Jonathan Milan took Round 2 of the Giro d’Italia sprinters’ summit on Tuesday after coming runner-up to Tim Merlier on Monday. It was Milan’s second career Giro stage triumph. Like Tadej Pogačar and Geraint Thomas on Monday, Filippo Ganna almost stole the fastmen’s thunder with a late attack. Tadej Pogačar was quiet for once, and kept safe in pink.
The Course
The road tilted up from the start in Acqui Terme, peaked with a Cat. 3 ascent, and then descended for 62 km of flat, with a carbuncle–Milan-San Remo’s Capo Mele–just before the line in Andora.
An intriguing finish for stage 4 of the #Giro, with the riders tackling the famous Capo Mele just four kilometers from the line.
The action starts in a couple of minutes. pic.twitter.com/zKG4UnfnKB
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) May 7, 2024
The day’s breakaway was at first a quartet with Filippo Ganna, but he sat up after it started to rain. Lilian Calmejane seems determined to amass King of the Mountains points in this edition, even though it’s likely that a GC rider will win the category, and he was in the remaining trio to take the maximum points atop Cat. 3 Colle del Melogno.
Another competition in play on Tuesday was the ciclamino points jersey, with Tim Merlier and Milan tied at the top of table. Merlier took four points at the intermediate sprint in Calizzano, while Milan got bupkes.
Maglia ciclamino @MerlierTim has extended his points classification lead after the intermediate sprint in Calizzano.#Giro #WayToRide
Photo: @GettySport pic.twitter.com/Etmdet1bst
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) May 7, 2024
After Calmejane surrendered, another sprinter, Biniam Girmay, who was third on Monday and famously won a stage in 2022, crashed twice within five kilometres. He became the sixth rider to abandon the 107th edition.
Olav Kooij’s Visma-Lease a Bike and Milan’s Lidl-Trek were the engines in the peloton. Coming through Savona, the field was split into a few pieces for around a half hour. The race rolled along the Ligurian Coast along the same roads taken in Milan-San Remo.
The remaining two escapees were swept up just before the Capo Mele. Ganna attacked and took a handful of seconds into the final 3 km. Five seconds under the red kite. Could he survive? Lidl-Trek brought him back with 500 meters remaining.
Milan followed his leadout man, while Kooij was on his man Christophe Laporte’s wheel….
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