2014 Tour de France Stage 11 Results & Recap
Stage 11 of the 2014 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Tony Gallopin (Lotto Belisol) added an impressive stage victory to his already successful Tour de France with a solo attack into Oyonnax at the end of Wednesday's stage 11.
Giant-Shimano's John Degenkolb sprinted to second place in the peloton, only a few metres behind Gallopin. Matteo Trentin rounded out the podium for Omega Pharma-Quick Step.
"I want to thank my family, my dad and Marion [Rousse] my fiancée. We came to train here and we did a recon of this stage. Thanks to the team who trusted me. This is an amazing win. The yellow jersey and now a stage. I never imagined this. It's incredible," Gallopin said.
Vincenzo Nibali's yellow jersey was never in any danger. The Italian finished in 20th place. Richie Porte (Sky) is second overall at 2:23 and Movistar's Alejandro Valverde sits in third, 2:47 down on the Italian.
After days of rain, the morning started with blue skies and bright sunshine in Besancon. In a stage where beforehand a breakaway was thought to have a chance to make it to the finish line, the race opened with a frantic pace of over 50 kilometres an hour for 45 minutes. Several riders tried to get away with Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and Adam Hansen for Lotto-Belisol notably among them.
Eventually it was Swiss champion Martin Elmiger for IAM Cycling who made the decisive move. French riders Anthony Delaplace (Bretagne-Seché) and former polka dot jersey Cyril Lemoine (Cofidis) joined him. The trio gained a considerable lead but the peloton never allowed them to get too far.
At 50 kilometres from the finish, the first of the four rated climbs of the day, the CĂ´te de Rogna, saw Jan Bakelants attack for Omega Pharma-Quick Step. Tinkoff-Saxo's Nicholas Roche and Garmin-Sharp's Tom-Jelte Slagter followed him.
Garmin-Sharp did the pace-making at the front of the bunch before this move while their captain Andrew Talansky struggled just ahead of the broomwagon. The American got off his bike but DS Robbie Hunter talked the Criterium du Dauphiné-winner back into climbing back up and continuing his race. Talansky finished 32 minutes down on the winner but was within today's time cut.
Garmin-Sharp's team tactics failed as Tom-Jelte Slagter had to let go of Roche and Bakelants soon after they attacked. From the original breakaway, only Elmiger remained up front and with Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and Jesus Herrada (Movistar) bridging there were five leaders.
They never got more than 30 seconds as Tony Martin brought back his Omega Pharma-Quick Step teammates Michal Kwiatkowski and Matteo Trentin to the front. Peter Sagan was also present after all the work his Cannondale team had done all day as were all the main GC contender bar Lampre-Merida's Rui Costa.
Sagan really wanted this stage because after seven top five finishes in the Tour, the Slovakian rider still is missing a stage win. But nobody wanted to take Sagan to the finish.
After the last of the four rated climbs, there was one more climb to tackle before a fast descent into Oyonnax. Tony Gallopin used that climb to attack the group.
Michael Rogers, Peter Sagan and Michal Kwiatkowski caught him back. At 2,5 kilometres from the line, Gallopin, who wore the yellow jersey on Monday, tried again on a small descent. Rogers, Kwiatkowski and Sagan looked at each other which enabled Gallopin to create a little a gap.
Giant-Shimano's Tom Dumoulin brought Degenkolb and the rest of the first group back to the front but Gallopin was gone. The 26-year-old Frenchman got to celebrate his first Tour de France stage victory.
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