Milan fears "bittersweet ending" in green jersey battle with Pogacar, and especially van der Poel: "Mathieu is just Mathieu"

“It will be very difficult to keep the green jersey,” agrees Lidl-Trek sports director Steven de Jongh in Tutto Bici. “Pogacar can play the game the way he wants. The points classification is one of the goals we set ourselves for the Tour, along with winning stages. We've already won one, and two slipped through our fingers. We'll have to keep fighting for the intermediate sprints, although we won't change our race strategy. We still want to win.”

With a grueling third week in the Alps and the final day in Paris with the climb to Montmartre, it's going to be touch and go for Milan. Nevertheless, he is giving it his all, as he was also in the breakaway in Sunday's tough fifteenth stage. “I had big ambitions and felt good. I wanted to score as many points as possible. I dug deep and tried to stay with the group for the intermediate sprint, but it didn't work out.”

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Van der Poel pushed forward on behalf of Alpecin-Deceuninck and scored 20 points in the intermediate sprint. This means that the Dutchman and Pogacar are the main contenders for green in the third week. “I'm a little disappointed, but Mathieu is just Mathieu. It will be challenging in the next few stages, because there are still some tough ones to come. It could be a bittersweet ending, after fighting for three weeks and then just missing out.”

The painful element in the green jersey discussion for Milan will undoubtedly be the lack of intention shown by Pogacar and van der Poel. The former is fighting for the yellow jersey and was high in the green jersey standings mainly due to his dominance in the punchy stages in the first week. Van der Poel has repeatedly stated that the points classification is not a goal for him, but: “I hope Milan doesn't get sick or that something happens, but if it does, I'd rather be second than third in that classification, of course,” he said.