Tour de France Stage Report: After stage 10, stage 11 more than made up for the previous day’s dullness. UAE Team Emirates had a plan and yellow jersey, Tadej Pogačar attacked on the climb of Puy Mary. The other favourites had to let him go, but Jonas Vingegaard crosses to the Slovenian and the pair sprinted for the stage win. The stage win went to the Dane, while behind, Primoz Roglič crashed and Remco Evenepoel took third place.
Stage 11 finale
The Tour de France stage to Le Lioran turned out to be a battle between the favourites and was won by Jonas Vingegaard. In a fast stage through the Massif Central, with four climbs in the last 50 kilometres, Tadej Pogačar put in a serious attack on the Puy Mary, but Vingegaard managed to close a gap of more than 30 seconds. On Le Lioran it turned into a two-man sprint, which was surprisingly won by the Dane.
Vingegaard took the stage an a little time on Evenepoel
Christian Prudhomme, Tour de France general director: “There’s only one stage across the rugged Massif Central, but what a stage it is! With 4,350 metres of vertical gain, the riders will have to be on their mettle at all times, and particularly in the final 50 kilometres, when the degree of difficulty rises a level with a series of very challenging obstacles: the climb to the Col de Néronne, then to the Puy Mary Pas de Peyrol with its fearsome final two kilometres, then continuing on to the Col de Pertus, the Col de Font de Cère and the ascent to Le Lioran. They provide all manner of opportunities for eager climbers to attack.”
The Tour gets into the Massif Central on stage 11 from Éveaux-les-Bains to Le Lioran. The peloton covers 211 kilometres with four short, steep climbs in the last 50 kilometres with a total of 4,200 metres of climbing. The Col de Néronne (3.8km at 9.1%), Puy Mary Pas de Peyrol (5.4km at 8.1%), Col du Perthus (4.4km at 7.9% ) and the Col de Font de Cère (3.3km at 5.8%) will shake up the finale. None of the climbs are long, but they are steep, with sections of up to 12%. After the summit of the Col de Font de Cère there are 2.5 kilometres to the finish. The road to the finish is mostly downhill, but the last few hundred metres ramp up to 6%.
Can Primoz Roglič move up on GC?
Several groups tried to get into the ‘break of the day’, but all failed. Visma | Lease a Bike made several attempts to send riders in the splits, including Wout van Aert, Bart Lemmen and Christophe Laporte, but UAE Team Emirates stopped them. There was no lead group for a long time. Eventually Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) was the instigator of the escape of the day. After an earlier attempt by the Olympic champion failed, he got away with Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies). Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Oier Lazkano (Movistar) and Oscar Onley (dsm-firmenich-PostNL) joined them, as did Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis). Only after 90 kilometres did they have a gap on the peloton.
Is Jonas Vingegaard improving or…
UAE Team Emirates didn’t allow the lead to increase to more than 2 minutes. It looked like it would be a battle of favourites in the Massif Central. The lead was kept at around 2 minutes by Nils Politt and Tim Wellens. The stage was running at more than 30 minutes ahead of the fastest scheduled timetable, it was going to be a tough final. The leading group eventually started the Néronne, the first climb of the finale, with less than 1 minute, because there was serious sprinting towards the start by the peloton. This was at the expense of Van Aert, who hit a corner too hard and crashed. The rest just managed to avoid him. UAE took the initiative on the Néronne, while the leading group was split by a high pace set by Lazkano and Healy. Only Carapaz was able to get back to them, but on the first part of Puy Mary the favourites came dangerously close. It was then a matter of waiting for an attack.
Philipsen, Girmay and Pogačar at the start
After some hard work by Pavel Sivakov, Juan Ayuso and Adam Yates, the favourites group was thinned out to a group with Pogačar, João Almeida, Jonas Vingegaard, Wilco Kelderman, Primoz Roglič, Remco Evenepoel, Carlos Rodriguez and Giulio Ciccone. Everyone else had already been distanced on the steep sections, after which the yellow jersey jumped away 600 metres from the summit. He immediately opened a gap, while Roglič and Vingegaard got together and Evenepoel chose his own pace behind them. The top 4 came over the climb in that order, 30 kilometres from the finish.
It was going to be a hard day
Vingegaard dropped Roglič and crossed the top not far behind Pogačar, but on the descent the Slovenian extended his lead to 12 seconds. Roglič followed at 17 seconds and joined his former teammate, while Evenepoel followed at more than 30 seconds. The Belgian was joined by Rodriguez, Ciccone, Almeida and Yates. The yellow jersey took all the risks on the descent and even slipped once, but managed to stay upright. Just before the Col du Perthus (4.4km at 7.9%), the Evenepoel group caught Vingegaard and Roglič.
Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) tried to set up the first break
On the Perthus, it was Vingegaard who put the pressure on in the pursuit. Evenepoel and Roglič were able to follow at first, but had to drop off one by one as the Visma | Lease a Bike leader reduced the gap on Pogačar from 33 seconds to 19 seconds. It became a hand-to-hand battle, because Evenepoel was able to catch Roglič, although he was 50 seconds behind Pogačar. Vingegaard was getting closer and closer and caught the yellow jersey just before the top of the Perthus, but Pogačar took the 8 bonus seconds. Vingegaard (5 seconds) and Evenepoel (2 seconds).
The peloton didn’t want to let the break get too much time
On the descent, Pogačar and Vingegaard rode well together, with Evenepoel and Roglič around 35 seconds behind. There was still the Col de Font de Cère (3.3km at 5.8%) to come, followed by a short descent towards Le Lioran. On the wide road everything remained the same between the two duos at the front. The Font de Cère wasn’t difficult enough to make a real difference; Vingegaard and Pogačar crossed the top together, followed 30 seconds later by Evenepoel and Roglič.
The break didn’t look like it had any chance
The descent towards the finish was narrow, technical and wet in places. That caused Roglič to crash and he lost time. At the front; Vingegaard and Pogačar battled for the stage win on the slightly downhill finish. Vingegaard made it a long sprint and Pogačar came alongside and pushed him to the limit. Vingegaard had an extra jump and surprisingly managed to win the stage and take extra bonus seconds on the line.
Pogačar and UAE were planning something?
Remco Evenepoel limited his losses and crossed the finish line 25 seconds after Vingegaard. The crashed Roglič followed 55 seconds later, he had lost around 30 seconds due to the crash. The battle for fifth place was 2 minutes later, with a group consisting of Ciccone, Almeida, Adam Yates and Landa. Carlos Rodriguez followed shortly behind them.
And Pogačar was gone
Stage winner and 3rd overall, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike): “This means so much to me. This is very emotional for me. The fact that I managed to come back after my fall in the Tour of the Basque Country means a lot. It reminds you of all the things I’ve been through in the last few months. I could never have done this without my family. I’m so happy to be here. Initially I could hold Pogačar. His attack was really strong. I had to fight to get back and didn’t think it would work, but I did. I’m actually surprised that I could beat him in the sprint.”
The two got together for the final battle
Overall leader and 2nd on the stage, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): “It has been a very good day. My team did a super job. I felt good in the Puy Mary and tried to pull off a long-range attack. I was feeling pretty good on the descent, too, until my bike slipped and went sideways. I lost a bit of confidence there and I feel I spent too much energy on the following kilometres on the way to the Col de Pertus. Jonas did a great effort there to bridge back with me, proving that he is in top shape. I waited a bit as I wanted to sprint and secure the bonus seconds at the summit. Afterwards, I knew the last climb was not hard enough to launch a new attack, so I waited for the final sprint. I made a little mistake there, as I was not expecting this kind of finish and I didn’t know in the last few hundred metres. I wasn’t expecting such a strong sprint from Jonas, either. I don’t think I lost any psychological battle. I beat him on the first climb, and then he came back on the second one. We are pretty even. Now all I need is to keep this solid gap going into the Pyrenees. The climbs there will be quite different and more suited to the kind of efforts I’ve done in training to prepare for the Tour de France. It’s going to be a close battle, and very beautiful to watch. I’m sure nobody has any doubts anymore about how good a shape Jonas is in. We can’t forget Remco [Evenepoel] and Primoz [Roglic] – even if they lost some time today, they’ll be up there.”
It was close on the line
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Tour de France Stage 11 Result:
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma | Lease a Bike in 4:58:00
2. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates
3. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step at 0:25
4. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 0:55
5. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek at 1:47
6. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates at 1:49
7. Adam Yates (GB) UAE Team Emirates
8. Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Soudal Quick-Step
9. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa) INEOS Grenadiers at 1:55
10. Felix Gall (Aust) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale at 2:38.
Tour de France Overall After Stage 11:
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates in 45:00:34
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step at 1:06
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma | Lease a Bike at 1:14
4. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 2:45
5. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates at 4:20
6. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa) INEOS Grenadiers at 4:40
7. Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Soudal Quick-Step at 5:38
8. Adam Yates (GB) UAE Team Emirates at 6:59
9. Juan Ayuso Pesquera (Spa) UAE Team Emirates at 7:09
10. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek at 7:36.
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