Tour de France 2018: Stage 11

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January 1 - July 29, Albertville, France, Road - GT

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Bonjour and welcome to the Cyclingnews live coverage of stage 11.  


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Bonjour and welcome to stage 11 and day 2 in the Alps. 

The official stage start is set for 2:05pm local time. As we take off in the Cyclingnews blimp, the riders are warming up on the rollers and signing on.

Today will see the first summit finish of the 2018 Tour de France, with the riders going over the Hors category Montéé de Bisanne and Col du Pré, as well as the 1968m Cat 2 Cormet de Rosalind, before finishing up at LaRosière.

Did we say three major cols? Make that four! 

That is followed by the Col du Pré (12.6km at 7.7%), unprecedented at the Tour de France but known by the participants of the Tour de l'Avenir.

A painful 45 per cent of the stage distance is on the climbs today. 

Fortunately the sun is out again today, with temperatures between 25-30C today. 

Riders are signing on now before lining up for the start.

Alaphilippe won from the breakaway yesterday to continue France's post-World Cup celebrations. 

Van Avermaet has already admitted that he expects to lose the yellow jersey today due to the four cols and the mountain finish.  

Alaphillipe is on stage to sign on. He gets a special prize for his win yesterday.

"Yesterday was a day I'll never forget. Now I'll try to defend the polka-dot jersey and see what happens," Alaphilippe said at the sign-on.  

France is also celebrating Pierre Latour in the best young rider's white jersey.  

Ten minutes to the roll out! 

Nairo Quintana is next to sign on. Movistar is wearing yellow helmets today as leaders of the team competition.

Peter Sagan signs on next but he is quickly away, he knows he faces a day of suffering in the mountains in the green jersey. 

Five minutes before the roll out.  

As we mentioned, riders warmed-up on the rollers before signing-on. 

All the riders are lined-up now. We are 1 minute from the roll out. 

They face 1.7km of neutralised roads and then the 108.5km stage will be underway.

Here we go! The riders roll out from Albertville. 

Riders are so keen to get in the break, they are edging ahed of the red race directors car.

Albertville has hosted stages in the past, with Pierre Rolland and Romain Bardet both winning stages that started in the 1992 Olympic host city.

Team Sky also has a rider up near the team car. 

Christian Prudhomme is waving his arms to the riders, trying to get them to slow down but many are all ready to attack as soon as the flag drops.  

108km remaining from 108km

165 riders finished the stage yesterday and despite lots of bandages and pain, they all started today. 

As we expected, Peter Sagan is in the early attacks, trying to be up front for the intermediate sprint that comes after just 11.5km.  

With Sagan are Warren Barguil (Fortuneo), 
Damiano Caruso (BMC), 
Romain Sicard (Direct Energie) and Dani Navarro 205 (Cofidis). 

100km remaining from 108km

The peloton is 45 seconds back.

It's Dani Navarro's birthday today and he's clearly out to give himself a special birthday present.

There are 23 riders in the chase group and so it will be fascinating to see if the groups join up. 

The peloton is moving fast too but is slipping to more than a minute behind the five. 

96km remaining from 108km

Sagan picks up another 20 points. He extends his lead to 121 points on Gaviria and seems unbeatable yet again. He's set to take a record equalling six green jersey, matching Erik Zabel.   

95km remaining from 108km

Sagan has eased up and is slipping back to the peloton. 

The points at the intermediate went as follows, indicating the quality of the riders on the attack. 

92km remaining from 108km

As expected, Team Sky is leading the peloton again, using their strength in depth to bully their rivals. 

Luke Rowe and Gianni Moscon are doing the work on the front. 

We can also see Tejay van Garderen (BMC) in the group of chasers behind the four leaders.

He goes with Alaphilippe with 9km to go on the climb.

Van Garderen and Alaphillippe have joined the four up front. 

However there is a group of 38 riders coming up from behind.

Behind other riders are being spat out of the peloton, including Stefan Kung of BMC.

Some riders, including Mark Cavendish and other sprinters had to finish inside the time limit yesterday. They made it by a matter of seconds after finishing 34:02 down on Alaphilippe. 

Warren Barguil is setting a fast pace at the head of the race. However Tejay van Garderen seems comfortable with him. 

85km remaining from 108km

There appears to be little wind out on the climbs today. 

We now have 20 riders in the front group. 

From the top of the Montee de Bisanne there's a great view of Mont Blanc. However the riders will have little time to enjoy the views as they dive down the descent to Beaufort.  

83km remaining from 108km

These are the 22 riders up front. 

The fast start to the stage is hurting even some of the GC riders.

82km remaining from 108km

Others riders are just a few seconds behind, with the peloton at 5:30. 

77km remaining from 108km

74km remaining from 108km

Barguil, Alaphilippe and De Gendt have edged clear on the descent but the 26 chasers are only 30 seconds behind them.  

 

The Col du Pre' is the first part of a double whammy, with a short descent leading to the Cormet de Roselend (5.7% at 6.5).   

64km remaining from 108km

The official signs indicate 12.6km of climbing to the summit. 

This is what the riders face for the next hour or so.

61km remaining from 108km

In the peloton the GC teams are again riding in convoy to protect their team leaders.

According to @tourdata Cavendish (Dimension Data) and his teammates Thomson and Vermote were the last riders to summit Montée de Bisanne, after averaging 13.4km/h in the climb.

We can expect Team Sky to let the break stay away but they will no doubt also try to crack some of their GC rivals on the long climb.

Serge Pauwels is in the front group and so is the virtual race leader now. He is 5:12 down on van Avermaet but will have to dig deep and fight all day to take yellow.

These are the riders up front in the break. 

Cavendish has been timed at 12:30 back, with two teammates. He finished 33 seconds inside the time limit yesterday and will have to fight again to survive today. 

57km remaining from 108km

56km remaining from 108km

The increase in pace has cracked race leader Greg van Avermaet. He's surely going to lose yellow today. 

He took yellow when BMC won the TTT and so has been in yellow for 8 stages. 

Amador has joined Landa up front. But behind Uran is suffering. He's been dropped.

Uran is already 100m back and seems to have told his teammates to leave him. 

Bauke Mollema is also suffering.

Attack!

Valverde can team up with Soler soon. 

53km remaining from 108km

At last Movistar seems to be showing its a tactical hand.

This photo from Trek shows Mollema suffering with Bob Jungles. Both are likely to lose a chunk of time today.

Rafal Majka (Bora) is also suffering and losing contact with the GC group.

52km remaining from 108km

51km remaining from 108km

Barguil is first to the summit of the Col du Pre after his teammates cracked Alaphilippe. 

Valverde and Soler lead the GC group by around a minute rather than two. However they are pulling away from Team Sky as they taken on the race. 

Jonathan Castroviejo was leading the peloton but now other riders take over as Sky share some food. 

The peloton reach the summit of the Col du Pre 5:00 after Barguil. 

46km remaining from 108km

The peloton rides along the edge of the spectacular Roselend dam. 

42km remaining from 108km

Adam Yates drops back on the flat plateau road to the foot of the Col de Roselend.

Up front Gesbert and Moinard are still doing a great job for Barguil by setting a fast pace.

Sky has strength in depth but now Bahrain take over for Nibali. Pellizotti is on the front with Nibali in his slipstream. 

Has Nibali spotted a weakness amongst his GC rivals? 

39km remaining from 108km

Barguil skips clear to summit first and take another 20 points.  

36km remaining from 108km

The GC group is 1:15 behind Valverde, with just 20 or os riders left in the front GC group. 

Greg van Avermaet is timed some 10:00 back and so is going to lose yellow today.

This was the virtual GC calculated on Geraint Thomas. 

The riders are now on the 19km descent of the Roselend.

Were getting reports that some of the sprinters are suffering and are well off the back. 

The main gruppetto is some 17 minutes back. We believe the time limit at the finish will be around 30 minutes. 

36km remaining from 108km

Matthias Frank is reported to have crashed on the descent. Initial reports say he is okay and riding again. 

Frank is passed by Valverde and Soler. It's good to see he is not injured.

21km remaining from 108km

21km remaining from 108km

Dumoulin and teammate  Søren Kragh Andersen lead by ten seconds or so.   

20km remaining from 108km

The La Rosiere is 17.6km long at 5.8% but with several steepers sections mid-climb.

This is the climb to the finish.

Dumoulin leads the peloton by 30 seconds or so and is closing in on Valverde.

15km remaining from 108km

Team Sky have five riders on the front of the peloton. They will probably need all of them to pull back Valverde and Dumoulin.

Dumoulin and Valverde lead the GC Sky group by 40 seconds.  

Up front Barguil, Nieve, Caruso and Valgren are racing for the stage victory. 

13km remaining from 108km

Dan Martin is sat behind the Sky express.

Poels moves over and Castroviejo takes over the pacing. 

Dumoulin waves for Valverde to come through but the Spaniard says no. 

Nibali is also behind Sky, in a GC group of 30 riders or so. 

10km remaining from 108km

9km remaining from 108km

Up front Nieve attacks as Navarro catches the break. 

8km remaining from 108km

Barguil is suffering but Caruso is chasing Nieve in the hope of winning the stage.  

Sky sweep up Valverde. He clearly wasn't a tactical support for Landa or Quintana. He simply did not have the legs to go with Dumoulin.

Dumoulin remains 40 seconds ahead as he rides a solo mountain time trial to try to gain time on his GC rivals.

Behind Zakarin is dropped, as is Valverde. He used a lot of energy with his attack. 

 

Also going out the back is Jakob Fuglsang of Astana.

6km remaining from 108km

With the current time gaps, Geraint Thomas will be the new yellow jersey.  

Landa is also swinging off the back of the Sky GC group now.

Kwaito is giving his all to keep the pace high.

Caruso and Herrada of Cofidis are 35 seconds down on Nieve, with Dumoulin at 60 seconds.

The Sky peloton is at 1:20. But Bernal has been dropped. 

As the road eases, Thomas attacks! 

5km remaining from 108km

Thomas has a 200m lead as Bardet tries to jump across.

Now Froome goes!

Bardet and Quintana get onto him, so they ease up. 

Dumoulin catches Caruso and Herrada but Thomas is close to catching them.

Nibali is suffering as Froome goes again but he's marked again.

3km remaining from 108km

Behind Martin attacks and Froome goes with him.

Bardet tries to attack and go across but the finale is very tactical. 

3km remaining from 108km

2km remaining from 108km

Landa has been dropped after all the attacks.

1km remaining from 108km

Froome drops Martin with an acceleration. He's about to join Thomas and Dumoulin.  

Thomas attacks! No gifts! Even to his teammate. 

Thomas catches Nieve with 300m to go!

Thomas wins the stage and will take yellow!

Nieve is caught by Froome and Dumoulin too.

Dumoulin sprints to take second, Froome is third.

Martin finishes 27 seconds back in sixth. 

Bardet, Nibali and Quintana finish 1:03 down on Thomas. 

Landa finished 1:45 down.  

This is the top ten, with Thomas the new race leader.

The top ten shows that Thomas gained 20 seconds on Dumoulin and Froome, with Martin at 27 seconds. 

What a stage! The big questions now are:

This is the new general classification after stage 11

Nieve is clearly gutted not to stay away and win the stage. 

Geraint Thomas admits that his attack was improvised due to Sky being down to just three riders. 

Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) stage 11 winner and overall race leader spoke post-stage before pulling in the yellow jersey.

Sky DS Portal has admitted that Thomas' attack was not planned. He plays down any rivalry.   

Thomas said he knew there was a chance of taking the yellow jersey. 

Thomas confirmed that Team Sky was expecting attacks.

This is the second mountain stage in the Alps. 

Meanwhile on the podium, Geraint Thomas celebrates his mountain stage victory and pulls on the yellow jersey. 

Looking down the stage results we can see that Bauke Mollema (Trek) lost 11 minutes today. 

Alejandro Valverde won the most aggressive rider prize for his attack but his Movistar team was exposed today and now Quintana is the team's only team leader with a chance of a podium place. 

Rafal Majka (Bora) also lost 10 minutes today.

This is our first image of Thomas winning the stage after his late attack. 

Our man Barry Ryan is at the finish line and has said that Mark Cavendish finished out side the time cut.

Riders were sprinting to the line to make the time cut.

Fernando Gaviria had no problems making the finish but w'ere hearing that Mark Cavendish is still some four kilometres from the finish. 

This is another shot of Thomas finishing the stage and celebrating his victory and taking the leader's yellow jersey.

It seems that Marcel Kittel (Katusha) also finished outside the time limit.

Kittel finished 12 seconds outside the time limit.

This is Geraint Thomas in the yellow jersey. He has to autograph several jerseys after the podium ceremony.

Chris Froome spoke briefly post stage. He confirmed that Thomas' attack was not part of the pre-race plan.

Froome also explained the attacks in the finale. 

Rik Zabel was the Katusha rider who tried to sprint home. However he was one second outside he time limit.  

What a race! What a stage! 

The official results have confirmed that Marcel Kittel (Katusha), Mark Renshaw and Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) have all finished outside the time limit and so have been excluded from the Tour de France.  

Cavendish finished 1:05 down, that's more than 30 minutes down on the time limit of 31:27.

Cavendish was given a huge cheer by the crowd when he reached the finish. He had the broom wagon behind him but bravely finished the stage even if he knew he had no chance of making the time cut.

This is a shot of Chris Froome and Tom Dumoulin fighting it out for second place.

Click here for more information on Marcel Kittel and Mark Cavendish finishing outside the time cut.

Chris Froome named Dumoulin as Team Sky's biggest rival now.

As the dust settles on the stage and sun sets on the Alps, it will take some time to analyse what happened today and what it means. 

For now Thomas is in yellow and will no doubt worry about any problems later tonight and tomorrow.

Thanks for joining us for full live coverage of the stage. 

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