Jonathan Milan is the new sprint superstar

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Here's a thing.
Not only has he more than proved that Trek were right in sending him to the Tour at the expense of Pedersen.
Even if he hadn't won any stages, they would still have been right.
How else were they going to find out whether or not he was able to win TdF stages if not by sending him to the Tour de France?
 
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Here's a thing.
Not only has he more than proved that Trek were right in sending him to the Tour at the expense of Pedersen.
Even if he hadn't won any stages, they would still have been right.
How else were they going to find out whether or not he was able to win TdF stages if not by sending him to the Tour de France?

The selection was between Nys and Pedersen.
 
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.
Besides, is it unconceivable to give one of the 2 top sprinters in the world a chance to ride his first TdF at 25? I truly never understood why people were complaining about Milan's selection.

As for his race, he might have taken a step back as a climber but this was an all time bad route for sprinters and will end up as the fastest Tour in history, I believe. Perhaps this was just Milan having to deal with a much harder race than anything he had done before.

Still won two stages and likely the green jersey.
 
I really don't understand why they didn't just bring the both of them.
Tbf I think Pedersen would rather smash the Vuelta WVA style than riding for Milan on the flat days if Milan is on the squad. If Milan isn't, Pedersen would have sleepwalked his way to green this year with Jasper out and I actually doubt that he wouldn't have gotten at least 2 stage wins when the race would be over.
 
If Milan isn't, Pedersen would have sleepwalked his way to green this year with Jasper out and I actually doubt that he wouldn't have gotten at least 2 stage wins when the race would be over.
Where though? I don't think he's beating Van der Poel or Pogacar in week one, maybe Lidl work to keep the break close on stage six and fifteen? We've seen how hard it's been to control breaks, though.

It's really hard to win stages at the Tour if you're not a sprinter or a climber – even VdP only took home one (but maybe would've won Stage 21). Much harder than the Giro/Vuelta. It's also worth stressing how average Mads' sprint is now, he would have shipped so many points in the five sprint stages that green becomes much harder.