Tour de France stage 11 LIVE: Tim Merlier’s Soudal-QuickStep working hard to keep Julian Alaphilippe breakaway in check

For the first time today, Alpecin-Premier Tech have joined in with the pace-setting. With the gap between the peloton and the three breakaway riders still at one minute, they’ll need to make a proper effort to bring them back.

Three riders have gone down in a crash in the peloton – O’Connor, Zimmermann and another. Zimmermann seems the worst of of the three, and is receiving attention on the medical bike, but is back riding again.

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Florian Lipowitz in the bunch, near his teammate Remco Evenepoel. Tensions appear to have eased a little between the two, and the talk after yesterday’s stage was of how they can work together to not only target a podium finish on GC, but 2nd place ahead of Vingegaard.

Charmig leads the break over the top of the second and final category four climb of the day, the Côte de Billy-Chevannes, to earn a solitary KOM point. But missing now from the break is Alaphilippe, who was dropped towards the start of the climb. The appetite might still be there for the 34-year-old, but the legs no longer are.

The gap is as low as it’s been for a while, only a fraction above one minute. It’s still advantage the peloton, and they might be beginning to wind it up.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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The pace has been calm enough in the peloton for Juan Ayuso to spend a lot of time in the convoy sorting something out with his team car. He’s another rider being overshadowed by Tadej Pogačar, but is himself riding a great Tour de France, and is well in the hunt for what would be a first Grand Tour podium finish since the 2022 Vuelta.

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There’s been a lot of talk about Jonas Vingegaard and his hitherto unknown considerations for quitting the sport. He might have struggled yesterday, but the mood is still good, and he and his team have been talking about how they’ve talked through and worked on the Dane’s issues.

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The weather remains dry for now, but word on the street is that it could take a turn for the worse later today. That could seriously complicate matters when the pace and tension ramps up for the finale.

“The finish is still dry, at the moment…However, I also checked it with some ASO staff and they expect there could be rain in the final hour of the race”

Picnic-PostNL DS

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The break are being kept on a leash, at 1:30, but a peloton being predominantly led by Soudal-QuickStep.

Alaphilippe will surely have hoped for more than that. He’s the star man in the break, and is hoping to add to his 6 career Tour stage wins – but winning this way, from a breakaway, was always going to be more of a long shot than the stage wins he managed in his heyday, mostly from punchy terrain. He might not have the legs of those days, but still has the same insatiable motivation to chase success.

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The way the stage has unfolded so far, there’s no reason to believe that the predicted outcome of bunch sprint finish won’t come into fruition. Have a read of what some of the leading candidates for the win have had to say before the stage start.

Still the gap remains hovering at about 1:30. The weather is warmer out there now, with the clouds having dispersed, and there’s no threat of more rain for now.

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Talking of the football, it’s now up to Paul Seixas to rescue France’s summer of sport now that their World Cup dream is over. He’s ridden a great race so far, riding consistently and without issue to keep himself right up there in fifth on GC, well within shooting distance of the podium.

Yesterday, he managed to negotiate and survive some dodgy descents, passing yet another test on what has so far been an exceptional debut.

Still the gap is at 1:15, with Soudal doing most of the work, supported by Astana and NSN.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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While the race is in a holding pattern, the peloton keeping the four-man break at about 1:15, let’s reflect upon yesterday’s stage and the impact it had on the GC race.

It was another crushing day for all of those hoping against hope to stop Tadej Pogačar from winning this Tour de France. The defending champion once again rode everyone off his wheel in the finale – but didn’t quite manage to land a knock-out blow, with all of his main rivals limiting their losses to under 45 seconds.

The gap’s been held at 1:30. Notable by their absence in the chase are Alpecin-Premier Tech. Philipsen might have beat his rivals in the intermediate sprint, but his team are absolving themselves of responsibility of chasing, even having failed to get Van der Poel up the road.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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Slock gave up the ghost shortly after the intermediate sprint, called back by his Lotto DS. So we’re going to have a four-man break up the road today – bigger than previous sprint stages, but still a manageable size for the sprinter teams to pull back.

Right now it’s XDS Astana and NSN assisting Soudal-QuickStep with the pace-setting, and they’re keeping the break at 1:30.

“Liam [Slock], come back to the bunch. We need you in the sprint.”

After the five riders up the road hoovered up most of the points (with Le Berre sprinting for first), Philipsen won the sprint in the peloton for 6th ahead of Kanter, Pedersen and Girmay.

Notable by his absence was Merlier, who is saving himself for the final sprint – given his difficulties in the climbs yesterday, the relentless effort required in all terrain to chase the green jersey is going to be very difficult for him to win that jersey, so perhaps he is deprioritising it and going all in for more stage wins.

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The four riders up the road, who have been allowed a lead of 1:40, although that will likely come down as the green jersey teams start preparing for the upcoming intermediate sprint.

It’s not looking good for Slock, however – he’s drifting further away from the quartet, and is now 45 seconds behind.

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The peloton has sat up, and those four riders – Alaphilippe, Charmig, Oliveira and Le Berre – have a lead of 1:25. It appears we have our break of the day, but they might yet be joined by another rider in Liam Slock, who is trying to bridge up to them. He has 25 seconds still to make up.

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“The road is still wet there, so just caution, caution with the wet roads. Stay out of trouble, no silly crashes, no risks.”

XDS Astana DS

Still no breakaway has formed, as multiple attacks keep being made, although Alaphilippe, Charmig, Oliveira and Le Berre have managed to build a lead of a few seconds.

One change from previous days is the weather. It’s still hot on the road, but humid and cooler compared with earlier, and the riders are subjected to the unusual sight of grey skies, while the roads are even still wet from rainfall earlier.

Van der Poel continues to attack, and is still trying to get into the day’s move. At face value it doesn’t seem like much of a vote of confidence in Jasper Philipsen to amend his poor start in the sprints. But might they have something else in mind? There’s an intermediate sprint coming up in about 15km – perhaps they want him to prevent the other green jersey candidates from taking points there?

Or perhaps they want as hard a stage as possible to try and wear out Tim Merlier and his team before the final sprint? It’s a tricky one to figure out.

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This is a much bigger fight to get into the breakaway than on previous sprint stages. Alpecin remain eager to get a man up there, and are among many teams who have tried to clip off the front – to no avail so far.

And they’re off! And there’s a fascinating development – Mathieu van der Poel is the first rider to attack, despite this seeming like a day for his teammate Jasper Philipsen. What are Alpecin-Premier Tech up to?

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Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard at the start a little earlier, sharing a word ahead of what should be a more chilled out day for them both. They and the rest of the riders are on the move now and making their way towards kilometre 0.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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Hello and welcome to stage 11 of the Tour de France!