Tour de France: Caleb Ewan wins stage 11 as Peter Sagan is relegated for dangerous sprint

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Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) bounced back from the disappointment of Tuesday's loss to win stage 11 of the Tour de France in a close finish ahead of Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Wout Van Aert (Jumbo Visma). 

The Australian powered to the line and around Bennett in the closing metres to take his second win of the race, while Peter Sagan’s defence of the green jersey took a huge blow after the three-time world champion was relegated for his sprint. He had crossed the line in second place but his sprint was deemed dangerous by the race officials after he appeared to ride into Van Aert.

With 250m to go, Ewan looked lost within the middle of the pack but not for the first time the Lotto Soudal rider found his way through the gaps. He was patient, too, fighting his way onto Bennett’s wheel and then tracking the Irishman as Wout Van Aert (Jumbo Visma) opened his sprint. 

With 100m to go, it looked as though Bennett was closing in on his second Tour de France stage win but Ewan is tenacious as well as fast, and he came over the Irishman’s left shoulder with less than 50m to go, with his all-important bike throw helping to make the difference.

“It was very, very hectic. I was really close to the front with three and then one kilometre to go, I was more forward than I wanted to be, especially with a headwind finish. I dropped back into the bunch but from there it was quite crazy. I knew from the first stage that I won that I had to stay calm and wait for the right time and right gap to open, and it did in the end. I had a real desire to win today after yesterday. I was quite disappointed with that sprint. I’m happy to repay my teammates with the win. I didn’t really know I’d won, I saluted just in case,” Ewan said.

“I did a big throw and you’re basically looking down at the road, so you don't see if you are or not. Sometimes you can feel it and I felt quite close. I’m super happy with two stage wins; one takes the pressure off and after the first one, you want a second. Now I want another, especially in Paris. I hope to get through the mountains alright and have another sprint in Paris.”

In the race for the yellow jersey Primož Roglič (Jumbo Visma) maintained his 21-second lead over Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers).

The race burst into life in the closing 10km after a relatively peaceful stage. The road narrowed dramatically as the peloton lined out and in the blink of an eye the sprinters’ teams were left scrabbling for position. Lukas Postlberger made use of the hesitation and the abundance of road furniture to attack with 6.2km to go and it looked as though the Bora right might pull off the sort of rider that famously helped him win the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia into Olbia back in 2007.

However, Bennett’s team reacted almost immediately with Kasper Asgreen and Bob Jungels linking up in a two-man time trial before catching Postlberger with 4.9km to go. Postlberger’s move was partly designed to break the sprinters’ teams resolve, but also to help isolate Bennett in the closing stages if the race came back together. A Postlberger win would also have denied Bennett points in the green jersey but as Lotto Soudal and Cofidis gave chase the battle for position in the peloton between the sprinters raged on.

The leading trio had a seven-second advantage as the road ramped up to four per cent but when Asgreen pulled over, and then Jungels faded, the gap quickly evaporated. Greg Van Avermaet came to the front with 1km to go, his gold glasses glistening in the late afternoon sun, but was Kevin Reza, on behalf of Bryan Coquard, who put in one of the best lead-out performances of the day as the line approached. However, Coquard had nor the speed nor the final positioning to trouble Ewan, who came through to take a well-deserved win.

How it unfolded

After the tension and crashes of stage 10, Wednesday’s 167.5km stage to Poitiers offered the peloton their second straight bunch sprint in two days, albeit with slightly calmer surroundings.

However, incidents at the Tour are never far away, and even before the peloton passed the neutralized zone, Cyril Gautier (B&B Hotels - Vital Concept) hit a metal post with Ilnur Zakarin (CCC Team) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Pro Team) coming with him. The trio gingerly made it back to the main field, but the only rider willing to stretch his legs in a break was Mathieu Ladagnous of Groupama-FDJ.

The 35-year-old journeyman has been with Marc Madiot’s team since turning professional in 2006 and this was his 11th, and perhaps final escape, in a Tour de France break, but he quickly set about his task as he built up a two-minute lead over the peloton. It was perhaps no surprise to see Ladagnous venture on alone. After all, this was probably the last chance for the sprinters to take a stage win before Paris, and in a Tour that has been strangled of sprint opportunities, this was possibly the last chance for some sprinters to book an early ticket home before the mountains that lay ahead.

As Ladagnous ploughed ahead it looked as though the pattern for the stage was set for the day. However, Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale) had other ideas, with the Classics specialist leading a crack squad that included Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Lukas Pöstlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), Michael Gögl (NTT Pro Cycling), and Tom Van Asbroeck (Israel Start-Up Nation) away from the main field. None of these riders were threats on GC but their firepower was evident and with an intermediate sprint coming 59km from the finish there was no way that Sam Bennett’s Deceuninck-QuickStep team was going to allow the move to push clear.

Ladagnous was the big loser, with the Frenchman’s five-minute lead almost cut in half before the dangerous six-rider move was neutralized. The Groupama-FDJ rider, riding in his eighth Tour, managed to build his lead back towards three minutes as the bunch rolled towards the intermediate sprint, with Bennett managing to extend his lead in the Green jersey by four points over Peter Sagan. To sub salt in the Bora-Hansgrohe rider’s wounds, he was also beaten to the line by Bennett’s lead-out man, Michael Morkov.

As the peloton picked up their pace, Ladagnous was finally brought to heel with 43km to go, but the race then waved farewell to Ion Izagirre (Astana) and Gregor Muhlberger (Bora-Hansroghe), with the Spaniard taking a heavy fall with less than 40km to go and Austrian forced to throw in the towel after seemingly suffering from illness throughout the stage.