Jasper Philipsen took place in the modern history of the Tour de France as he became the second active rider with at least four stage wins in a single Tour after Mark Cavendish as he outclassed Dylan Groenewegen and Phil Bauhaus in Moulins where Jonas Vingegaard collected the 17th Maillot Jaune of his career.
AMADOR, LOUVEL AND OSS AT THE FRONT
The start proper of stage 11 was given to 169 riders at 13.26. Andrey Amador (EF Education-EasyPost) was first out of the peloton, although at a slow speed. Two riders joined him: Tony Gallopin (Lidl-Trek) and Matîs Louvel (Arkea-Samsic). Gallopin sat up but Daniel Oss (TotalEnergies) substituted him as he made the jump. This leading trio easily took some advantage to reach a maximum of 3’20’’ at km 25 where Alpecin-Deceuninck decided to take the responsibilities to pace the peloton. The teams of the top sprinters left with no win in the first four bunch gallops, namely Jayco-AlUla, Lotto-Dstny and Soudal-Quick, respectively for Dylan Groenewegen, Caleb Ewan and Fabio Jakobsen.
OSS UNTIL 13.5KM TO GO
The peloton delayed the regrouping as long as possible but crosswinds led GC teams to speed up in their move to position their captains close to the helm. With 54km to go, Louvel sat up, so did Amador 5km further. Oss remained alone. He forged on even when the rain made its first appearance on the roads of the Tour de France this year. The Italian veteran was reeled in 13.5km before the end. Soudal-Quick positioned Fabio Jakobsen at the front with 10km remaining.
IT’S PHILIPSEN AGAIN
Jumbo-Visma took over from the sprinters’ teams, firstly to keep Jonas Vingegaard out of trouble until 3km to go, secondly to pave the way for Wout van Aert. Dylan Groenewegen got the best lead out and launched the sprint but Philipsen was smart to follow his slipstream in the absence of Mathieu van der Poel in the finale this time around. The Belgian passed him to score his fourth stage win this year.
