It took 114 stages, after Nibali's long winning climb in the penultimate day in Val Thorens in 2019, to see an Italian win a stage at the Tour de France. Today Jonathan Milan managed the feat, conquering the eighth stage in Laval with a sprint on a slight incline (about 3%) that left no room for anyone and allowed him to return to the top of the points classification. These are his words right after the stage: "Winning with this jersey means a lot to me, it means a lot to my entire country, I think that's everything. I'm really happy with the result and I'll try to bring home even more."

The Friulian won with the green jersey of the points classification, an important symbol of the Grande Boucle, and he will try to reach Paris with this jersey on his shoulders. "I don't think I've understood yet what we've done. You come here with expectations and dreams to fulfill, then you know, you can predict them, but realizing them is something different. In the third stage we were very close to victory, today I was confident and so was the entire team".

In the third stage ending in Dunkirk, he finished second behind Merlier, where the Belgian truly won by photo finish, while today it was the Friulian who got the better of everyone.

"I must thank my teammates who positioned me well. The first stage went as it went, but I knew I could count on my guys, I had said it this morning and I thank them now because they did an extraordinary job. They kept the stage under control, they supported me and put me in the best condition to fight for the victory, I had to give my maximum."

Today's stage had a finish suitable for the Friulian, who in the last part managed to unleash all his power. "I like these finishes that go slightly uphill and where you have to try to wait as much as possible because starting at 200 meters would have been too long: I started around 150 meters more or less. I knew I had to hold on and it went well, I'm really very happy".

Before the start of the Grande Boucle, Milan had said he dreamed of a stage victory and the green jersey. He had to wait a bit to achieve these goals, but now he has the confidence to continue looking for other successes.

"Today it was important for me to win the intermediate sprint, at the beginning of the race we even thought of letting it go to save some energy for the finale, but 20 points weren't bad, so we went for it. I have this jersey on my shoulders and I'll try to defend it as much as possible: it's a goal for me and for the entire team. We'll see how we go stage by stage, for now let's try to recover because tomorrow we have another beautiful stage".

The Sunday before the French national holiday will indeed feature another sprint to complete a weekend dedicated to sprinters. The best Lidl Trek will be needed to escort Milan towards a second consecutive success. Including the pilot fish Simone Consonni, who commented: "When you put so much into what you do, when you work so hard for something and then it finally arrives, it's an incredibly satisfying feeling. We showed guts in a chaotic finish, when the finale is so 'leg-based' Jonny is perhaps unbeatable and so it was. You do so much work in what you do, when you work hard for something and then it arrives, it's truly an incredible satisfaction, we showed guts."