Following Tuesday’s relatively monotonous stage 10, Wednesday’s stage 11 of Tour de France 2024 invited riders and Tour de France spectators to a great mountain battle in the Massif-central region. 

Tour de France organizer A.S.O. had designed stage 11 as one of the longest rides of this year’s Tour. The 211-kilometer route took the riders from Evaux-les-Bains – a “wellness resort” of ancient Roman times – to the ski resort town of Le Lioran. The challenging terrain featured one Category 4 climb, two Category 3 climbs, two Category 2 climbs, the Category 1 Puy Mary Pas de Peyrol, and included virtually no flat kilometers.

Several breakaway attempts were launched from the very beginning of the stage and for a brief while it appeared a very strong attack group would succeed at forming a viable breakaway. But with 190 kilometers left, the attack was shut down by riders UAE Team Emirates who set a fast pace at the front of the main peloton. Tour de France leader Tadej Pogacar was apparently not willing to hand the chances of a stage victory and bonus seconds to such a strong group of riders.

The weather was overcast with temperatures between 20 and 24 degrees Celcius.

EF Education-EasyPost riders such as Alberto Bettiol, Ben Healy, and Neilson Powless were still busy launching breakaway attempts with 175 kilometers remaining. Riders from Arkea – B&B Hotels were also contributing, as were riders from Lotto-Dstny, Ineos-Grenadiers, Uno-X Mobility, Team Visma-Lease a Bike, and DSM-Firmenich-PostNL.

Current Olympic Champion Richard Carapaz was active at the front with 165 kilometers left. The Ecuadorian rider was relentless and invested all his energy in building a viable lead over a peloton, which was riding very dynamically and setting a fast pace. Carapaz was joined by riders such as Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility), Cristian Rodriguez (Arkea – B&B Hotels), Silvan Dillier (Soudal-QuickStep), Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek), and Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies). 

Carapaz and other breakaway optimists had almost been reeled in with 135 kilometers left of today’s stage 11, but Carapaz fought on relentlessly and it would be well-deserved for him to be awarded the Most Combative Rider prize on the stage podium in the mountains.

A six-man group led by Carapaz entered the Cote de Larodde (Category 3) with a twenty second lead. The riders joining Carapaz at the front were Paul Lapeira (Team PremierTech), Oier Lazkano (Movistar Team), Oscar Onley (Team DSM-Firmenich-PostNL), Matteo Vercher (TotalEnergies), and Carapaz’ EF Education-EasyPost teammate Ben Healy.

Led by Carapaz, the front sextet had fought their way to a lead of 01:34 minutes with 120 kilometers remaining. Carapaz himself was also eager to claim valuable points for the Best Climber Classification.

Meanwhile, five French riders had launched themselves from the main peloton and were fighting to bridge the gap to the Carapaz group.

Four of the five French chase riders succeeded in their quest of joining forces with the Carapaz-led sextet. The riders were Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-AG2R), philosopher Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), and Groupama-FDJ’s Romain Gregoire.

The fused ten-man group joined forces in keeping the UAE Team Emirates-led peloton at bay. With 96 kilometers of today’s stage 11 remaining, they had a lead of approximately two minutes. It appeared UAE Team Emirates leader Tadej Pogacar wanted the stage victory for himself. Things were status quo with eighty kilometers remaining.

The front group entered the final fifty kilometers of the stage. The final fifty kilometers of the stage were also the most mountainous as they featured one Category 3 climb, two Category 2 climbs, and one Category 1 climb. The clouds had vanished, the sun was warming the riders, and the ten-man front group had an advantage of two minutes over the main peloton, which was spearheaded by riders from UAE Team Emirates and Soudal-QuickStep.

The main peloton increased its speed as it approached the Col de Neronne. This resulted in the advantage of the ten front men being reduced to just one minute. Jonas Vingegaard’s lieutenant Wout van Aert crashed on a bridge that led the peloton onto the climb.

Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) and Oier Lazkano (Movistar) attacked from the front group on the climb. Healy was unable to follow Lazkano for long and the Irishman joined forces with Carapaz for a chase effort.

Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadiers) and Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) were dropped from the main peloton, which featured the general classification favorites. Primoz Roglic had been isolated in the peloton as none of his RedBull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammates were with him. Jai Hindley later rejoined his captain.

Healy returned to Lazkano at the front. Carapaz was 21 seconds behind the duo, while the main peloton was 01:16 minutes behind the front men. The riders engaged in a fast-descending effort that would bring them to the Category 1 Puy Mary Pas de Peyrol, which featured sections of up to 13.4 percent.

Carapaz joined Healy and Lazkano on the Puy Mary Pas de Peyrol, but the advantage of the trio had been reduced to just half a minute with 2.4 kilometers of the climb and 33.5 kilometers of the stage remaining.

Healy was the final rider of the three front men to be caught. The Irishman was caught one kilometer from the top of Puy Mary Pas de Peyrol and 32 kilometers from the finish line.

Adam Yates was now leading the general classification favorites group for Tadej Pogacar. 

Pogacar attacked with 600 meters of the climb remaining. These were the steepest meters. Jonas Vingegaard was not on his wheel. Primoz Roglic and Vingegaard joined forces to initiate a chase. Roglic was dropped moments later.

Pogacar soloed across the top of the climb. Vingegaard was next, followed by Roglic. Meanwhile, Remco Evenepoel had been dropped an was still climbing when the other GC favorites entered the descent.

Roglic joined Vingegaard on the descent. The duo was 18 seconds behind yellow front man Pogacar. 

Pogacar was now approaching the Col de Pertus (Category Two). He had increased his lead to thirty seconds. Evenepoel caught the Vingegaard-Roglic duo on the descent, but he was dropped again when the riders entered the Col de Pertus.

While Pogacar was solo in front on the Col de Pertus, Vingegaard had left Roglic behind and was now chasing the Slovenian Tour leader.

Vingegaard caught Pogacar shortly before the top of the climb. The Danish defending Tour de France champion had fought his way back to the stage leader in proud fashion. Pogacar was first across the top, but closely tailed by Vingegaard. Meanwhile, Evenepoel and Roglic were chasing approximately fifty seconds behind.

Pogacar and Vingegaard put in a maximum effort on the descent. The duo was heading for the final climb of the day: the Category 3 Col de Font de Cere.

On the Col de Font de Cere the Vingegaard-Pogacar duo worked well together. Evenepoel and Roglic were chasing 35 seconds behind, while a larger group of favorites were 01:38 minutes behind.

Pogacar and Vingegaard reached the top together and a technical descent to the finish line in Le Lioran awaited.

While Pogacar and Vingegaard were handling the slope well, Roglic crashed on the descent.

Vingegaard attacked with two hundred meters remaining, but Pogacar countered. A photo finish would decide the outcome of the stage. Jonas Vingegaard took the stage win millimeters ahead of Tadej Pogacar.

Remco Evenepoel completed the stage podium when he crossed the finish line 25 seconds behind the Great Dane. Primoz Roglic had fortunately been able to get back on his bike following his crash. The Slovenian rider finished fourth on the stage, thirty seconds behind Evenepoel who had left him behind when the crash occurred.

Pogacar leads the general classification 01:06 minutes ahead of Evenepoel and 01:14 minutes ahead of Vingegaard. Roglic is 02:45 minutes behind Tour de France leader Pogacar, while Joao Almeida is fifth and Carlos Rodriguez sixth.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete coverage from Tour de France 2024.

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