Greig Leach

In the last left turn before the peloton lined up for the sprint a large bunch crashed after someone (or two) slide out on the wet road. Since the wreck happened at the front of the peloton a number of sprinters went down or were held up too long to vie for the stage victory. I doubt any would have had the legs to get around Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) who claimed his second stage victory of his career and this Tour. One of those caught out by the crash was Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quick Step) who is the only sprinter to beat Milan to the line, twice. Today it was Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) with Pavel Bittner (Picnic-PostNL) taking the third step of the podium. Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) sprinted to fourth today. For Milan, his win today may mean he has done what he needed to keep the Maillot Vert all of the way to Paris. It really depends on the coming intermediate sprints, and how the new course on the final day in Paris will be raced.