Jonathan Milan claimed his first career Tour de France stage win as he beat Wout van Aert and Kaden Groves in an uphill sprint in Laval.
Milan, 24, had lost his lead-out men on the technical finish to the 171.4km stage from Saint-Meen-le-Grand but surfed the wheels before holding off the late charge of Van Aert.
The Italian won in the green jersey he was wearing on behalf of overall leader Tadej Pogacar, but the victory means he will wear it on Sunday by rights as he moved to the top of the points classification.
Pogacar enjoyed a relatively easy day in yellow, content to sit further down in the peloton, as the sprinters had only their third opportunity of the Tour and first since Monday – albeit on a slight uphill drag to the line that made it one for the more powerful among them.
“I don’t still understand what we did,” said Milan, remarkably the first Italian stage winner since Vincenzo Nibali in 2019. “To come with some expectations, some dreams, but then to bring them home is two different things, but I was confident with the team.
“We were really close in the last (sprint), not the first stage, but on the third one we were pretty close, we know we just went too early, but today we were really focused. I really believed in my guys, they did an amazing job.
“It was a tough final, I have to say it was a bit stressful and I was not expecting it to drag up so much in the last kilometre. I had to wait as long as I could, but I like this kind of finale and I’m really happy for the world that we did. We really deserved it.”
After some frantic days of racing this was seen as a recovery day for many in the peloton, with no breakaway going until Team TotalEnergies pair Matteo Vercher and Mathieu Burgaudeau peeled off the front midway through to keep them honest.
Burgaudeau was reeled in as Laval came into view, with the fight for position key given the sharp righthander on to the banks of the Mayenne river with six kilometres to go and a 180-degree turn on a roundabout three kilometres from the line.
Milan was separated from his Lidl-Trek team-mates in the mix, but the 24-year-old rode the wheels, surviving a brush with Groves on a late roundabout to secure a stage win on his debut Tour.
There was no change at the top of the general classification, where Pogacar leads by 54 seconds from Remco Evenepoel, with Kevin Vauquelin third ahead of Jonas Vingegaard, who is one minute 17 seconds off yellow.
Sunday will be another day for the sprinters with a 174km stage from Chinon to Chateauroux, which has dubbed itself ‘Cavendish City’ this week in honour of the Tour de France’s record stage winner Sir Mark Cavendish, who took three of his 35 Tour victories there.
