Jonathan Milan as a Unit of Measure

What could you do with all that power, apart from winning bike races?

Photo Credit: Marcel Hilger, GFR/ASO

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

1. 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