Tour de France stage 11 LIVE - Breathless start to second week as riders fight to get into the break and deny a sprint
The peloton tackles 156.8km around Toulouse in a last opportunity for the sꩲprinters ahead of the Pyrenees
And now 🌟🍒Vingegaard attacks, with Healy! This is madness.
He’🌠s made what is now the small junction from the peloton to the Van Aert group.
Van der Poel attacks!
Van Aertಞ is on the move. His acceleration has brought many of the riders in his group upဣ to Pacher, Russo and Vermeeresch.
The peloton is bearing down on the two groups in between itself and the𒊎 l📖eaders.
We're over halfway into the stage, and still things have not s෴ettled down. In fact, the peloton is starting to come back to the three leaders, bringing the gap﷽ down to 1:30.
70KM TO GO
That latest group of attackers have joined the group containing Van Aert. They’re still about 20 seconds behind Pacher, Russo and Vermeeresch, and 1:40 behind th♋e leaders.
This is making for some bizarre racing. Do ﷽all these 𒊎attackers believe they can make up the deficit of nearly two minutes to the leaders?
Still more attacks are coming from the pelo🌺ton. A Movistar rider leads a group of 6 that are trying to go clear.
Up ahead though, things are serene. The five leade𝓡rs have a big gap, and are riding together.
Van Aert is once again one of the main protagon𒀰ists, driving on in one of those groups between the chasers and the peloton.
In betwe𝐆en that Groupama group and the peloton are multiple groups still trying to get up the road. The race is in bits once again.
The two Groupama riders are Russo and Pacher෴, and they’re with Gianni Vermeersch, about 30 seconds ahead of the peloton.
These attackers have a lot of ground to make up, however. The five leaders♔ are about two minutes up the road.
80KM TO GO
And now suddenly everyone is at it again, with𝄹 a host o🥂f attacks being made.
Hold the press, it’s not ov𝓀er yet! Some Groupama-FDJ riders have instigated more attacks.
Wright and Burgaudeau have joined up to Abrahamsen, Ballerini and Sch🌱mid, so we have a leading group o😼f five riders.
Riders are dropping off fo෴r comfort breaks. It does indeed appear as if the attacks have stopped and the break will be allowed to build a gap.
This could be it - the pace has slowed inꦏ the peloton, ꧂and nobody is attacking.
That duo is five seconds ahead of t🌠he peloton, and 20 seconds behind🙈 the leaders.
90KM TO GO
Fred Wright and Mathieu Burgaudeau are the latest to try an attack ou😼t of the bunch.
The pace has been relentless in the peloton all day, with Wout🦩 van Aert one of the main protaജgonists, either trying to get up the road himself, or shutting down moves.
The peloton is all stretched out, but nobo⭕dy has managed to go clear. Still Abr👍ahamsen, Ballerini and Schmid lead, by 20 seconds.
Panic over - the split has been undone.
There’s a split in the peloton. Milan has missed it and is𒁃 leading t🐽he chase.
The pace s⛎lows in the peloton, which allows Bruno Armirail to attack from it.
That increase in pace has also brought the l🐼eading trio back to just 20 seconds. After all they’re work, they too might be caught.
We have a big coming together again, as both the second and third groups are brought back by the peloton, now being powereꦑd along by Van Aert.
The second group has closed to about 30 seconds from the leading trio; the third group is 10 seconds behind them, and the peloton another 20 seconds adrift. The elastic hasn't snapped betwe🅠en any of the groups yet.
100KM TO GO
While all this action 🅺ꦍis taking place behind them, Ballerini, Abrahamsen and Schmid continue to set a pace and lead the race.
The four-man chase group featuring Benjamin Thomas is now close to the 2nd groupಞ on the road than the 🦂peloton.
Another group has formed bet🌊ween the Tronchon group and the peloton, featuring Connor Swift, Benjamin Thomas, Mühlberger🐭 and Meurisse.
So, we still have the three leaders of Abrahamsen, Ballerini and Schmid out front, with a five-man chase grouꦕp 56 seconds behind, an▨d the peloton 1:27 behind.
110KM TO GO
Tronchon and Berthet were the two Decathlon riders, and had TotalEnergies' Verc﷽her🔥 with them. They've caught Delettre and Haller.
Multiple more riders have attacksꦜ too. It's all kicked off again!
And as we speaꩵk, another attack has been launched! A pair of Decathlon riders have gone clear with another rider.
Things have calmed down in the peloton a bit now. There haven’t been any gaps opened by anyone since Haller jumped out to join Delettre, and now the attacks have ceased - but they ꧃haven’t sat up yet.
A quintessential Tour de France ꦕscene from the race today.
Marco Haller has joined Delettre, and together they're trying to ri🍒de up💦 to the leaders.
The t🦩rio at the front is 45 second ahead of the peloton, with Delettre in between, less than ten seconds ahead of th🌜e latter.
120KM TO GO
Vauq🐬uelin has sat up🍌, but Delettre continues to ride.
Meanwhile out the front of the peloton, Kévin Vauquelin i⛄s on the atta🌜ck, going clear with Alexandre Delettre.
The two pelotons have come back together.
EF have a long line of riders trying to pace the Healy group back to the front peloton. Th♓ey’re not too far behind, only about 15 seconds or so, so no need to🌳 panic.
They've been brought back now though.
There are plenty of strong riders in this Van Aert group, including many classics specialists - Stuyven, Wrigh๊t and Mohoric among them.
We have a front peloton and a back peloton with Healy in it, ♊while Van Aert and Simmons have been🐬 joined by about ten more riders in a breakaway group chasing the leading trio.
There have been s൩ome splits in the peloton on🌠 that climb - and Healy was caught out.
The three leaders s🦩til﷽l have a good lead, of about one minute.
130KM TO GO
Up aꦺhead, Abrahamsen take the one point on 🔯offer in the mountains classification.
KOM - COTE DE CASTELNAU-D’ESTRETEFONDS
Quinnn Simmons it the latest rider to try, and has Van Aert and a Cofidis rider with him as they g🐻o over thꦉe top of the climb.
ౠVan Aert ✱is brought back, and the peloton is back all togegher.
Van Aert passes them and goes clear alone.
Alaphilippe has manage🌺d to get a small gap, with Campanaerts on his wheel. And now Campanaert’s teammate Van Aert is coming up to ﷺthem.
Riders are using the climb to accelerate and try and jump out o🔯f the bunch, with aꩵ Movistar rider leading it, but there are no splits yet.
The riders are on the first catergorised climb of the day - the Côte de Castelnau-d'Estrétefonds, which rises for 1.5km a▨t 5.9%.
Oliveira and Gachignard have been brought back into the 🉐peloton, and once more Abrahamsen, Ballerini and Schmid are the only riders out of the peloton.
Oliveira and Gachig🌠nard are still out there, while behind a PicnicPost-NL rider sparks the 🍸next flurry of attacks.
The three riders at the front of the race.
Nelson Oliveira and Thomas Gachignard have jumped 🦄clear of the peloton a𝄹nd have a gap.
Abrahamsen, Ballerini and Schmid are for now th💧e only riders ahead of the peloton, and have a lead of 45 seconds.
140KM TO GO
Lidl-Trek have been especially lively today, with Milan, Nys and Skujiņš all having a go.
Stannard has been brought back.
Still the attacks come from the peloton, but they&rsquꦬo;re now almost a minute behind the three leaders.
Robert S♔tannard has succeeded in going clear from the peloton, and is chasing the leading trio, about 20 seconds behind.
Either way, M🐈ilan and that small group of attackers haven't managed to go clear.
Interestingly, Jonathan Milan is trying to get up the road. You’d have thought he’d sit in the peloton and hope for a bunch sprint, but perhaps he wants to seal the green jersey points in the intermediate sprint coming up halfway into the stage? Or maybe he believes🦋 the finale is too hard for him to survive in the ev𓃲ent of a bunch finish?
This is far from done. Still many riders are trying to attack out of the ꧙pelo💧ton.
The Van Aert group (w💜hich also included, among others, Demare and Benjamin Thomas) have been brought back by the peloton, while the leading trio have a lead of about 15 seconds.
150KM TO GO
Van Aert is in a group of about ten between the three lead✱ers and the peloton.
Many more attackers are flying꧒ out of the peloton - including Wout van Aert.
Davide Ballerini and Mauro Schmid are the🐽 two riders with Abrahamsen.
Three riders attack straight away, ꦿincluding Jonas Abrahamsen.
And they're off!
OFFICIAL START
The🅷 peloton continues to ride behind the car, but the officiaཧl start is imminent now.
Here were three of the day's jersey winners at the start - Evenepoel in white, Milan in♈ green, and Healy in yelloಞw.
It’s a lengthy neutralised zone today. The riders still aren’t due to start officially raܫcing for another ten minutes.
Th🎃e first half of the stage is flatter than the second half. Four of the day’s five categorised climbs are concentrated in the last 50 of the day’s 157 kilometres. T♓hat should aid any rouleurs who want to get into the break.
The lumpy terrain means we’re set for a competitive battle to get up the road once the flag drops. Lots✃ of rid🅰ers will believe the sprinters can be denied today by the breakaway.
Neutralised start
We're underway on stage 11 of the Tour de F🌼ran🌸ce, with racing set to begin properly in around 25 minutes time.
The current ✤temperature ﷺon the ground in Toulouse is 27 degrees celsius.
It should remain dry and reach a maximum of 30 degrees celsius today, with a fairly light northwesterꦉly breeze𝔍.
Not long now until the riders roll out from today's start ven😼ue, which is alongside the Stadium de Toulouse.
The arena typiౠcally hosts top-flight foot🎀ball and rugby matches, but Michael Jackson also performed there for his 1992 Dangerous World Tour.
Inღ the King of the Mountains competition, Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) will🅰 be safe in the polka dot jersey for another day at least. He leads the classification with 27 points, 11 clear of Ben Healy.
There are five categorised climbs on the route today, but just six points on ꧃offer.
In🍃 the ba🌱ttle for the green jersey, there are 70 points on offer throughout today's stage.
Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) currently leads Tadej Pogačar by 64 points in the points classification standings.
Or could Arnaud De Lie clinch the biggest win of♏ his career so far?
The Lotto rider came home third on Sunday's sprint stage into Châteauroux, after a fifth-pla🍎ce finish the day before.
A big grin on 🥀this man's face at the start in Toulouse today. Could he help Kaden Groves claim stage victory this afternoonꦉ?
While you wait for the action to get underway, why not take a look at the latest in-depth feature on Cyclingnews.
We spoke with two top🐼 youngsters who made the jump directly from the junior ranks into the WorldTour to 🧔find out how they did it, and the challenges they face as they bed into cycling's top tier.
Read more: Why are more juniors making the leap directly into the WorldTour? A deep dive into the new normal
We've also got a first glimpse at EF and Cannondale's yellow bike for Healy. Unsurprisingly,🗹 they've gone all out for it!
A photo posted by on
With the neutralise♓d start less than an hour away, the pre-stage team presentation and rider sign-on are underway.
🔴 Let's start week 2 of the #TDF2025 with the presentation and the start of stage 11 in Toulouse!🔴 On lance la 2ème semaine du #TDF2025 avec la présentation de la 11ème étape en direct de Toulouse ! //t.co/0Aa4S2afLF
In case you 𝓰needed a reminder, here are the overall standings heading into the second week of racing at the 2025 Tour de France.
It'🎃s unlikely - but never off the cards - that there will be any GC action today.
Remco Evenepoel is well and truly in 🥃that battle after a rocky start to the Tour de France, but the Belgian is happy for Visma-Lease a Bik🍬e and UAE Team Emirates-XRG to focus on each other and not him.
A photo posted by on
Today also marks Ben Healy♋'s first day in the Tour deꦿ France's leader's jersey.
Just how long the EF Education-EasyPost rider can keep hold of it remains to be seen, especially with a mountainous week on the ag🃏end🐭a. Still, the all-rounder is keen to defend the maillot jaune for as long as possible.
For a deeper look at what's coming up on today's stage, including the categorised climbs and intermediate sprint locations, check out our stage 11 preview here.
Wondering what the riders got up to on their day off? Well, Tadej Pogačar went for a gentle coffee ride and then ate a burger, of course!
After yesterday's rest day,🌟 we're expecting some recharged rider♌s in the Tour de France peloton today.
The parcours makes it an almost nailed-on sprint today, but that wo🀅n't stop some riders from trying to have their say from the breakaway.
Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage for stage 11 of the 2025 Tour ♑de France💧!
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