2019 Tour de France Stage 11 Results & Recap
Stage 11 of the 2019 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
Ewan wins stage 11 \nBy Clara Beard
Caleb Ewan waited three years to get the go-ahead to start the Tour de France and today he celebrates his first win in Toulouse after a consistent row of seconds and thirds. The Australian edged out Dylan Groenewegen for the win, while Elia Viviani claimed third.
“I can’t believe it,” Ewan said. “I’ve been so close in the four last sprints I’ve done. But my team never lost faith in me and I never lost faith in my team. I knew if everything was coming together, I could be the fastest on the day. With 10km to go, [lead out man] Jasper [De Buyst] crashed. I was at the back of the bunch, but Roger [Kluge] came back for me and took me back to Dylan Groenewegen’s wheel in the last kilometre. Luckily, I had the legs to finish it off. This is a childhood dream come true. There’s no other race that I’ve wanted to win as a kid. The Tour de France is something so distant from Australia, something we watch on TV, it’s fantastic!”
Julian Alaphilippe is in the yellow jersey ahead of the start of the Pyrenean stages tomorrow.
“Maybe Egan Bernal is right when he says that GC favourites will save their legs tomorrow for the time trial the following, but I prepare myself mentally for attacks to take place, whether it comes from the favorites or other riders who want to gain time,” Alaphilippe said. “I’m just happy to have the yellow jersey for one more day and I expect anything.”
At the beginning of the 167 km stage, Lilian Calmejane (Total Direct Energie), Aimé De Gendt (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Anthony Perez and Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis) easily rolled off the front. They were kept fairly close at a maximum of three minutes over the course of the mild stage that featured two lesser categorized climbs.
"When I went solo, around 7 kilometers to go, it was all downhill,” De Gendt said. “I believed everything was flat until the finish and I thought I may have a chance of making it. But then came the airport part, and that uphill was never-ending… I could feel lactic acid all over my legs. Rossetto saying I was saving energy in the last kilometres so I could break away solo and win the Combativity prize? Well, I think that isn’t true. I felt I was stronger in the last kms and that’s why Rossetto couldn’t follow me when I accelerated. The work on the breakaway was alright. We were working well together until 20k to go. From then on, we’d gone full gas. At some point I felt I could go faster and that’s why I attacked."
With the regular suspects situated at the front of the peloton, Jumbo Visma, Lotto Soudal, and Decenunik Quick Step, the gap steadily came down until the breakaway was caught with 10 kilometres to go, but not before De Gendt launched one last-ditch attempt to stay away, which earned him the combative prize.
With less than five kilometres to go, it was all together with Jumbo Visma taking control. Despite being caught up behind his teammate, who fell into a ditch with 13 kilometres to go, Ewan was well-positioned behind Groenewegen to let the Dutch rider wind up his sprint first, then used his slipstream to power right by to the win.
Get our full coverage of the Tour de France and every race we cover with our mobile app! The apps have over 100 additional exclusive features, including our award-winning Time Machine feature that lets you pause/rewind/replay the entire app to sync with delayed race video, integrated Fantasy Cycling, push notifications, an integrated news feed, live GPS tracking, world-class commentary, and our animated interactive maps and profiles.
