday, extending his lead in the sprint points race.
Overall leader Tadej Pogacar and his closest rival Jonas Vingegaard (4min 15sec behind) finished safely despite a mass fall 800m from the finish line at Valence at the foot of the Alps.
On the rain-slick roads at Valence once one rider had fallen his interminable slide across the tarmac sent riders flying like skittles leaving only 10 to contest the sprint.
“It was chaotic but incredible. I was expecting a bit of rain. We placed as best as we could and the guys put me in the best spot just before the fall,” said Milan.
This was a second stage win for Milan, who won Italy’s first stage since 2019 on stage eight.
The 24-year-old Lidl Trek rider now has 312 points, and is in a powerful position to win the battle for the green jersey in Paris as Pogacar is second at 240 with only two possible sprints left at 50pts each.
As the remaining 164 riders embarked from the sleepy Provence village of Bollene, the collective will of the peloton made for a slow approach of the Alps.
Billed as a sprinters stage on an unusually mild (22C) day the riders were also spared the 50kph winds that had been forecast.
But the rain deprived the stage of a full bunch sprint due to the horrid fall.
Attention now turns to three massive climbs culminating with the ascent to the 2304m altitude Col de la Loze on stage 18 will sort the wheat from the chaff on Thursday’s Queen stage.
Team UAE rider Pogacar seemed unperturbed.
“We can’t get arrogant, we need to keep it simple and stay quiet,” said the 26-year-old.
“I’m really looking forward to it. I have been beaten there before but I have good legs and maybe I’ll get my revenge,” he said.
After 10 opening days of rolling terrain in the north and west of France where Pocacar and Vingegaard kept a watchful eye on each other as emerging riders stole the headlines, week two was where the real fight began.
The defending champion Pogacar attacked the Dane Vingegaard on the first mountain, smacking over two minutes into him on one climb as things looked grim for the Slovenian’s rivals.
The following day on a regular bike on a time-trial Pogacar whacked another 40sec into the Visma star who has however taken over four minutes off the Slovenian on a single stage to win the 2023 Tour.
While Friday’s hellishly-designed five mountains of madness on stage 19 sound the final call for any pretender to knock Pogacar off his high perch.
Unless that is the three ascents of the cobbled roads to the Sacre Coeur Basilica in old Montmartre descend into chaos on Sunday.
Another Slovenian rider Matej Mohoric of Bahrain Victorious said he was confident Pogacar would close out his fourth Tour de France win.
“He was born with a machine inside him, and he was born with the brain to use that machine,” Mohoric said.
