"We cleared things up right away" - Jonathan Milan settles his beef with Biniam Girmay

Jonathan Milan is still waiting for his first Tour de France stage win. After a disappointing day in Lille where echelons got the better out of the Lidl-Trek speedster, the stage to Boulogne-sur-Mer turned out too difficult for the heavyweight sprinter.

At least he got to test his legs at an intermediate sprint today. And there was clearly a bit of tension between the Italian and white jersey Biniam Girmay. "Nothing special, just a racing incident, he went a bit wide, I got nervous," Milan explains what happened to Tuttobici.

"But we cleared things up right away and we shook hands here after the finish line too, because there is mutual respect and esteem between us and these moments happen where there is a bit of nervousness in the group."

As if that wasn't enough, shortly after the intermediate sprint, Milan bumped into the arm of a person who had leaned out too far, to film the passage of the race with their cell phone. "The passage was very narrow. I took a phone in my face, I think the girl lost her phone because I took a good slap in the face."

Milan doesn't have a thing to say about having huge crowds at the roadside, but he urges fans to be more careful when peloton passes by. "Seeing so many people on the roads is wonderful, but the fans must stay in the safety zone, well on the side of the road and be very careful with cell phones which can really be very dangerous."

In any case, the second stage was not something for the big sprinter who already eyes the merciful stage 3 with only one cat 4 mountain sprint and otherwise entirely flat course with finish on the coast in Dunkerque. A perfect day for sprinters, unless wind strikes again.

"Tomorrow we will try again because it will be a stage for sprinters," Milan confirms. "Today was a very tough stage and tomorrow there will be a stage more suited to me and I will try to win it."