It was one of the major goals of Lidl-Trek’s Giro d'Italia 2024, along with stage victories. The young Italian sprinter and the entire team lived up to expectations.
In the shadow of the Colosseum, Jonny Milan appeared. Smiling and satisfied. For the second year in a row, he is the winner of the Ciclamino jersey of the Giro d’Italia points classification. Two edition raced, two wins.
Only a bit of bad luck made the final stage of the Giro a little more bitter, because on the road to the centre of ancient Rome, Jonny had to settle for second place behind Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep). An unexpected pit stop on the last lap of the circuit with a bike change, 9km from the finish, forced him to make a furious chase. Successfully realized, in extremis. A remarkable effort that may have cost him a little too much energy in the final sprint.
The fourth second place in this Giro, however, takes nothing away from the superb performance of Jonny and the Team in the race.
For seventeen days, Jonny has been even more visible amongst the colors of the peloton, resplendent in the Ciclamino jersey as leader of the points classification. He first wore it on the podium of Stage 4 in Andora, where he also jumped to celebrate the first of three victories in this Giro. From then on, he was never without it.
The final classification shows Jonny’s domination of the competition, with 352 points against the second place of Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) with 225 points and Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) in third. A clear result, achieved thanks to the dedication and the commitment of the entire Lidl-Trek team, which supported Milan in the best possible way in the sprints and also in the intermediate sprints.
This is a team victory. I had the duty of finalising the work of an entire team, the honour of standing on the podium by winning this jersey. But my success also represents a common effort, a goal that we had set ourselves from the beginning and that together, with perseverance, we pursued and achieved - Jonny Milan
Milan's reaction
It’s the last thing you want to see in the last day of a tour in a bunch sprint, but these things happen. We changed the bike really quickly, and came back really quick to the group, which was a really hard effort. We did our best possible sprint, and the team did a perfect job. We missed this sprint and I’m really sorry about it, because I wanted to close this out with a nice victory. That all said we are still very happy because we played our cards well, and did our best. We have to be proud of our Giro.
For now, the future goal is rest! I’m looking forward to the Olympics. I’ll do some rest now, and then back to the bike in Livigno, and then Nationals, and then preparation specifically for the games. But most importantly, I will be resting!
