Italian sprinter Milan powers to 2nd stage win at Tour de France, Pogačar maintains lead

By Canadian Press on July 23, 2025.

VALENCE, France (AP) — Sprint specialist Jonathan Milan pounced at the finish to win the 17th stage of the Tour de France after a crash in the last kilometer derailed rivals’ hopes on Wednesday.

Italian rider Milan, the green jersey holder, consolidated his lead in the points classification with an explosive finish to get his wheel just over the line ahead of Jordi Meeus, Tobias Lund Andresen, Arnaud De Lie, Davide Ballerini and others in a rain-soaked sprint finale.

It’s Milan’s second stage win of the Tour after his victory in similar fashion in Laval on Saturday.

But it was arguably more dramatic with rival sprinter Tim Merlier and others involved in a crash under the “flamme rouge” — the triangular red banner over the road signaling the final kilometer.

“The last 25 kilometers were really, really, fast,” said Merlier, who finished 25th, more than a minute behind. “I think I did a mistake. I took one roundabout on the wrong side and I lost a lot of positions. And then I knew I needed to move up. The moment I wanted to move up, I crashed.”

There was no significant change in the overall standings with three-time Tour champion Tadej Pogačar maintaining his lead of 4 minutes, 15 seconds over main rival Jonas Vingegaard.

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The Associated Press