Jumbo-Visma clearly came into Stage 11 of the Tour de France with a plan to make the race exceptionally hard, the difficulty to match the fabled ascents of the Col du Telegraph, the Col du Galibier and the rarely-visited Col du Granon. Incumbent yellow jersey-holder Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) had looked little short of invincible in the first half of the Tour de France, and it would clearly need to be a monumental effort to discomfort the two-time champion.
They put two men into the early breakaway in Christophe Laporte and Wout van Aert, van Aert in particular to go on and play a major role in the race. The green jersey was often present in pacing the move as their advantage ballooned out, but there was clearly a plan, and that went into motion on the very first major ascent of the day.
The action for the general classification contenders started early on the stage, with Jumbo-Visma ramping up the pace with 70 kilometres remaining of the mountainous route. The upper slopes of the Col du Telegraph were the scenes of the initial aggression, as Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma) set a relentless pace at the front of the peloton, and teammate Primož Roglič made an attack over the summit of the climb.
That move saw Pogačar forced into a response, bridging over with Vingegaard and Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers) in tow, while Roglič caught up to teammate Christophe Laporte, who had sat up from the breakaway to wait for the attack. The domestique drove the pace on the climb, but it was quickly back to just the elite climbers going for attack after attack.
Roglič and Vingegaard swapped roles of attacking on the early slopes of the Col du Galibier, one going and then the other, sometimes on the uphill slopes, sometimes on the flat, for a series of six attacks. Pogačar was able to match them all, with Thomas saving his energy on the back of the group.
Things calmed down for a spell, the much-reduced peloton was able to rejoin the leaders, and teammates of UAE Team Emirates and Jumbo-Visma set the tempo. That was before the tempo was upped again by Jumbo-Visma, with the effect of dropping their own teammate Roglič. Pogačar immediately attacked and, with still 47 kilometres to go, it was just the yellow jersey left with Vingegaard stuck to his wheel.
Vingegaard refused to contribute to the pace-making and Pogacar set only a fair tempo from then on, which allowed Romain Bardet (Team DSM) and Thomas to rejoin the leader’s group, with Bardet launching a short-lived attack before Pogačar upped the pace again amidst the fan-lined roads at the top of the Galibier.
The race for yellow largely rejoined on the descent and Wout van Aert dropped back from the breakaway, passing back through the leaders group to return to pace Roglič back on from a minute back on the other contenders. He accomplished the feat by the bottom of the descent, with David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and crucially Pogačar's teammate Rafal Majka also re-joining alongside the three-time Vuelta a Espana winner with 16 kilometres remaining.
Van Aert drove the pace all the way onto the early slopes of the Col du Granon, where Majka took over to set a solid tempo, which saw Roglič dropped again, along with Gaudu. Nairo Quintana (Arkea -Samsic) tried a conservative attack, just sitting off the front of the main group and gently building a modest lead as Majka set a consistent tempo.
Bardet tried an attack and got some distance before the race-winning assault from Vingegaard saw Pogačar not able to follow. Even when Majka expended his last energy to set up his team leader, Pogačar couldn’t muster much of an acceleration and it appeared that the two-time Tour de France leader was in danger of ceding yellow.
Vingegaard flew past Bardet and Quintana to take the lead on the road for the stage, and time checks showed that he was soon into the virtual yellow jersey as well. The steep final kilometres saw Vingegaard digging deep to gain as much time as possible as Pogačar cracked like we haven’t seen before at the Tour de France, slipping dramatically down the general classification. Fellow GC riders caught and passed the Slovenian, yellow jersey unzipped and flapping as he cut a forlorn figure.
Pogačar crossed the line just under three minutes shy of Vingegaard, the new leader of the Tour de France, with the Slovenian now two minutes and 22 seconds behind the Danish superstar. Bardet sits between the pair, two minutes and 16 seconds behind, with second overall to seventh all within a minute of each other.
The Tour de France continues with Stage 12, a special set-piece for the Tour de France with the summit finish to Alpe D'Huez on Bastille Day sure to bring out the best in the riders and fans. Watch from 8.55pm AEST on the SBS SKODA Tour Tracker and then from 9.30pm AEST on SBS and SBS On Demand.
