Wednesday’s 11th stage of the 2015 Tour de France was one of tranquility for race leader Chris Froome, while all of the excitement took place at the front of the race, where Tinkoff-Saxo’s Rafal Majka rode to victory on a 48km breakaway.
Majka, who powered to two solo wins in the 2014 edition of the race, dedicated the win to his teammate Ivan Basso and to Danielle Bennati.
“I dedicate this win to my team and especially Ivan Basso and Daniele Bennati, who crashed today,” said Majka. “I only attacked once, but it was at the right moment. I was watching the other riders and noticed that many of them were suffering so I decided to attack. My teammates supported me to go in the breakaway and I told my sports directors that I wanted to attack already on the Tourmalet instead of waiting. I needed a hard climb to create a gap and I took nearly 1’30” on the Tourmalet. I’m very happy with this win and it is great for the morale on the team.”
“A lot of people are asking me whether I want to go for the polka dotted jersey, but it’s not easy to do that and ride for Alberto at the same time. Today, I was given the opportunity and I wanted to do my best but I am here to support Alberto and we still have two weeks left to race, and many riders suffered today. I like when it’s warm and the climbs are hard so I felt good today”, added Majka.
Froome Defends Yellow
Race leader Chris Froome and his super domestique Geraint Thomas finished with an elite group of eight other riders to comfortably hold onto the yellow jersey.
Froome benefitted from the efforts of his teammates setting a strong pace on the Col d’Aspin and the Tourmalet. Race favorites including Vincenzo Nibali and Thibault Pinot were not able to keep up and ended up popping off the back of the peloton.
Froome heaped praise on his team-mates before revealing that stage 12 could well be one of the most decisive days of the Tour.
He said: “Today was an extremely tough stage. Maybe it didn’t look so hard but I can tell you a lot of riders lost a lot of energy today.
“The breakaway took nearly two hours to form and then Astana made the race hard on the Tourmalet. My team were always there though and I still had Geraint and Richie with me at the top. They did a fantastic job to carry me over the summit and I’ve had support every step of the way.
“I’m in a great position at the moment and have a great team around me. The best thing for us is to ride defensively now and try and follow the other contenders. The other teams need to make things happen and there’s a big battle going on for the GC positions. Guys were jumping around trying to get time on each other today, and we’re certainly expecting a big battle out there tomorrow.”
Froome Answers Critics
Froome has once again found himself in the crosshairs of critics who doubt that his performance is totally clean, but says that he is willing to undergo physiological testing after the race to prove his innocence.
“Right here at the moment my focus is on the race but certainly I’m open minded to potentially doing some physiological testing at some point after the Tour or whatever point suits,” Froome told a news conference after retaining his overall leader’s yellow jersey in Wednesday’s 11th stage.
“There would be interesting things coming out of it, maybe the team might even learn something from it.”
Froome faced a barrage of doping questions in 2013 when his impressive attack in the ascent to the Mont Ventoux raised questions.
Gesink Climbs With The Best
Robert Gesink maintained him position in the top of the overall on the second day in the Pyrenees. The leader of Team LottoNL-Jumbo finished 15th in the eleventh stage of the Tour de France and the Dutchman remains eighth in the general classification.
Like a day earlier, many riders lost time. “Astana pulled really hard on the Tourmalet,” Gesink said. “We arrived at the top with only ten men. My legs hurt now. I really had to dig deep today, but I think many more men suffered.”
Laurens ten Dam tried to get in the early break several times, but did not succeed in his mission.
“But still I was able to follow the favourites until very late. Luckily, I was of value to Robert today, as I had promised after the team time trial, but today took a lot of power. We need to make a good plan for tomorrow. If I’m going to attack like today again, I probably won’t be able to help Robert in the final kilometres. Then he needs to get his own bottles and from my personal experience, I know it is very nice to have someone with you in the final part of a mountain stage.”
No Change for van Garderen
Tejay van Garderen of the BMC Racing Team remained second overall after the second straight day in the Pyrenees.
Van Garderen placed 13th on the summit finish of the 188-kilometer stage, just behind teammate Samuel Sánchez and in the same time as nearly all of the race favorites. Van Garderen still trails race leader Chris Froome by 2:52, with Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) in third, 3:09 back.
“Astana was a little bit aggressive on the Tourmalet, but all in all, it was a pretty smooth day,” van Garderen said. “The Tourmalet, when Astana was making a tempo, was quite difficult. But with this finish, and the Tourmalet so far, it was more just following wheels. Tomorrow should really shake up the GC (general classification) a lot more.”
Surprising 4th for Serge Pauwels
The 11th stage of the Tour de France was notable for fans of the MTN-Qhubeka squad as Serge Pauwels rode incredibly well to eventually finish in 4th place on the day.
Pauwels was part of an escape group that broke free at the 75km mark that included stage winner Rafal Majka, Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), Emanuel Buchmann (Bora Argon 18), Julien Simon (Cofidis), Steve Morabito and Arnaud Demare (FDJ). Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) later rode across to the lead group on the Col d’ Aspin.
Majka, of course, launched his attack with 48km remaining.
Pauwels was the first to respond as the rest of the break fell behind. He would summit the Tormalet 1’50” behind Majka and would pull back 50″ on the descent.
After Pauwels emptied the tank trying to bring back the Tinkoff rider, he would be caught and passed by Martin and Buchmann in the final 3km, crossing the line in a courageous 4th place.
“The goal was to have somebody in the breakaway,” said Pauwels. “It was a really hard start and we first had Edvald there. I chose my moment and that was when the good breakaway went and a new race started. In the break Majka was the strongest. I tried to fight for the victory but there was one guy stronger. I am really happy with my result though.”
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