Second stage win for Milan as Pogacar retains lead in Giro d'Italia / Photo: Luca Bettini - AFP
Second stage win for Milan as Pogacar retains lead in Giro d'Italia
Italy's Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) won the 11th stage of the Giro d'Italia on Wednesday in a messy bunch sprint in Francavilla al Mare, on the shores of the Adriatic Sea.
It was the track specialist's second victory on this Giro, having already taken the honours on stage 4.
After an easy day heading north along the Adriatic coast, all of the sprint and general classification contenders were involved in the long straight final sprint into a headwind.
A nasty crash left several riders on the ground in the final kilometre but in the sprint to the line Milan broke off Tim Merlier's wheel, bursting through to notch his fifth win of the season.
It was a reversal of stage 3 when Soudal Quick-Step's Belgian rider Merlier took the victory ahead of Milan.
Alpecin's Australian rider Kaden Groves was third across the line.
Slovenian Tadej Pogacar retains the leader's pink jersey with an unchanged lead of 2min 40sec over Colombian Daniel Martinez.
Welshman Geraint Thomas is a further 16sec back in third overall.
J.D.Peters--MC-UK
