Tour, penultimate stage: Groves wins in lone breakaway. Green jersey for Milan

A Tour under the rain, a little grey and melancholic, now all projected towards Paris where this Sunday, with the arrival on the Champs Elysees, after three unprecedented passages on Montmartre, the race will come to a close, celebrating the fourth victory of Tadej Pogacar, almost uncontested ruler of a Grande Boucle that was very sparkling up to the Pyrenees and then folded in the second part where the yellow jersey limited itself to managing its advantage over rival Vingegaard (+4 minutes and 24").

In Pontalier, in a penultimate 'free all' stage like at the end of the school year, the Australian Kaden Groves won, taking advantage in the finale of a series of falls among the escapees, ahead of Van Den Broek and Pascal Eenkhoorn.

Fourth was our Simone Velasco, who was also trapped by a collective fall. The curious fact, which does not happen often, is that a sprinter like Groves (7 successes at the Vuelta and 2 at the Giro d'Italia) triumphed after a solitary breakaway that lasted at least fifteen kilometres. A feat of a 'finisseur', rather than a sprinter, which gives a good idea of how the Grande Boucle is now in its final credits. In any case, it was a fine victory that gave Alpecin Deceuninck his third success after Philipsen and Van Der Poel, winner at Sanremo and Roubaix, who retired from the Tour due to pneumonia.

And the big boys? Quiet and unhurried. They arrived at their own pace after more than seven minutes. No one wanted to take any more risks, especially Pogacar, who has been showing signs of fatigue for a few days now, especially psychologically ("I can't wait to go home, to a normal life and do normal things"). Even he, for the 53rd time in the yellow jersey, feels the heaviness of three weeks almost always with the responsibility of being the lighthouse of the race.

Good news, finally, for 24-year-old Jonathan Milan from Friuli, winner of two stages and now, even mathematically, green jersey of the Tour. A splendid satisfaction for the Italian sprinter, first in Laval and Valence, who conquered the points classification, preceding, just think of it, Pogacar himself who, in addition to the yellow jersey, also carved out the polka dot one. Thank goodness that something is left for the others as well.