"His climbing legs will still have to improve a bit" - Jonathan Milan's teammates had to dig deep to ensure his victory

The opening stage of Criterium du Dauphiné was overthrown by a coup of the GC stars led by Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, the second day had more traditional development with a predicatble Jonathan Milan's sprint victory as a climax of the stage.

Most of the credit for this win will go to Lidl-Trek leadout that ensured their sprinter would be able to even attend the finale. "We started from a bit further than expected, but I felt that there was enough power," Stuyven patted himself on the back in an interview with Sporza afterwards.

Normally, it would've been Simone Consonni as the last man for Jonathan Milan, but today was not the case. "Simone didn't have any punch left for the lead-out," Stuyven explained the late change. "But he came forward at the perfect moment, which allowed me to catch up and take the lead."

And Stuyven did that with grace. "We were brought very well to the last kilometer and then Jasper did an incredible turn again," laughed Theuns. "He held everyone off and set us off perfectly. We were all a bit à bloc, but it was enough. I tried to pull as long as possible and was eventually able to launch Jonny perfectly, I think."

While it may have seen a simple job to win the sprint, it was a stressful day for everyone involved. "No, winning is never simple," Stuyven confirmed. "We had to fight for it, so it's nice that everything falls into place."

Although the GC favourites didn't go all out today, the cat-2 climb with 60 kilometers to go still put Milan deep into red numbers. And it was only thanks to a tremendous effort from his teammates that the 24-year-old was able to come back. "His climbing legs will still have to improve a bit. But he was just dropped and Simone and Amanuel (Consonni and Ghebreigzabhier, ed.) were still with him and Julien (Bernard, ed.) and I waited after the top," Theuns explained.

And so the sprint train was finally able to do its thing, unlike yesterday. "He was very disappointed then. We had put all our eggs in his basket, but it didn't work out well. Now we have the main course right away. We are very satisfied, this performance is good for morale."