Jonathan Milan powered to victory on stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico, delivering the win after a perfect lead-out from his well-oiled Lidl-Trek train into the crucial last corner with 300 metres to go.
Milan had the prime position on entry to the finishing straight after a physical fight for the lead in the last kilometre, with his team and last man, Simone Consonni, bringing him to the final in second wheel with the line in sight.
Maikel Zijlaard (Tudor) ended up second after diving up the inside of the final corner and sprinting in Milan's slipstream. But he and third-placed Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ) were never close to matching the Italian's top speed once he had launched his sprint.
Having taken two bonus seconds at an intermediate sprint earlier in the stage and a further 10 as bonuses for the victory, Milan moved up to second overall on GC behind his compatriot Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers).
Milan was ninth on the identical Follonica finish at last year's race, getting the run into the final corner completely wrong. But this time, he and his team had clearly done their homework and executed their pre-race plan to perfection.
"Of course, last year was the first time, and we saw how it was," said Milan in his flash interview.
"I didn't forget, and we brought the experience from last year, put it into practice today, and I have to say, the guys were guiding me and leading me in the perfect way, [just] how we thought about it."
"I can imagine there was big chaos [behind]. We were always in the perfect position, always covered, and not losing too much energy. In the end, [it went] as we planned it, and we made it. Super happy and proud of my teammates. Today was perfect, a beautiful day."
How it unfolded
After the opening stage time trial kicked off racing at Tirreno-Adriatico on Monday, the Race of the Two Seas continued from another familiar start location in Camaiore, Tuscany, with a 192-kilometre sprint stage heading south to Follonica in store.
Just four km into the stage, the day's breakaway had formed, with Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) attacking away from the peloton solo during the uphill start. The ProTeam rider quickly earned a 5:00 advantage on the main bunch.
With the two top favourites for a sprint finish, Milan and Kooij, in their numbers, Lidl-Trek and Visma-Lease a Bike took up front positions in the peloton to begin slowly reeling back in Tarozzi over the next 100km. There was little action until the intermediate sprint into Casino di Terra with 80km to go, where there were bonus seconds on offer.
Milan swept up two extra seconds after Tarozzi claimed the maximum prize of three seconds, and GC hopeful Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) mopped up the remaining one second.
After not fancying the early move, Polti-VisitMalta brought a fresh injection of pace to the former one-man breakaway, which was under a minute ahead of the peloton, sending two riders, Davide Bais and Alessandro Tonelli, across to make it a trio in front.
The break hit the only categorised climb of the day to Canneto, with the first King of the Mountains maglia verde on offer. The Polti riders used their numeric advantage to overhaul their compatriot, with Bais taking the maximum haul of KOM points after a clever one-two attack in the final kilometre of the 4.1km ascent.
Just inside 40km to go, there was a seemingly innocuous crash at the feed zone, leaving David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Pepijn Reinderink (Soudal-QuickStep) the worst affected of the five riders who hit the deck.
Visibly in pain and clutching at one of his arms, Gaudu, Groupama-FDJ's leader, was forced to abandon the race.
Soon after, the breakaway trio were reeled back in by the Lidl-Trek and Visma-Lease a Bike-led peloton. With 18km to go, the peloton then got a look at the tricky final right-hand corner with 300 metres remaining to the finish line, where positioning would be imperative next time around the course in Follonica.
As the current race leaders, Ineos Grenadiers took control, the pace was upped as the nerves built for the finale.
There was another crash with 11km to go for one of the favourites for the day, Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla), after he overlapped his front wheel with a Movistar rider, forcing him to chase back on to contest the final.
The sprinters' teams appeared in force at the front of the peloton with five km to go, all fighting for front position as the pace was ramped up, and Groenewegen was helped back into the bunch by two teammates.
While the lead changed several times in the run for the line, when Lidl-Trek moved back to the lead with five riders, they showed clear dominance, not relinquishing that place at all for the final two km.
Milan was guided into the last corner by Consonni before the top lead-out rider had enough to do a final burst, giving the Italian just a couple of hundred metres left to complete. No one could match the 24-year-old's speed, and he powered away from the sprint field to his fourth victory of the season.
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