Jonathan Milan as a Unit of Measure
What could you do with all that power, apart from winning bike races?
I’m an unabashed fan of Large Italian Man Jonathan Milan, the Alan Ritchson of Cycling. Just hours ago, as I write this, he won Stage 4 of the UAE Tour, a bunch sprint over Tim Merlier, Jasper Philipsen, Fabio Jakobsen and Dylan Groenewegen. I know it’s only February but that’s a pretty legit sprint field.
It’s Milan’s second stage win of the race, and if you count Lidl-Trek’s team time trial win to open the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Milan now has four wins from just nine race starts. On sprint stages, he’s 3-for-3.
Milan’s won four total stages and the points classification at the past two Giros d’Italia,1 but in 2025 he’s eschewing the Giro in favor of a spring classics campaign culminating in his debut at Paris-Roubaix. (I don’t know that anyone can beat Mathieu van der Poel there, but I bet Milan would be dynamite even if a superhuman effort only gets him on the podium.) From there, the Tour de France.
I’ve proven myself to be quite poor at handicapping a race for the green jersey, but Milan—despite being the same size and shape as a chest freezer—can climb enough to get to the end, and he’s currently sprinting as well as any man on two wheels. A couple weeks ago, Chris Marshall-Bell of Velo—who seems nearly as taken with Milan as I am—cited a peak power figure of at or near 2,000 watts for the 24-year-old.
Puffery? Exaggeration? Perhaps. The remainder of today’s post uses Milan’s purported 2,000-watt max as a unit of measure. How much power is One Milan in everyday terms?
Cellphone: 0.0025 Milans
Electric Shaver: 0.0075 Milans
Ceiling fan: 0.0375 Milans
55 inch OLED TV: 0.049 Milans
PS5: 0.1 Milans
Blender: 0.15 Milans
Refrigerator: 0.15 Milans
Ox: 0.215 Milans
RadRunner Plus E-bike: 0.375 Milans
Toaster: 0.4 Milans
Air conditioner: 0.5 Milans
Husqvarna T525 gas-powered chainsaw: 0.552 Milans
Average power draw of typical U.S. household: 0.607 Milans
Lawn mower: 0.65 Milans
Clothes dryer: 0.9 Milans
Honda Super Cub 50 scooter: 1.27 Milans
Apollo service module fuel cells: 2 Milans
Wright Flyer: 4.474 Milans
2025 Toyota Corolla LE: 63.01 Milans
Ferrari SF90 Stradale: 367.63 Milans
P-51D Mustang: 641.3 Milans
Lockheed Super Constellation: 4,847 Milans
RMS Titanic: 17,151.1 Milans
Container ship Ever Given: 22,110 Milans
Nuclear reactor on a Virginia-class submarine: 105,000 Milans
Grand Coulee Dam (largest power station in the U.S.): 3.4 million Milans
I think that’s right, but if it’s not just pretend I’m referencing the old The Onion joke about William Safire ordering two Whoppers Junior
The Milan-to-nuclear-reactor conversion got me 😂