Jonas Vingegaard won a thrilling stage 11 of the Tour de France ahead of overall leader Tadej Pogacar in Massif Central on Wednesday.
It came down to a sprint finish between the two in Le Lioran but for once Pogacar came off second best as defending champion Vingegaard took the line by half a wheel.
That was after the tireless Vingegaard had clawed back the 30-second advantage Pogacar had built up after an attack on the Pas de Peyrol, some 30km from the finish of this 211 kilometre stage that started in Evaux-les-Bains.
Vingegaard remains third overall after Remco Evenepoel fought his way to the line to keep hold of second place, but the result shows the Dane is back in top form in his first race since suffering horrible injuries in a crash in the Basque Country in April.
“Of course it’s very, very emotional for me,” Vingegaard said. “Coming back from the crash, it means a lot. All the things I went through in the last few months, it makes you think of that and I would never have been able to do this without my family.
“I couldn’t follow the attack [of Pogacar] had, it was very, very strong, and I just had to fight. I didn’t think I would be able to make it back, I just kept fighting and I made it back. I was a bit surprised I could beat him in the sprint but of course it means so much.
“I never thought I would be able to do this three months ago.”
Pogacar did extend his overall lead, now 66 seconds over Evenepoel with Vingegaard another eight seconds back, but the Slovenian was left wondering how his plan to take total control of this race fell apart.
The second longest stage of this Tour had been earmarked as one for a breakaway but Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates clearly had other ideas. It took 80km for a small group including Ireland’s Ben Healy and Scotland’s Oscar Onley to get away, but they were never given the opportunity to build a lead.
Having been guided up the category one climb of the of the Peyrol by his teammates, Pogacar launched his move 600 metres from the summit and quickly distanced himself from his rivals, a gap that only grew on the descent.
Pogacar began the Col de Pertus with an advantage of just over 30 seconds, but after Vingegaard left behind Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic, he ate into the Slovenian’s lead before catching him just before the summit to set up a sprint for the bonus seconds on offer.
Pogacar narrowly won that one but it would be a different story on the finish line. Pogacar sat on Vingegaard’s wheel until the final 150m, but did not have the power to overhaul him.
Behind them, Evenepoel and Roglic had clawed back some of the deficit that had reached 50 seconds at one point, with Evenepoel finishing 25 seconds down on the front two in order to narrowly hold on to second place overall.
Roglic crashed on the final run into town, but was subsequently awarded the same time as Evenepoel with the incident coming inside the final three kilometres of the stage.
Stage 11 results
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Visma-Lease a Bike) 4 hrs 58 mins 00 secs
2. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) Same time
3. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal-Quick Step) +25secs
4. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe +55secs
5. Giulio Ciccone (Ita/Lidl-Trek) +1min 47 secs
6. Joao Almeida (Por/UAE Team Emirates) +1mins 49 secs
7. Adam Yates (GB/UAE Team Emirates) Same time
8. Mikel Landa (Spa/Soudal-Quick Step ”
9. Carlos Rodriguez (Spa/Ineos Grenadiers) +1min 55 secs
10. Felix Gall (Aut/Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +2mins 38 secs
