Tour de France: Ewan wins stage 11

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Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) won his maiden Tour de France stage on stage 11 in Toulouse. The Australian had to do it the hard way after one of his lead-out men crashed in the closing stage but despite remaining isolated in the sprint Ewan came around Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) to take the biggest win of his career. Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) finished third, with green jersey leader Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) in fourth.

After four top-three finishes in this year's Tour de France, Ewan finally had his just reward and picked up Lotto Soudal's second stage win of the race after Thomas de Gendt's win in Saint Etienne.

"To be honest I can't believe it. I've been close in the last four sprints I've done, and my team never lost faith in me. I never lost faith in my sprint. I knew if everything came together then I can be the fastest on the day, and I think today I showed that," the winner said at the finish.

"I think with about 10km to go I got caught behind my teammate Jasper who crashed, and I was really at the back of the bunch. Roger came back for me, and he basically took me from the back of the bunch to Groenewegen's wheel in the last few kilometres. Once I had a bit of time to recover, luckily I had the legs to be able to win.

"There's no other race I've dreamt of winning since I was a young kid. I can't believe it. The Tour de France is something so distant from Australia, something we only watched on TV. I can't believe I'm even here, and to win a stage is a real dream come true for me."

Ewan came into this year's Tour de France with a point to prove. He was controversially left at home on the eve of last year's race, with that decision part of the reason as to why Ewan would jump ship from Mitchelton-Scott and join Lotto over the winter. The Giro d'Italia provided Ewan with two valuable stage wins but he would always be judged by his performances in July. Third in the opening stage Brussels was followed by narrow misses in Nancy, Chalon-sur-Saone and Albi and it looked as though time was running out for the Australian in this year's race.

However, he and his Lotto Soudal squad stayed the course and even when Ewan was forced to unclip his right foot and grind to a halt with 10km to go when his teammate Jasper de Buyst was nudged into the ditch the team rallied around this sprinter.

Ewan made his way back towards the front of the main field just as Jumbo-Visma imposed their dominance on the race, with Mike Teunissen the last man for Groenewegen. On this occasion, the Dutch squad simply ran out of men in the closing stages and when Teunissen's legs failed, Groenewegen was forced to open his sprint. Even at that point only Ewan and Viviani were in contention. A corner inside the last few hundred metres ended a promising sprint from Edvald Boasson Hagen, while Sonny Colbrelli, and Alexander Kristoff were already out of contention with around 500m to go.

After yesterday's rest-day Viviani's lead-out train lacked their usual mojo and the Italian was forced to sprint twice – once as he looked to close a gap after his teammates lost ground, and then again when the final sprint opened up. Sagan, meanwhile, rides to the beat of his own drum and chose a different line to all the other sprinters when Groenewegen opened with his effort. The former world champion still holds a significant lead in the green jersey.

In the race for the yellow jersey Julian Alaphilippe had a relatively peaceful day and he leads the race ahead of the first steps into the mountains on stage 12. Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal occupy second and third overall.

How it unfolded

After Tuesday's rest day the Tour de France swung into action with the race leaving Albi and travelling south towards Toulouse. Any hope that there would be a dramatic start to the stage with attacks peppering the opening hour of racing as the break formed were left disappointed, with Stephane Rossetto and Anthony Perez (both Cofidis) joined by Aime De Gendt (Wanty-Gobert) and local Albi lad Lilian Calmejane (Total Direct Energie).

The four riders were never afforded more than three minutes throughout the stage, with Deceuninck-QuickStep, Lotto Soudal and Jumbo-Visma each posting a rider on the front of the peloton.

The status quo between break and peloton remained and even a slight hint of crosswinds did little the alter the situation. With 31km to go, a crash took out Classics specialist Niki Terstpra and forced Nairo Quintana and Richie Porte to chase, but with 7km remaining only De Gendt remained out front for the breakaway.

He too was caught with 4km to go, just as Jumbo-Visma swung to the front but in the end it was Ewan's day to shine.

In 2008, when the Tour last visited Toulouse, Mark Cavendish claimed his second-ever stage win. This time it was Ewan with his first. The Australian is very unlikely to ever equal Cavendish's tally of 30 but this was certainly a good place to begin his tally.

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