Pierre Barbier celebrates CRO Race win, only for Jonathan Milan to be awarded victory by 0.4 milliseconds

It was a chaotic finish to stage two of the CRO Race as Pierre Barbier’s premature celebrations on the line were deemed to be in vain, with Jonathan Milan taking victory for the second day in a row.

Barbier (B&B Hotels-KTM) and Milan (Bahrain Victorious) were wheel to wheel alongside Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers) in the run-up to the line in Zadar, and Barbier thought he had timed his dip perfectly to take the glory, celebrating wildly as the riders came across the line.

However, his joy was to be short-lived, as the photo-finish revealed that Milan had won by just 0.4 milliseconds.

“Oh my life! Let us wait and see at the end, what a photo [finish] that was,” exclaimed Carlton Kirby on Eurosport commentary.

As it turned out, he was right to bide his time before confirming the winner.

Milan, who will keep the lead of the race going into tomorrow’s 157km stage from Sinj to Primošten, said his win was “incredible”.

“Today the guys did an amazing job, we controlled [the race] from kilometre zero,” the 21-year-old Italian said.

“It was a really difficult finish. I just followed what the guys told me.

“Two victories in two days is something that I couldn’t think [about]. I’m super excited about that.

“I like racing in Croatia a lot.”

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