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Thursday, July 17, 2025

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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia

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Current racing:

• July 5 - 27: Tour de France

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• August 2: San Sebastian Classic

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• June 21 - 29: Most national road championships
• June 24: Giro dell'Appennino
• June 15 - 22: Tour de Suisse
• June 18 - 22: Baloise Belgium Tour
• July 9 - 13: Tour of Austria
• June 8 - 15: Critérium du Dauphiné
• June 13: GP Kanton Aargau
• June 8: Brussels Cycling Classic
• May 9 - June 1: Giro d'Italia

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Tour de France stage 11 team reports

We posted the race organizer's stage 11 report with the results.

Here's the stage 11 report from second-place Mauro Schmid's Team Jayco AlUla:

Swiss champion Mauro Schmid took a heroic second place after a mammoth 155km breakaway battle on a relentless and breathless stage 11 of the Tour de France.

The 25-year-old was amongst the first riders to jump clear of the peloton as the flag dropped outside of Toulouse and an epic effort saw him stay away until the finish with just one remaining breakaway companion. After holding off a charging Mathieu van der Poel in the final kilometres, the pair contested victory in a two-up sprint with the Team Jayco AlUla rider just inches from the win.

Jonas Abrahamsen (left) just beats Mauro Schmid. Sirotti photo

The first stage back after the opening rest day saw the peloton revitalised and ready to fight with the breakaway battle going on for some 70km. As carnage ensued behind, Schmid was already out front in a three-man move that would eventually become five.

The action in the peloton was unrelenting until a counter attacking group of five escaped the bunch and attempted to bridge across to Schmid and the other leaders. It took more than 40km for the pursuers to cut the 50-second gap down to 20, but despite the firepower in the chase, the leaders sustained a slim advantage.

As the advantage continued to fluctuate, the race exploded once again as Schmid made his move on the penultimate climb. Meanwhile, Van der Poel launched his own attack behind in a bid to finally close the gap.

The acceleration from the double Swiss champion was enough to decimate the leading group, leaving just himself and Jonas Abrahamsen at the front as they hit the final climb of the day. The duo made it over the punchy ascent with a handy lead, but with Van der Poel closing in, they couldn’t relax on the race back into Toulouse.

After a stage long break, it wasn’t until the final 400 metres that the leading pair knew the fight for the victory was between themselves. Abrahamsen launched his sprint out of Schmid’s wheel, with the Swiss rider reacting, but unable to overhaul his rival before the finish line.

Mauro Schimd:
“I think after the rest day, a stage like this, there’s many guys like me who wanted to be in the break today because the stages from here will be quite hard or a sprint. I think today was a really good opportunity, everybody recovered a little bit and it was some hard racing.

We all worked pretty well together. During the day, we all had our highs and lows but normally when you go in a break like this, you have this middle section where you can breathe a little bit and recover, but today we could never really do that so it made it quite difficult.

Then we had this chase group with some quite strong riders, and we knew it’s better to not let them come to us so we always kept pushing. On the second last climb I heard on the radio that they’re getting really close so I said yeah now it’s time to move because otherwise if Van der Poel and Van Aert come to us it will be really, really difficult.

So I rode away with Abrahamsen, he was super strong all day from the beginning. Then in the end it was so loud so actually I didn’t really hear anything in the radio, but I always heard like someone around 10 seconds. In the sprint, maybe I started a bit too early and I was a bit in the wrong gear, but Abrahamsen was also really strong.”

Fourth-place Arnaud De Lie's Team Lotto posted this news:

The signs were clear along today’s route in France: 'Nothing To(u)-lo(u)se' was everywhere. In a demanding Stage 11 of the Tour de France, Arnaud De Lie demonstrated remarkable resilience, earning a well-deserved 4th place finish.
The first stage after the rest day definitely proved itself to be a hard one. The whole day, the pace was up very high and the heat was clearly playing it's part too. Yet, our team showed their positive progression, resulting in a fourth place for Arnaud De Lie.

Arnaud De Lie is fourth in stage 11. Sirotti photo

“It was a crazy day on the bike”, Arnaud admits. “It initially was the goal to go into the breakaway with the team but we didn’t get to do so. In the end we escaped together with a great group of riders but the final climb was just too hard for me.I tried to go for the win, but it was only possible for the strong guys like Mathieu (Van der Poel).”

Tomorrow we will head to the Pyrenees for 180.6 km's from Auch to Hautacam.

Here's the Tour report from fifth-place Wout van Aert's Team Visma | Lease a Bike:

Wout van Aert came close to victory once again in the Tour de France. In the eleventh stage, which started and finished in Toulouse, the Belgian attacked from the start. Ultimately, Van Aert had to settle for fifth place, finishing less than a minute behind stage winner Jonas Abrahamsen. Jonas Vingegaard and Matteo Jorgenson had a trouble-free day.

The stage following the rest day looked on paper like the easiest of the second week, but most riders will have had a different opinion afterward. With an average speed of over 48 kilometers per hour, the peloton kept a relentless pace.

Wout van Aert before the stage start. Sirotti phto

Van Aert was active early, trying to join the break of the day. It didn’t come easily, but after several attempts, he managed to slip into a chase group. However, together with his four companions, Van Aert was already forced into pursuit mode, as another group of five had broken clear earlier.

The gap between the two groups hovered between 20 and 30 seconds. On the Côte de Pech David, the key climb of the day, the two groups almost came together, but by then Abrahamsen and Mauro Schmidt had already gone clear. Van Aert and the others couldn’t reel in the unleashed duo. In the end, the Belgian from Team Visma | Lease a Bike sprinted to fifth place.

On that same Côte de Pech David, Vingegaard briefly tested his legs. The Dane danced on the pedals near the top of the sharp climb but quickly saw that his rivals were able to follow. On the following straight section, there was a sudden scare: Tadej Pogacar crashed after clipping another rider’s wheel. Several teams, including Visma | Lease a Bike, hit the brakes in the reduced peloton to allow the unlucky Slovenian to return.

“It was a hard stage today”, admitted Van Aert. “It wasn’t easy to make it into the break. I succeeded in the end, but I had already spent a lot of energy before that. I think that cost me in the finale. Mathieu van der Poel was also there, and I felt he had something left toward the end. We were watching each other, but I just couldn’t follow when he pushed on the last climb. Maybe if I had, we could have bridged to the leaders – although we had already tried and failed to do that in the kilometers before the climb.”

Van Aert feels his form is on the rise. “I’m here to get results. Thankfully, things are improving every day. Of course, I hope to turn that upward trend into a victory. In the Tour de France, you always want to achieve something big”, Van Aert concluded.

Here's the stage 11 report from sixth-place Axel Laurance's Team INEOS Grenadiers:

Axel Laurance continued his Tour de France momentum with a strong outing and a sixth-place finish on stage 11.

The Frenchman crossed the line as part of a chasing breakaway group after a high speed day of racing around Toulouse.

After numerous breakaway attempts proved unsuccessful, Laurance was able to infiltrate a five-man counter attack and the stage ticked over into its second half. Previous Connor Swift had been amongst those that saw their moves reeled in by the bunch.

Stage 11 gets started. Sirotti photo

Also present in the group were the likes of Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin - Deceuninck) and Wout Van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike). Up ahead a similar group of five combined well to maintain a slender advantage, and at the finish it was Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) who out-sprinted Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) to secure the win.

Carlos Rodriguez finished as part of the yellow jersey group, 3:28 back, with Ben Healy (EF Education - EasyPost) retaining the overall lead. Carlos remains 12th overall.

Remco Evenepoel's Team Soudal Quick-Step posted this report:

The Tour de France resumed on Wednesday with a stage starting and finishing in Toulouse, home to one of Europe’s oldest universities, which made a return at the race after six years. The bunch got to ride today through what used to be known as the Languedoc region – a land of myths, legends, and traditions – but the riders were more interested in the final part of this day, which featured two steep climbs, the last of these, Côte de Pech David, crested just eight kilometers from home.

Remco Evenepoel before the stage start. Sirotti photo

For Remco Evenepoel, the day started with a visit of Champions League winner Eden Hazard, one of the best players in Premier League history, who dropped by the Soudal Quick-Step bus for a relaxed chat and a jersey exchange with his countryman, second in the general classification after ten stages.

The start was insane, as half the peloton tried to make it in the breakaway. Attacks came in waves, and it took more than 70 kilometers for a front group to form. Even then, things remained hectic and a certain nervousness was palpable, underlined by an attack of some of the GC men, who briefly spread panic and split the bunch. Meanwhile, at the front, the five leaders were being chased by another quintet, who despite the small gap separating them, couldn’t bridge across.

Toulouse witnessed the victory of Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) from the original breakaway, while the bunch – including Remco Evenepoel and Ilan Van Wilder – concluded some three minutes behind. Soudal Quick-Step’s Belgian made it unscathed through this fast and complicated day and will start Thursday’s mountain stage, which brings a finish atop Hautacam, third in the overall standings.

And here's the Tour stage eleven report from Team Groupama-FDJ:

On paper, this wasn’t the hardest stage of the Tour de France. In reality, the riders probably experienced the craziest day of this 2025 edition. Around Toulouse, over 156 kilometres, the peloton had very little rest. The day’s breakaway formed after more than two hours of racing, following a fight of rare intensity. Unfortunately, the Groupama-FDJ was unable to get to the front, and Romain Grégoire (14th) as well as Quentin Pacher (16th) had to settle for positions outside the top 10, more than three minutes behind the winner. On Thursday, the Tour will enter the Pyrenees.

The peloton with 50 kilometers to go.

For many teams, a lot was at stake in Toulouse on Wednesday, as the second week of the Tour kicked off. The hilly course of the final fifty kilometres offered a real opportunity for the breakaway. As a consequence, almost all the teams at the start wanted to join it. It was therefore no great surprise that the fight proved to be much more contested than past weekend. However, this time, the battle seemed endless. While three men managed to open a gap right away, the peloton continued to battle for around sixty kilometres.

Two riders were then able to break away, the pack seemed ready to ease off, but Clément Russo and Quentin Pacher relaunched the attacks. Another twenty-kilometre fight thus started, during which the Groupama-FDJ duo was caught by some counterattacks, but during which the favorites also took advantage of the opportunity to join the action. A completely fragmented peloton thus entered the final sixty-five kilometres, and a strong group including Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel, Arnaud De Lie, Quinn Simmons, and Axel Laurance eventually managed to slip away, between the breakaway and the peloton.

This move didn’t include Benoît Vaugrenard’s men. “I think we struggled to relaunch the engine after the rest day, but we’re not going to make excuses; we started the race the wrong way today,” said the sports director. “Then, when the speed is that high and the race is that intense, you can rectify it once, which we managed to do, but it’s already one time too many. We had to be the right timing from the start, and we weren’t. It’s really disappointing because it was a stage that suited us, and we missed it.”

Indeed, once the first two groups were formed, the peloton lost more than two minutes, and never seemed able to get back into the fight for victory. Despite a brief attempt of chasing, the squads that weren’t represented up front gave up with about thirty kilometres to go. Victory then went to Jonas Abrahamsen, in the front from the start and who never got caught by the chasers. The peloton finished three minutes later, and Romain Grégoire took fourth place in his group, meaning 14th on the stage, with Quentin Pacher being two places behind (16th) on home ground. Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet finished in the main pack and moved up a place overall (15th) before heading to the Pyrenees and the summit finish at Hautacam on Thursday. “It’s time for the mountains with Guillaume, who’s getting better and better,” Benoît concluded. “We’ll try to get back on track.”

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