The fastest man in the race finally got the win his three weeks deserved — and on the grandest stage. After a string of near-misses in the bunch gallops (3rd in Pieve di Soligo among them), Milan was perfectly positioned out of the Rome chaos and powered clear on the Via del Circo Massimo, beating Lonardi and Penhoët with daylight. A fitting headline sprint to close the Giro for the Lidl-Trek star.

• 3 kmPeloton caught the Ganna group; Milan launched the bunch sprint on the Via del Circo Massimo and won clear

Milan made it over the Muro di Ca' del Poggio with the front group and contested the sprint on home roads, but came up short again, finishing third behind Magnier and Zambanini. The Italian was denied a stage win once more by the in-form Frenchman, who has now beaten him repeatedly in this Giro's bunch finishes.

• Contested the bunch sprint but was beaten to the line, finishing third

The fast man saw his sprint chances unravel on the day's climbs. After Movistar's brutal pace-setting thinned the bunch, Milan was dropped inside the final kilometre of the Bric Berton climb, cresting roughly a minute behind the peloton. He regrouped with Casper van Uden and Paul Magnier and several teammates to mount a chase, but they made no inroads and abandoned the effort with 20km remaining, taking him out of contention for the day.

• Dropped in the last kilometre of the Bric Berton climb
• 20 kmChase group abandons the catch attempt with 20km to go

In the early breakaway, taking 12 maglia ciclamino points at the intermediate sprint before dropping back to the bunch. A points-jersey play, not a stage-result one — the right use of a queen-mountain stage for the race's lead sprinter.

• In the day's break; took 12 points at intermediate sprint

Second on the Sofia sprint. Magnier's lead-out was cleaner; Milan's Lidl-Trek train still working through early-Giro chemistry.

Fourth in the Giro opener — solid but Lidl-Trek's lead-out couldn't quite get Milan to the front of the sprint train. The week ahead had three more flat stages for him to convert.

On almost any other team Milan would have started Roubaix as a co-leader; with Pedersen and Stuyven both on the roster he was support from the gun, charged with holding Pedersen's wheel through the early sectors and then offering himself as a sprint option if a group of fifteen came to the velodrome. The first half worked. The second half never happened. Dropped before Mons.

Second straight win, fourth of the year. The team's sprint-train depth on display.

Third sprint win of the season. Milan's role at Lidl-Trek for 2026 — pure sprinter on the team's calendar around Pedersen's Classics block — getting expressed exactly where the calendar puts him.

Milan was the dominant sprinter of the race. On the crosswind-hit Stage 1 he made the 18-rider front split and came off Hugo Page's wheel to win the reduced sprint over Fretin and Moschetti, taking the first leader's jersey on bonuses. He doubled up on Stage 2 with a cleaner bunch kick over Skerl and Ackermann. His hat-trick bid unravelled on Stage 4 to Hegra: in a chaotic, lead-out-less desert sprint he went too early, burnt out mid-effort and was passed by Malucelli for second. Two wins and consistent placings still earned him the points classification — a strong return for the team's sprint programme before the road turned uphill.

• 0.1 kmStage 1: came past Page's wheel inside the final 100 m to win the reduced sprint
• 0.1 kmStage 2: won the full bunch sprint ahead of Skerl and Ackermann
• 1 kmStage 4: went early in the headwind sprint and faded to 2nd behind Malucelli