Jonathan Milan is the new sprint superstar

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Netserk

Netserk

Apr 30, 2011
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Milan is a better bet for green than Pedersen, but I'd have Pedersen go for intermediates and for lower placements after his lead-out at the finish on the flattest stages. Then the team sets him up on the harder finishes.

It's a much better strat for green than Pedersen getting 4th and 18 points in the bunch sprint while Philipsen gets 1st and 50 points. And Milan is much more likely to regularly win the big bunch sprints than Pedersen is to get top-2 in them.
 
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Brullnux

Mar 31, 2015
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Red Rick said:
He's had some weirdly bad sprints at the end of hard races though.
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Only example of that really is the Europran Championships imo. He came 3rd in the bunch sprint at GW after doing about 20km solo and was pretty good in the Napoli stage at the Giro which is probably at the upper end in terms of climbing and what I think he can hang on to. Was easily the quickest at the Hamburg race too, just got boxed in, and performed well in some difficult 200km+ stages in Tirreno Adriatico.

He had another bad sprint at the Renewi Tour, and the final Giro stage in 2023, but the Renewi stage was pretty simple and the Giro was his first GT.
 
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Links2003

Jul 22, 2024
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jmdirt said:
JM with a great sprint after being dropped earlier! Congrats!
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LIDL has found the gap next to the other big teams - don't drive on GC but get wins. After the incredibly good Giro, Milan can also do well at the Tour. There should be some stages for the sprinters. On paper, Milan is the fastest pure sprinter. And he should also have a great sprint train. He showed today that mountains are not his terrain - but he has a great team and great speed.
 
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AupaPyama

Jan 1, 2013
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Links2003 said:
LIDL has found the gap next to the other big teams - don't drive on GC but get wins. After the incredibly good Giro, Milan can also do well at the Tour. There should be some stages for the sprinters. On paper, Milan is the fastest pure sprinter. And he should also have a great sprint train. He showed today that mountains are not his terrain - but he has a great team and great speed.
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I think you are forgetting someone. Milan is the strongest sprinter but somebody else is the fastest.
 
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Tanakka

Jun 24, 2024
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jmdirt said:
JM with a great sprint after being dropped earlier! Congrats!
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Once he made it to the finish, he didn't have much of a competition, tbh, but a WT win is a WT win.
Even more so considering that this Dauphiné must certainly be getting a lot of extra eyeballs with Pog, Vini, Remco + MVDP all being in the race.

Links2003 said:
LIDL has found the gap next to the other big teams - don't drive on GC but get wins. After the incredibly good Giro, Milan can also do well at the Tour. There should be some stages for the sprinters. On paper, Milan is the fastest pure sprinter. And he should also have a great sprint train. He showed today that mountains are not his terrain - but he has a great team and great speed.
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Yeah, they were smart to split Mads and Milan the way they did, this year.

To be fair, when it comes to GC, they were unlucky with Ciccone: forget about top3 but he looked good and this could've been his year.
I think 4°-5-°-6° could've been realistic.
Though, yeah, if we are talking about competing for the podium at the Tour's GC, they are not even in the race.
 
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Brullnux

Mar 31, 2015
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yaco said:
The TDF re-emphasised that Merlier is faster than Milan. Nothing more, nothing less.
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Sure, but also that Milan gets more consistent placings, for whatever reason. Would've said that it was because of a less committed team, but Milan's lead out hasn't been as good as normal this Tour. I think Merlier has a habit of getting lost in some sprint run-ins.
 
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P4rthen0n

Apr 12, 2025
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yaco said:
The TDF re-emphasised that Merlier is faster than Milan. Nothing more, nothing less.
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And more importantly, that Milan offers close to nothing other than his own sprint in flat stages and some intermediate sprints.

Mads Pedersen isn't as fast in pure sprinting, but offers so much more: helps breakaways, is able to contest sprints in hilly stages and leads the chase in the peloton if needed. And he's probably a stronger candidate for the green jersey too.
 
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Brullnux

Mar 31, 2015
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P4rthen0n said:
And more importantly, that Milan offers close to nothing other than his own sprint in flat stages and some intermediate sprints.

Mads Pedersen isn't as fast in pure sprinting, but offers so much more: helps breakaways, is able to contest sprints in hilly stages and leads the chase in the peloton if needed. And he's probably a stronger candidate for the green jersey too.
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Yeah... no. Everyone is fully aware that Pedersen is a much better all round rider than Milan, but in five appearances at the Tour he's won two stages. Even in this Tour, which had an inordinate number of hilly stages suited to him, he'd have taken home at most one, as he'd have been up against Van der Poel and Pogacar in the first week, both of whom beat him regularly.

Between this and the bias towards flat stages in the points classification, Pedersen has basically no chance unless no sprinters turn up or crash out. He'd be coming 7th in flat sprints here.

At the end of the day it depends on what Lidl want, but Milan is, purely on probability/odds, a better shot at winning stages and jerseys than Pedersen.
 
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