Italian Jonathan Milan claimed his second victory in this year’s Tour de France in winning a crash-disrupted sprint on Wednesday’s 17th stage.
Milan prevailed in a 10-man sprint after the peloton was held up behind a large crash with just one kilometre to go as riders went down on slippery roads in a rainy finish in southeastern France.
UAE Team Emirates’ Tadej Pogacar crossed the line safely to retain the yellow jersey, with second-place Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease-a-Bike) alongside.
Ireland’s Ben Healy had an uneventful day after Tuesday’s heroics up Mont Ventoux, where he took second behind Frenchman Valentin Paret-Peintre, rolling in with the general classification leaders one minute nine seconds behind Milan.
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[ Ben Healy: ‘He had a better kick and beat me to the line’Opens in new window ]
Healy, racing for EF Education-EasyPost, remains ninth in the GC rankings, 2′53 ahead of Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers).
Quentin Pacher, Mathieu Burgaudeau, Jonas Abrahamsen and Vincenzo Albanese broke away early in the stage but stood little chance against the collective power of the sprinters’ teams.
With the peloton breathing down their necks, Abrahamsen went solo with 11km remaining, only to be reined in 4.3km from the line.
Milan was the strongest in the reduced sprint following the crash in the peloton, edging out Belgian Jordi Meeus and Denmark’s Tobias Lund Andresen, who crossed second and third respectively.
Thursday’s 18th stage is a brutal mountain trek between Vif and the Col de la Loze, one of the most feared ascents in the Tour.
