Jonas Vingegaard says Tirreno-Adriatico ‘one of the biggest victories’ after sealing GC, Jonathan Milan wins final stage

Visma-Lease a Bike’s Jonas Vingegaard scored a comfortable overall victory at Tirreno-Adriatico, with Lidl-Trek rider Jonathan Milan winning Sunday’s final stage.

The San Benedetto del Tronto stage looked to suit sprinters and so it proved as the 154km route was claimed by Milan.

Soren Wærenskjold, Alexander Kristoff (both Uno-X) and Davide Cimolai (Movistar) were all in the frame for victory but were unable to match Milan’s pace as he secured the win.

“Your last win is always the most special but this one is,” Milan said after the race after overhauling Wærenskjold.

“It was a hard and tough day. It was a high pace all day. It was impressive the work the guys did for me and so I wanted to finish this race with another win.

“It was really tough to catch the Uno-X rider in the last kilometre. For a moment I thought he’d make it to the finish but my teammate Simone Consonni did a fantastic leadout for me. It was impressive.

“We knew the beginning of the stage would be hard and we didn’t want the break to get a big gap. There were super strong riders up the road and so we had to push a lot. That made for the super high speed.”

Vingegaard was in a comfortable position from the start having won the fifth stage in the Apennines and Stage 6 at Le Marche, so rode with little concern in the peloton.

He said: “In the end it was a very hard day but luckily we were able to keep this beautiful jersey, and once again the team kept me out of trouble.

“It’s one of the most iconic ones [trophies] in cycling, and I’m very happy to have it at home now.

“It’s one of the biggest victories I have, for sure. I’m very, very happy to have taken the overall victory. I will enjoy it for sure.”

He ended 1’24” clear of second-placed Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), and Bora-Hansgrohe’s Jai Hindley was third at 1’52” back.