"World championship for sprinters" - Jonathan Milan eager for Tour de France debut and battles with Philipsen, Merlier, Girmay
Cycling
At the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana there will be three mountainous days, a team time-trial and only one stage for the sprinters on the final day. Hence, it is a surprise that Lidl-Trek have shown up at the start line with Jonathan Milan, his full leadout and no options for the overall classification. But the Spanish race serves as preparation for his goals later in the spring and his Tour de France debut.
“I think we had a good period in the classics last year. For me it was important to grow as a rider. In these races you need luck and experience, and I learned a lot and took a step forward. Let’s hope that this season will also be the case," Milan shared with In de Leiderstrui. "We have great ambitions with our strong team. Personally, I am aiming for a small result. I have to be honest about that. Maybe I will have the chance to get it, maybe not.”
Although there is only one stage for the fast men this year, Milan will still have some competition on the arrival to Valencia this Sunday, with the likes of Kaden Groves, Gerben Thijssen and Iuri Leitão well present. Milan will then travel to the UAE Tour which is much more sprinter friendly and one of the highlights of the year for the fast men; Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne; and Tirreno-Adriatico before the block of spring classics.
"I wouldn’t say that Milano-Sanremo is more special than the Belgian races, but obviously it’s a race that is close to my heart as an Italian," he adds, before talking about his experience last year. "Last year after Cipressa I was already exhausted. Then I started pedaling in the lead towards Poggio, to still be useful in that sense. Now it’s about saving more energy and trying to survive Poggio.”
This year it may be a more difficult task, as UAE Team Emirates - XRG have been anticipating a race made for Tadej Pogacar, which could prove to be very hard for sprinters such as the Italian. He will then also race Gent - Wevelgem, Dwars door Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix.
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However the other big goal lies on the Tour de France, where he will be within a shot of the yellow jersey on the first stage of the race. “The Tour is a new challenge and I can’t wait to face it without putting too much pressure on myself. In any case, the big ambitions are there, obviously. We all know that the Tour is something different, and I see it as something completely new".
"Of course, I took a look at the route. It’s like a world championship for sprinters. Other sprinters might start looking at me, but I don’t see it as extra pressure. Jasper Philipsen and Tim Merlier are just two of the rivals. They are different though. Tim can come very strong from behind, as we saw at the European Championships. Jasper is more often in front and does his sprints more the way I like them. I always watch them when they race, but there are others like that.”
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Who’s excited to see these guys start their 2025 season? 🙋🙋♀️🙋♂️ Here’s our line up for this weeks Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/3K9G4Ek0Bg
— Lidl-Trek (@LidlTrek) February 3, 2025
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- Why is that relevant when discussing speed?Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- But he wasn’t the only one ;-)Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- Obviously the questions are more important to some here than to them or the team so I suggest looking for answers instead of asking questions between ourselves. We’ll probably get them unless someone actually goes to ask the protagonists themselves. Here are some starters : They like riding together; they have their own rivalry that helps bring out the best in both; they might get more points helping each other compared to racing separate races. In any case, unless we hear MJ complaining about it, I don’t think it’s going to change, it’s the Sepp Kuss syndrome all over again, fans lobbying against the will of the rider.Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- Mine goes to MVDP for entertaining us all year round :-) Stellar race, Ganna impressive in his own way as many predicted after some oddly lacklustre times.Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- i remember when not too long ago mathieu was regarded as a real tactical knucklehead. i’m not sure that was ever quite accurate, but it’s certainly the case that over the years he has become a real master tactician. in the biggest races, van der poel rarely makes choices that don’t fully optimize every specific advantage he has.OCexile23-03-2025
- Whatever the result, I believe the strategy by UAE to launch Pogacar was absolutely the right one. Unfortunately, they just were not able to execute it the way they must have planned, being all over the place at the start of the Cipressa.Cooldude23-03-2025
- They are without doubt not just the best two classics riders of this generation, but amongst the best of all time. MvdP is more suited to MSR and PR (which Pog has yet to race), while Pog is now almost untouchable at LBL and Lombardia. RVV is the only one where both basically have an equal chance to win.Cooldude23-03-2025
- bravissima!
maria2024202423-03-2025 - According to Tadej's Strava upload, he went up the Cipressa at an average speed of 37.6kph. Rocket ship! He did the 5.63km verified 'Cipressa' Strava segment in 8:59 minutes, which has a 4.3% average grade and total elevation gain of 229m. Naturally, he got the Strava KOM.Pogboom23-03-2025
- In Track and Field, there's Usain Bolt in the sprints and Kenya's Kipchoge in the marathon. Though Bolt can quite easily beat Kipchoge in the 100m dash, he probably won't even finish a marathon. Tadej won't beat Mathieu in a sprint, yet he wins the TDF while MVDP languishes in 50th place. Both are great champions in their respective fields, but my admiration goes to Tadej for trying.FredMan23-03-2025