Tour de France stage 11 LIVE: Julian Alaphilippe part of a four-man break on day expected by by contested by the sprinters
A flat 161km route to Nevers is definitely another stage for the sprinters
While the race is in a holding pattern, the peloton keeping the four-man break at about 1:15, let’s reflect upon yesterday’s stage and the impact it had on the GC race.
It was another crushing day for all of those hoping against hope to stop Tadej Pogačar from winning this Tour de France. The defending champion once again rode everyone off his wheel in the finale - but didn’t quite manage to land a knock-out blow, with all of his main rivals limiting their losses to under 45 seconds.
Enjoying our live race coverage? Subscribe to Cyclingnews for an all-access pass to our unrivalled reporting of WorldTour racing, bike tech and exclusive in-depth features. Plus, access to the Cyclingnews app to follow the action on-the-go!
120KM TO GO
The gap's been held at 1:30. Notable by their absence in the chase are Alpecin-Premier Tech. Philipsen might have beat his rivals in the intermediate sprint, but his team are absolving themselves of responsibility of chasing, even having failed to get Van der Poel up the road.
Slock gave up the ghost shortly after the intermediate sprint, called back by his Lotto DS. So we're going to have a four-man break up the road today - bigger than previous sprint stages, but still a manageable size for the sprinter teams to pull back.
Right now it's XDS Astana and NSN assisting Soudal-QuickStep with the pace-setting, and they’re keeping the break at 1:30.
“Liam [Slock], come back to the bunch. We need you in the sprint.”
Lotto Intermarché DS
INTERMEDIATE SPRINT
After the five riders up the road hoovered up most of the points (with Le Berre sprinting for first), Philipsen won the sprint in the peloton for 6th ahead of Kanter, Pedersen and Girmay.
Notable by his absence was Merlier, who is saving himself for the final sprint - given his difficulties in the climbs yesterday, the relentless effort required in all terrain to chase the green jersey is going to be very difficult for him to win that jersey, so perhaps he is deprioritising it and going all in for more stage wins.
The four riders up the road, who have been allowed a lead of 1:40, although that will likely come down as the green jersey teams start preparing for the upcoming intermediate sprint.
It's not looking good for Slock, however - he's drifting further away from the quartet, and is now 45 seconds behind.
The peloton has sat up, and those four riders - Alaphilippe, Charmig, Oliveira and Le Berre - have a lead of 1:25. It appears we have our break of the day, but they might yet be joined by another rider in Liam Slock, who is trying to bridge up to them. He has 25 seconds still to make up.
“The road is still wet there, so just caution, caution with the wet roads. Stay out of trouble, no silly crashes, no risks.”
XDS Astana DS
Still no breakaway has formed, as multiple attacks keep being made, although Alaphilippe, Charmig, Oliveira and Le Berre have managed to build a lead of a few seconds.
One change from previous days is the weather. It’s still hot on the road, but humid and cooler compared with earlier, and the riders are subjected to the unusual sight of grey skies, while the roads are even still wet from rainfall earlier.
150KM TO GO
Van der Poel continues to attack, and is still trying to get into the day's move. At face value it doesn't seem like much of a vote of confidence in Jasper Philipsen to amend his poor start in the sprints. But might they have something else in mind? There’s an intermediate sprint coming up in about 15km - perhaps they want him to prevent the other green jersey candidates from taking points there?
Or perhaps they want as hard a stage as possible to try and wear out Tim Merlier and his team before the final sprint? It’s a tricky one to figure out.
This is a much bigger fight to get into the breakaway than on previous sprint stages. Alpecin remain eager to get a man up there, and are among many teams who have tried to clip off the front - to no avail so far.
OFFICIAL START
And they're off! And there's a fascinating development - Mathieu van der Poel is the first rider to attack, despite this seeming like a day for his teammate Jasper Philipsen. What are Alpecin-Premier Tech up to?
Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard at the start a little earlier, sharing a word ahead of what should be a more chilled out day for them both. They and the rest of the riders are on the move now and making their way towards kilometre 0.
The peloton is one rider short of those who finished yesterday. Chris Harper has pulled out of the race after being one of the riders to fall in a crash late yesterday, and it turns out he will need surgery on the injuries sustained to his hand.
In better news for Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team, the other man who went down, Tom Pidcock, is OK to continue, and has said the he thinks he’s going to be OK.
Based on how the previous sprint stages have gone, Tim Merlier is the hot favourite for the win today. Not only has he won two in succession, he’s done so in mightily impressive fashion, coming back from bad positions in the finale to storm past the opposition.
Today might not be quite so straightforward for him, however. Yesterday, he was dropped out of the peloton almost from the very start of the stage, and only managed to avoid the time cut by a matter of minutes - how much will those efforts to do so have taken out of him ahead of today’s bunch sprint?
After yesterday’s excursion through the climbs of the Massif Central, which saw Tadej Pogačar seal an even firmer grip on the yellow jersey, today the attention reverts back to the sprinters for what looks sure to be a day for the sprinters. There are only two categorised climbs all day, and both of them are only category fours - nothing for the fastmen to worry about.
Tour de France 2026 stage 11 preview
Hello and welcome to stage 11 of the Tour de France!
