Caleb Ewan nabs his first Tdf stage win in Stage 11 of the 2019 Tour de France, besting Dylan Groenewegen at the line in Toulouse.
Stage 11 of the 2019 Tour de France, a rolling 167km ride from Albi to Toulouse, started as expected with an attack just after the start. Anthony Perez and Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis), Lilian Calmejane (Total Direct Energie) and Aimé De Gendt (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) jumped almost immediately to a 2 minute gap.
Lilian Calmejane announced to French TV at the start that he’d try to break away with Anthony Perez. For his part, Stéphane Rossetto said: “I have the feeling to have rest very well in an excellent hotel in Albi, which is an absolutely beautiful city, so I’m ready to break away again. But we have a local rider in the team today. It’s Anthony Perez and I won’t steal his part of the cake. The Cofidis team is not all about me. I prefer if it’s him rather than myself in the breakaway today.”
Total Direct Energie’s sport director Dominique Arnould told French TV from the team car: “Finally Lilian Calmejane is in the front group! He’s been passive since the start of the Tour. The day before yesterday, he tried to break away because the race was arriving in his hometown but it was today that we knew the breakaway would go from the gun. It’s good for his confidence to be up there. He had the green light today even though we believe that tomorrow the stage winner will come from the early breakaway. We mustn’t forget that he’s a Tour de France and a Vuelta stage winner.”
With 100km to go, the leaders were holding a gap to the peloton of 2’15”.
Race leader Julian Alaphilippe said yesterday: “The hardest part is still to come. But what I’ve done so far is exactly, and in fact beyond what I had imagined. It’s been incredible. My Tour has already been a huge success. I’d love to surprise myself, keep doing great things, but that would only be a bonus. There’s no point in dreaming.”
As the leaders passed through Cote de Castelnau de Montmiral, they briefly managed to open the gap to 3’15”. Anthoy Perez scored one more KOM point there.
The peloton was being led by Maxime Monfort for Lotto-Soudal in anticipation of the intermediate sprint, but it was Elia Viviani besting Sagan in the main group. Sagan still leads the sprint competition with 239 points to Michael Matthews 167.
With 72km to go, the gap had returned to its level, with the leaders floating 2’11” ahead of the peloton, but it began to drop quickly, falling to 1’36” with 52km remaining.
With 50km to go, the end looked to be in sight for the break, with their gap falling below one minute, but they rallied back to a 1’24” lead with just over 37km remaining.
Crash in the peloton with 30km to go. Nairo Quintana, Richie Porte and Michael Woods are involved but back on their bike. Niki Terpstra seems to be the most affected and ends up dropping out of the race with a broken collarbone. The crash split the peloton into three parts with Quintana and Porte chasing to rejoin the main group. Sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo was caught up in the crash as well, and showing injury, will not likely be going for the sprint.
Trek Segafredo’s Ciccone, Sebastian Langeveld and Giacomo Nizzolo were struggling at the back, having fallen more than 6 minutes behind the peloton with just 20 kilometers to go. They’d make the time gap, but will suffer in the GC.
The 4 leaders, meanwhile, held a gap of 26 seconds with about 15km to go.
Perez is the first to drop back to the peloton with 10km left, while De Gendt launches a solo attack. Even he can’t last anymore and drops back to the main group with 5km left.
It was down to the sprinters. Jumbo Visma made the first big effort, looking to place Groenewegen for the sprint, but it was ultimately Caleb Ewan who had the legs for the win.
Stage 11 Brief Results:
- Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) at 3h 51′ 26″
- Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo Visma) s.t.
- Elia Viviani (Deceuninck – Quick Step) s.t.
- Peter Sagan (Bora Hansgrohe) s.t.
- Jens Debusschere (Katusha Alpecin) s.t.
- Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Merida) s.t.
- Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates) s.t.
- Cees Bol (Team Sunweb) s.t.
- Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) s.t.
- Warren Barguil (Team Arkea Samsic) s.t.
General Classification After Stage 11:
- Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck – Quick Step) at 47h 18′ 41″
- Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) at 1’12”
- Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) at 1’16”
- Steven Kruijswijk (Team Jumbo Visma) at 1’27”
- Emanuel Buchmann (Bora Hansgrohe) at 1’45”
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