Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) claimed a second stage win of the 2025 Tour de France on a wet and chaotic stage into Valence.
Milan beat Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Tobias Lund Andresen (Picnic-PostNL) to the line to extend his lead in the points classification.
Arnaud De Lie (Lotto), still looking for his first stage win, was on Milan's wheel but had to check up as he nearly ran into the Italian and finished fourth.
Milan had a minor fright during the stage when the Ineos Grenadiers came to the front on the first of two climbs on the stage and spat a group of sprinters out the back by a minute but made it back after an extended chase by his team.
"I'm really happy - I'm without words after surviving - I didn't survive alone, I survived always with the help of my teammates. Without all of this, I would not be here - maybe I will be already dropped in one of the climbs."
The Italian repeatedly thanked his teammates "from the bottom of my heart" for bringing him back into contention.
"They delivered me in the best position. I was very focussed. It's a big achievement for all of us.
"Today was a really tough stage. We controlled from the beginning with the help of some other teams. When I was dropped on the first climb and then on the second one, they did a good pace."
The victory helped Milan distance race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) in the points classification. With a 62-point lead, his green jersey is by no means secure.
"We still have some tough days awaiting us with the climbs, but for the moment, we had a lot of fun and I'm really happy for how it's going.
"We will keep fighting every day for intermediate sprints and the last day possibly for the stage. We'll see how it goes. Tomorrow we have some distance for the points, but I will keep fighting to achieve as many points as I can."
A crash in the final kilometre took down European champion Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) and last year's green jersey winner Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), putting them out of the picture.
Meanwhile, Pogačar made it to the line safely along with the rest of the top riders in the GC standings.
He maintains a 4:15 lead on Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and 9:03 on Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) as the Col de la Loze finish looms on Thursday.
How it unfolded
A flat stage from Bollène to Valence could have been a nice respite for the Tour de France GC contenders, but there's never an easy day on the race.
The breakaway of the day, sparked by Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) and joined by Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education-EasyPost), Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) and Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies), never gained more than three minutes.
In the opening kilometres, Axel Laurance (Ineos Grenadiers) tried to bridge but sat up. His team had other plans.
With 100km to go, Ineos began a furious chase, bringing the gap under one minute on Col du Pertuis and putting several sprinters in trouble. Milan and Merlier ended up in a group chasing the front peloton and, for a time, were over a minute behind the yellow jersey group.
After the climb, the pace was still high and the sprinters had 30 seconds to close down. Milan and Merlier's group finally rejoined the lead peloton with 75km to go. Merlier put his team on the front to control the pace - but how much did the chase take out of them?
The reunion of the chasing peloton let the four escapees gain more time, and they had a minute's lead again with 70.5km to go.
On the approach to the second climb, the Col de Tartaiguille, a crash in the peloton disrupted the chase. With two Ineos riders - Carlos Rodriguez, who crashed, and Tobias Foss, who stopped for him - now out the back, the chances of another attempt to shred the bunch evaporated.
The crosswinds blew across the peloton, but the trees were in the way of any echelons as Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) suffered a mechanical. But after chasing back to the peloton, he went straight to the front and attacked with 45.5km to go and 2km to the summit of the Tartaiguille.
Van Aert got halfway across the gap before it started to rain, and then his progress stalled. He finally pulled the plug and was back in the peloton with 33.6km to go.
The four leaders had a bit of an advantage on the peloton as the rain came down harder, and their gap was still over a minute with 30km to go.
With a technical finale and wet roads, the chasing peloton was a battle between sprint teams trying to reel in the breakaway and GC leaders fighting to stay at the front and out of trouble.
Abrahamsen surged as the leaders passed 10km to go, leaving his three companions behind. Pacher and Burgaudeau were the first to be caught, then Albanese was back in the fold with 8.5km to go.
Israel-Premier Tech took charge of the chase as Abrahamsen held a 12-second lead and, with 4km to go, they finally brought the Norwegian back.
Roundabouts disrupted the lead-out trains and put Merlier and Milan far out of position, and they were fighting to move up heading into the final kilometre.
De Lie was in a fine position when a crash near the front of the bunch held up Merlier, but Milan made it through safely.
De Lie slotted onto the wheel of Milan but slid on the wet pavement and couldn't follow the Italian's acceleration. The green jersey added to his tally with a second stage win.
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