Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) reignited his Tour de France problem with victory on stage 11 from Évaux-les-Bains to Le Lioran, beating yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar (UAE Workforce Emirates) in a two-up dash after a day wherein the Slovenian had attacked with 31 kilometres to go and appeared on track to increase his lead.
Vingegaard, the two-time defending champion, rallied on the penultimate climb of the day and caught Pogačar close to the summit of the Col de Pertus earlier than main the pair into the finale with the yellow jersey in tow.
Pogačar, the faster of the 2 riders on paper, appeared to have the stage win inside his grasp however there was no denying Vingegaard who took the victory and ten seconds in bonuses on the road. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Fast-Step) completed third after limiting his losses, whereas Primož Roglič (Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) crashed within the closing phases however remounted and took fourth.
Within the battle for the yellow jersey, Pogačar now leads Evenepoel by 1 minute 06 seconds however Vingegaard has closed to 1:14, and Roglič sits in fourth at 2:45. The swing of only one second between Pogačar and Vingegaard within the Dane’s favour could not determine the race come Good however this was nonetheless a crushing defeat for Pogačar and a morale-boosting win for the defending champion.
“It’s after all very emotional for me,” Vingegaard mentioned on the end. Referring to the horror crash at Itzulia Basque Nation, which left him with a number of damaged ribs and a collapsed lung, he added “getting back from the crash… means rather a lot and all of the issues that I went by means of within the final three months, it makes you consider that. I’d by no means have been ready to do that with out my household.”
An emotional Vingegaard concluded: “I’m simply blissful to be right here. It means a lot to win a stage and to win it for my household. They’ve supported me the entire time. I couldn’t comply with the assault he had. I simply needed to battle and really I didn’t assume that I may make it again however I saved combating and began relaying with him, after which I beat him within the dash.”
How the race unfolded
After the sedate begin to stage 10 on Tuesday there was an entire reversal because the race dipped into the Massif Central with a flurry of high-intensity assaults within the opening two hours of racing on stage 11.
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Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) was among the many first riders to attempt his luck nevertheless it wasn’t till a transfer that included Stevie Williams (Israel Premier Tech), Alex Zingle (Cofidis), Oier Lazkano (Movistar), Tom Pidcock, Michal Kwiatkowski (each Ineos), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Workforce), Valentin Madouas, Romain Gregoire (each Groupama-FDJ), Richard Carapaz (EF Schooling-EasyPost), Harold Tejada (Astana), and Oscar Onley (Workforce dsm-firmenich PostNL) did the race cut up aside.
The break was snaffled again in by the principle discipline and after 30km of motion, the peloton was again collectively earlier than Richard Carapaz and Cristián Rodríguez tried to snap the elastic as soon as extra.
A chase group quickly countered, and with 140km to go the lead group swelled to incorporate
Toms Skujiņš, Magnus Cort, Rodríguez, Clément Russo, Mattéo Vercher, Anthony Turgis, Zingle, Silvan Dillier, Carapaz, Frank van den Broek ,Paul Lapeira and Williams.
A cut up quickly after noticed the group carved in half earlier than a brand new group fashioned that included Carapaz, Vercher, Ben Healy, Lazkano, Onley, Lapeira, Armirail, Julian Bernard, Guillaume Martin, and Romain Grégoire with 105km to go. This may be the ultimate break of the day as UAE Workforce Emirates-controlled peloton and allowed the break to determine a lead of two:26 with simply over 100km remaining on the stage.
Heading onto the Col de Neronne the hole between the peloton and break stood at a slender 38 seconds as Nils Politt and Tim Wellens set the tempo for UAE, and with 45km to go catastrophe struck for Van Aert with the Belgian crashing on the descent.
Up forward and solely Healy, Lazkano and Carapaz remained from the break because the race hit the formidable Puy Mary as again within the peloton UAE set a relentless tempo and started to burn by means of their climbing domestiques.
One after the other a number of top-ten contenders started to undergo, with Egan Bernal and Enric Mas each dropping earlier than Pogačar kicked clear with 31.6km to go.
The Slovenian was alone excessive of the climb and began the Col de Pertus with 33 seconds over a bunch that contained Evenepoel, Roglič and Vingegaard.
The Dane started to seek out his rhythm on the ascent and rapidly burned off his companions earlier than making contact with Pogačar simply earlier than the summit. With the Slovenian visibly struggling and Vinegaard in ascendancy the pair traded activates the ultimate categorised climb earlier than the Dane unleashed a vicious dash that occasion Pogačar couldn’t deal with.
RESULTS: TOUR DE FRANCE STAGE 11
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, 04:58:00
2. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Workforce Emirates, at similar time
3. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Fast-Step, +25s
4. Primož Roglič (Slo) Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, at similar time
5. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek +1:47
6. João Almeida (Por) UAE Workforce Emirates +1:49
7. Adam Yates (Gbr) UAE Workforce Emirates
8. Mikel Landa (Spa) Soudal Fast-Step, at similar time
9. Carlos Rodriguez (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers +1:55
10. Felix Gall (Aus) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Workforce +2:38
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 11
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Workforce Emirates, in 45:00:34
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Fast-Step, +1:06
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +1:14
4. Primož Roglič (Slo) Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +2:15
5. João Almeida (Por) UAE Workforce Emirates, +4:20
6. Carlos Rodríguez (Esp) Ineos Grenadiers, +4:40
7. Mikel Landa (Esp) Soudal-Fast Step, +5:38
8. Adam Yates (Gbr) UAE Workforce Emirates, 6:59
9. Juan Auyso (Esp) UAE Workforce Emirates, 7:09
10. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek +7:36
