2021 Tour de France Stage 11 Results & Recap
Stage 11 of the 2021 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
Van Aert wins Ventoux stage
Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) took his fourth win at the Tour de France today after attacking on the second time up Mt. Ventoux on one of the hardest stages yet. The Belgian champion took his fourth Tour de France win after he held off Kenny Elissonde and Bauke Mollema (Trek Segafredo) by 1'05 over 30km on the HC ascent and downhill to the finish of the 198km stage.
"I am lost for words," Van Aert said. "I didn’t think of winning this stage coming into the Tour de France. I only started to believe in it yesterday: that, if I went on the breakaway, I might have a chance of victory. The Mont Ventoux is one of the most iconic climbs in the cycling world. This may be the best victory of my career. There was a big battle for the breakaway ahead of the climbs. Alaphilippe, par example, spent a lot of energy in those moments. But, above all, I guess everything is possible if you believe you can do it. It was very hard emotionally to reach this Tour de France on a proper level. Then, on the first week we had very bad luck. Even today, again, we lost Tony Martin to a crash. But we kept ourselves motivated and focused. If you believe, success ends up coming. I feel very proud of what I accomplished here."
Jonas Vingegaard made a strong move 1.2km before the summit, to put Tadej Pogacar on the defensive, but the Slovenian retained the yellow jersey another day.
"The pace was very hard during the whole second climb to Mont Ventoux," Pogacar said. "In the final kilometres, Jonas Vingegaard attacked and I just couldn’t follow him. It was too much and I exploded a little bit. I joined forces with Urán and Carapaz on the descent and we managed to save the day for everyone. When Vingegaard dropped me, I knew I had to stay calm and set my own pace. We were close to the summit when I got dropped, and I knew the descent was a good opportunity to bring him back. In the end, it was a good day for me. From what we have seen this year, we already know Jonas Vingegaard can be one of the best climbers of this era. I’m not surprised of what he did today: he is a super rider."
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.
