Right, that’s it from me. Tomorrow? THERE BE MOUNTAINS! Be sure to join us again. Thanks for your emails and tweets today but for now, cheerio!
Here’s today’s quick report:
Jeremy Whittle’s full report will be there soon enough.
Here’s Caleb Ewan: “There’s no other race that I’ve dreamt of winning since I was a young kid. It was something so distant from Australia. To win a stage is a real dream come true.” Ewan’s clearly a popular man in the peloton – having spent the minutes since crossing the line being hugged by just about everyone, he can’t even get through the TV interview without another rider leaning in to shake his hand and congratulate him.
Tell you what, there is a tiny change at the top of the GC. Ciccone, who was caught up in the crash that did for Niki Terpstra, drops out of the top 10. Thibaut Pinot jumps back in.
All the GC contenders finished in the group so there’ll be no change at the top of the GC standings. Sagan stays in green, Wellens keeps the polka dots … it’s very much as-you-were.
Top-10 on Stage 11 #TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/4SiiCpSlku
— the Inner Ring (@inrng) July 17, 2019
A terrific sprint there from the Australian, who picks up his first win of the Tour. The sprinters have really shared out the wins thus far in this year’s race and the lack of dominance has made for some incredibly tight finishes. That might have been the tightest.
Caleb Ewan wins stage 11
Van Aert gives Dylan Groenewegen the perfect lead out but Caleb Ewan storms past him to win by an inch, maybe two.
Updated
A right-hander then the final straight …
1km to go. Oss peels away and Van Aert takes up the strain again.
2km to go. Alex Dowsett gets on the front … and turns around to see no teammates with him. He peels off and leaves things to Daniel Oss of Bora-Hansgrohe.
3km to go. Jumbo-Visma, UAE and Sunweb are all over the front. Alaphilippe is also prominent, helping steer Viviani through these roads …
4km to go. De Gendt is about to get swallowed up – he cracks with 4.6km left to the line.
6km to go. The peloton have got themselves sorted out and have the gap to De Gendt back to 30 seconds. It’s a brave effort, though, and he’s into the outskirts of Toulouse.
8km to go. Aime De Gendt has attacked hard. He’s built up a 40 second lead.
9km to go. Another (minor) chute. De Buyst ends up in a ditch on a narrow stretch. He’s Caleb Ewan’s leadout man and landed pretty softly so he’ll be able to recover.
10km to go. De Gendt attacks from the break … and no one can go with him. Rossetto is furious with Calmejane as the Belgian disappears up the road. Cofidis will get nothing from this despite having two riders out of four in the break,
11km to go. Jumbo-Visma, as they have been all day, are well positioned on the front of the group. Katusha-Alpecin also prominent.
15km to go. Just 26 seconds for the break now.
21km to go. Terpstra has, in fact, abandoned. Ciccone, Langeveld and Nizzolo are four minutes adrift from the peloton. The break has just under a minute on the group.
Updated
26km to go. And the peloton is one once more. Niki Terpstra has apparently remounted and is continuing, though he’s on his own and a couple of minutes adrift.
27km to go. Porte and Quintana have 30 seconds to make up. Plenty of their teammates have joined them to help with the recovery effort. They should get back on in no time.
Looks like Nairo Quintana and Richie Porte were caught up in that crash and now have to race to get back to the main group. Ciccone, 10th in GC, was also caught up in it and has gingerly remounted. Terpstra looks in a very bad way – could be race over for him.
31km to go. Crash in the group. Sunweb, EF and Direct Energie riders are down on the road.
32km to go. Ineos put their noses in the wind for the first time today. This is the section that might be vulnerable to crosswinds …
35km to go. The peloton is beginning to get a little strung out as the pace on the front goes up. But the gap to the break is remaining consistent.
41km to go. The lead quartet have stabilised things a touch, with the gap back to the peloton 1min 10sec or thereabouts.
Updated
48km to go. The break’s lead is tumbling. The quartet have only just over a minute now.
Average speeds in the first 100km of stage 11:
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 17, 2019
Breakaway - 41.4km/h
Peloton - 40.8km/h
The bunch has picked up the pace and was 1.1km/h faster than the attackers between km 90 and 100.#TDF2019 #TDFdata pic.twitter.com/CWckhlsOg6
50km to go. And the break’s lead is down below two minutes.
Some emails
“I once heard the time trial be described as ‘televised admin’, so let’s not forget that Miguel Induráin won five Tours without ever winning a race stage – 12 stage victories, all in time trials. So Ineos’ tactics are positively thrilling,” writes Simon Thomas. “Throughout my time of watching the tour (since 87), there has always been a dominant rider with a team to match and routinely their dominance is ‘bad for the sport’. Until the next team that is …”
“Watching TDF in a Spanish bar in the Costa Blanca with other cyclists,” writes Gareth. “Guess who nobody is talking about? Team Ineos. So I’m a bit concerned that Brailsford is talking about ‘sticking the knife in’. Seems uncharacteristic hubris on his part. People here are no longer seeing that team as central to the race this year, even if Thomas and Bernal are looking good.”
Musettes all round as the peloton go through the feed zone.
The breakaway have 2min 25sec – which is more or less what they’ve had since kilometre zero. Just over 72km to go.
The break reach the intermediate sprint, and Perez holds off De Gendt to cross the line first and bag top points.
A couple of minutes later Bora-Hansgrohe look to lead out Sagan but Viviani follows Colbrelli’s wheel before popping past his Italian rival and pipping the Slovakian.
My US colleague and old mucker Tom Lutz gets in touch to point out that NBC Sports haven’t done their research on Geraint Thomas’s heritage. And his countryman Luke Rowe is listed as hailing from Germany.
Updated
Perez pops over the top of the climb first, claiming the solitary mountain point.
“As an accountant, can I just assure Dan Jenkins that it’s nothing like being on Team Ineos,” writes Thomas Atkins. “I’ll bet Jonathan Castroviejo’s excel skills are rubbish, and I wouldn’t trust Wout Poels to put our Q2 reforecast together if my life depended on it. Horses for courses.”
The break have 2min 30sec and are heading towards the foot of the category four Cote de Castelnau-de-Montmiral (2.5km at 3.8%). After that it’s a flat road all the way to Toulouse with the only danger the dreaded wind. It’ll be a bit like that scene in The Happening …
A Deceuninck-Quickstep rider sets the pace on the front of the peloton but the front end of the group is stacked with Jumbo-Visma riders prepping to set things up for Dylan Groenewegen. The break has 2min 33sec with 100km to go.
“Pffh, most teams in Ineos’ position do the same thing,” writes Dan Jenkins. “If they think they’ve got a real chance for the GC they put everything into winning it. Mitchelton Scott at the Giro & Vuelta last year, Sunweb whenever Dumoulin’s is racing. Even FDJ at this year’s tour. Sunweb even had Michael Matthews training to support Dumoulin in the mountains for this year’s Tour! Michael Matthews!
“They’re all in for the GC until they don’t think they can win it. People just complain when Ineos do it because they’re dominant and have the best GC riders. Oh, and if the way they raced on Monday is what it’s like to be an accountant then sign me up.”
Having scrolled through the social media feeds of the four breakaway riders in search of an interesting tidbit or two (don’t judge – there’s not a huge amount happening out on the road), the best thing I can report is that Lilian Calmejane has an incredibly cute dog:
An email: “Re David Brailsford’s “twisting the knife” comments: he seems to allude patronisingly that to win stages is for the others while his focus is always as ever on the GC win,” writes Alan McFarlane. “Surely the whole point of cycling racing is first across the line and not race like his teams as accountants. To win without winning a stage (not incl a TT) would of course be fine for him. Just imagine if all the other bigger teams raced like Sky/Ineos there would be no Alaphilippe, Pinot, Sagan etc, riders with panache and flair. Mitchelton-Scott are here for Adam Yates but fine for Impey to go for a stage win etc.”
Well, he’s hardly kept that a secret over the years. The Sky/Ineos/Brailsford plan for the Tour de France has always been to win the Tour de France. Rightly or wrongly, their tactics are purely focused on doing that and only that. And, given the results of the past seven years, you could say it’s paid off.
The breakaway quartet have extended their lead over that hill to nearly three and a half minutes.
Perez crests the hill first for a couple of mountains points with De Gendt just behind him.
Highlight of the day so far is the glorious scenery of the Tarn region – absolutely stunning. One kilometre to the summit of this climb.
The gap is still stable just under 2min 30sec as the leaders close in on the foot of the category three Cote de Tonnac.
Local interest today: Calmejane was born in Albi, while Perez lives in Toulouse. The peloton have held the gap at just over two minutes so the sprinters’ teams clearly want to keep them within a manageable range. That has to be pretty dispiriting with 160km to ride.
The breakaway lead stretches to over two minutes. The quartet are all over an hour down on GC so can be given plenty of space. Calmejane is either horribly out of form or has been deliberately keeping his powder dry in an attempt to gain admittance to a break. He’s got decent TDF pedigree, winning a stage in 2017 and finishing 35th and 30th in the past two years.
The riders exit the neutralised early kilometres and immediately a four-man break scampers up the road. Anthony Perez of Cofidis, Stéphane Rossetto also of Cofidis, Total Direct Energie’s Lilian Calmejane and Aimé De Gendt of Wanty. Three French riders and a Belgian.
“Thanks John, for sharing the EF racing film and for the tour coverage,” writes Robert Betts. “On a similar theme are the films made by the Morton brothers (Lachlan and Gus) as they go on various cycle touring adventures. The brothers are good company as they ponder life outside the sport and cycling for the love of it: Thereabouts. There are three ‘Thereabouts’ films each around an hour in length.”
Thanks for that Robert. I have to say, I get very jealous of how good these videos look. Whenever I go out on a ride, the only photos I generally take (because I’m a mature individual) are of ‘hilarious’ street names. Yesterday, for example:
Off we go then. The riders roll slowly out of Albi (which looks rather lovely) in glorious sunshine. There’s the chance of a bit of wind later in the stage and therefore potential for nervousness in the peloton as we get close to Toulouse.
The last time the Tour finished in Toulouse was 2008. That day – in the rain – Mark Cavendish sprinted to his second stage victory. Such a shame he’s not in France this time around.
The riders are congregating in Albi – we’ll have some racing very soon.
This is how today’s finish shapes up:
Fancy it could be a day for Caleb Ewan to finally get a win under his belt, but we shall see.
As this stage is short and pretty damn flat there’s a slightly later start today – racing will get under way around 12.45pm BST with the sprint to the line coming at around 4.30pm. One man who won’t be on the startline is Rick Zabel, the Katusha-Alpecin rider has the flu and has had to withdraw from the race.
While we wait for things to get going here’s some rest day news from our man in France, Jeremy Whittle:
Rest day can often bring some pretty decent #content from teams across their social media channels. It’s not Tour-related but I thought this from EF Education First on the GBDuro event was a really good watch:
The standings
I can’t see anything changing much in these today (fact fans: the yellow jersey has never changed hands on a stage to Toulouse).
Classifications after stage 10, changed after today's hectic race.
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 15, 2019
Les classements après l'étape 10, quelque peu modifiés avec les bordures.
💛 @alafpolak1
💚 @petosagan
🔴 @Tim_Wellens
⚪️ @Eganbernal #TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/eHXMKy71rq
Preamble
Hello all. Hope you’re all feeling refreshed after a hard-earned rest day. Today the peloton blasts across Tarn, from Albi to Toulouse. It’s a day for the sprinters, the last one for a while with the first taste of the Pyrenees coming up on Thursday. That said, if Monday’s madness tells us anything it’s to take nothing for granted in this bike race.
Here’s what William Fotheringham has to say about today’s stage:
An amuse-bouche before the serious general classification racing begins, this is a short and probably rapid sprint stage across the south of France with only an early third-category climb to trouble the sprinters. There will be a break, but there are only two more sprint stages after this, so the fastmen will want their teams to control the race.
Updated
