'I'm a little more motivated' - Jonathan Milan eyes first lead in Giro d'Italia on Friday in rare opportunity for sprinters and a grasp of jersey with home connection

There hasn't been a sprinter in pink after the Giro d'Italia's first stage since Mark Cavendish roared up Naples seafront to claim the maglia rosa way back in 2013, but Jonathan Milan certainly has ambitions to set the record straight on that score on Friday in Nessebar.

Barring crosswinds along Bulgaria's Black Sea coastline or unexpected developments on what looks to be a straightforward, opening 147-kilometre stage, stage 1's finish on the Bulevard Demokratsia is expected to end in a bunch sprint.

Twice a Giro d'Italia participant in 2023 and 2024, as well as taking part in the Tour de France in 2025, Milan has been a winner of the points classification in all three of his Grand Tours to date. And now following his most recent 2026 race at Paris-Roubaix, finishing 64th despite two flat tyres, the Italian sprinter is back in his home Grand Tour after a two-year break.

While Tirana's stage 1 did come down to a reduced bunch sprint of 37 riders, Bulgaria's flat opening day is the best chance for the sprinters to take the pink since Sardinia in 2017, when Austrian Lukas Pöstlberger outwitted the bunch with a surprise late attack. So as Milan told reporters in a special Lidl-Trek press meet at one of their local outlets near Nessebar, he's not going to let his best chance to claim his first-ever Grand Tour leader's jersey go by.

"It's a really nice opportunity and possibility," the 25-year-old told reporters. "We have to try our best to take the best result possible. I'm a little more motivated too, because this jersey has the name of my region on it" - Friuli Venezia-Giulia in Italy's north-east - "so that gives me an extra push. It will be important."

The sprinting field is a deep one in this year's Giro, with riders of the calibre of Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarché), Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets) and Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) just two of Milan's opponents.

"Absolutely," Milan said, "it's never easy. We can dream about it, but at the end of the day, we'll see."

Milan has a great example to follow, of course, given that in 2025 the opening day's reduced sprint was won by teammate Mads Pedersen. On this occasion, it looks like a much bigger number of riders will reach the line together for the first Grand Tour bunch sprint of the season.

However, that full-blown dash for the line was also expected to be the case last year in the Tour at Lille on stage 1 - and thanks to the crosswinds and a lot of alert GC teams, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) took the victory in a small group sprint. Milan missed out that day after he missed a split with 15 kilometres to go, but he's determined for things to play out differently on Friday.

"I think Magnier and also Dylan will be two of the contenders. I'm expecting Magnier to go for it in quite a few stages."

Asked about the fast-rising Danish sprinter Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM), and like Milan a Classics racer too, the Italian said, "for sure he's shown a lot in Tirreno-Adriatico [winning a stage] and he's got a great leadout train, so for sure he'll be one of the guys up there on Friday, too".

While Milan will go and recon the stage finish on Friday in person, Lidl-Trek have had a mixed bag of results in this spring, with a lot of injured riders from crashes, amongst them Mads Pedersen, often blighting their chances of success.

"Unfortunately, we've had quite a tough battle this spring with so many injuries," he confirmed. "For sure we want to bring home the best results here.

"Every race is different, though, and we have to see what we can do."

One thing won't change for Milan, though. Already the winner of the points jersey in every Grand Tour he's taken part in to date - two in the Giro and one in the Tour -he's looking at the points jersey again in the 2026 Giro.

"For sure, yes, we'll have to take it on a day-by-day basis, but it's definitely a goal," he concluded.

Since Paris-Roubaix, he slowly began building up his form again, with some visits to the track, too, both to work some of his strength and speed conditioning after a spring of Classics racing. He also worked on his TT position on the track, also with a view - as a former Olympic and World Track Champion - at taking part in the Track World Championships in Shanghai this winter.

"It's something I've done every year bar last, spending a couple of days on the track each week between races," he said.

"For sure there's not been much time to rest and build up after the Classics again, but I looked back at my previous years training again and that's how I did it - four days of rest and then start to go for it."

2023 and 2024 hardly went badly for Milan in that regard, with two wins each year in the Giro as well as the points jersey at the end of it all. But while he calculates there are five or six sprint opportunities in total in this year's Giro, there's another key prize on offer on stage 1 this May 8, too.

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