"Maybe I went a bit too early": Jonathan Milan frustrated again as Paul Magnier takes second Giro d'Italia win

The sprint battles at this year's Giro d'Italia have a clear boss so far, and it isn't the rider many expected. Italian fast man Jonathan Milan came into the race looking to dominate after winning the green jersey at the 2025 Tour de France. However, the Lidl-Trek rider was forced to settle for second place yet again on Stage 3 in Sofia, as young talent Paul Magnier proved unbeatable once more in the final dash to the line.

On Friday's opening stage in Burgas, Milan lost his lead-out train in the final kilometers and wasted too much energy just trying to get back into position. This time around in Sofia, Lidl-Trek got it right. The team moved smoothly through the pack, and Milan was exactly where he needed to be going into the last kilometer.

He took the lead just before the final corner, which was his plan, but he later admitted he misjudged the finish. Magnier powered past him on the cobblestones in the last 100 meters, leaving Milan as the runner-up for the second time in three days.

"I think we improved compared to the last couple of days; we rode well as a team in the finale, and we held our positions in the final kilometers," Milan told RAI television after the stage. "We did what we wanted to do, even if the result wasn’t the one that we had wanted."

Explaining what went wrong in the final sprint, Milan was honest about his timing error. "Maybe I went a bit too early before the corner. I thought the crown of the last corner was a little bit closer to the finish, and I thought I needed to hit the right speed there to take the cobbled section from the front and then not get overtaken. But it didn’t work out that way. Maybe I should have waited a bit longer, and instead I went a bit early."

Milan came into this year's Giro as the clear top favorite for the flat stages, backed by an impressive recent track record at the Grand Tours: four Giro d'Italia stage wins, two Giro d'Italia points classification victories and two Tour de France stage victories.

With the Giro leaving Bulgaria and heading to Italy after Monday's rest day, Milan is hoping to finally grab a win on home soil. Despite missing out on the first two sprint chances, he remains upbeat about his form.

"I don’t know what to say, but from a psychological point of view, it’s not that I’m demoralised by these results, quite the opposite," Milan added.

"Tomorrow is a travel day and then bit by bit I’ll look to recovery, and I’ll try to win and enjoy myself. I’m starting to feel a bit better day by day. Maybe in the first two days I was still trying to open the gas a bit. But to be clear, that’s not an excuse, it’s just how I felt."