Tour de France results: Caleb Ewan claims first ever stage win as Julian Alaphilippe retains yellow jersey
Yellow jersey holder Julian Alaphilippe and defending champion Geraint Thomas finished safely in the pack to ensure there was no change at the top of the general classification
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Caleb Ewan's first career Tour de France stage win came by the narrowest of margins as the Australian edged out Dylan Groenewegen by the width of a wheel rim in Toulouse.
The 25-year-old Australian, riding the Tour for the first time, came around Groenewegen after the Dutchman launched his sprint with 200 metres of the 167km stage 11 from Albi remaining and took it by inches.
Ewan, who has stage wins in the Giro d'Italia and La Vuelta to his name, had made no secret of the fact a Tour victory was what he craved the most.
"I can't believe it," he said. "I've been close in the last four sprints and my team never lost faith in me and I never lost faith in my sprinting. I knew if everything came together I could be fastest on the day and today I showed that...
"Since childhood there is no other race I've dreamt of winning. Watching in Australia, the Tour seems so far away - I can't believe I'm even here but to win a stage is a dream come true."
Yellow jersey holder Julian Alaphilippe and defending champion Geraint Thomas finished safely in the pack to ensure there was no change at the top of the general classification, in which Alaphilippe leads Thomas by 72 seconds as the race heads to the Pyrenees on Thursday.
Thomas' Ineos team-mate Egan Bernal finished 13th on the stage to stay a further four seconds behind Thomas in third place.
After Tuesday's rest day and Monday's chaotic finish in crosswinds, Wednesday's stage was a much more sedate affair as the peloton followed the Tarn west out of Albi.
A four-man breakaway including serial escapee Stephane Rossetto of Cofidis was kept on a short leash, with their advantage never quite reaching three minutes, a gap which began to tumble as Toulouse came into view.
Threatened crosswinds never materialised in the finale, although there was a little late drama as a crash held up Movistar's Nairo Quintana and Trek-Segafredo's Richie Porte, who needed five kilometres to be paced back onto the pack.
However, Porte's team-mate Giulio Ciccone - who wore the yellow jersey for two days after finishing second on stage six to La Planche des Belles Filles - was not so lucky as he limped home with injuries that saw him lose his 10th place in the general classification.
Wanty Gobert's Aime De Gendt went solo from the breakaway with 10 kilometres left, pulling more than 40 seconds clear, but he was reeled in on the long drag up into town as the sprint trains moved to the fore.
Just as De Gendt had made his move, another spill in the peloton saw a key member of Ewan's Lotto-Soudal lead-out train Jesper De Buyst land in a ditch, but Ewan would instead surf the wheels.
Mike Teunissen, winner of the opening stage in Brussels, led out his Jumbo-Visma team-mate Groenewegen but after he pulled off, Ewan had the power to come around the Dutchman in the nick of time.
Alaphilippe's Deceuninck-Quick Step team-mate Elia Viviani took third with Bora-Hansgrohe's Peter Sagan fourth in the green jersey.
The next moves in the battle for yellow could come on Thursday's 209.5km stage 12, which takes the riders from Toulouse to Bagneres-de-Bigorre via climbs of the Peyresourde and the Hourquette a'Ancizan.
Additional reporting by PA
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It is the first day after the rest day, and even the riders won't know for sure how their body is going to react to the shock of going 24 hours without scaling mountains or charging after breakaways.
Who will win it? If these opening 10 days have shown us anything it's that impeccable timing will always trump raw power in a sprint to the line. Riders like Wout van Aert and Mike Teunissen are not natural fast men but both of the Jumbo-Visma riders have stage wins under their belt by measuring a strong turn of speed to perfection.
Their team-mate Dylan Groenewegen remains probably the fastest man in the field in a straight drag race and he is among the favourites on a stage like this one after clinching stage seven, while Peter Sagan is always a threat when the finish is flat.
Elia Viviani is has won one stage and gone close on a couple more, and although his Quick-Step team now have other priorities – namely protecting the yellow jersey on Julian Alaphilippe’s shoulders – the Italian has a strong lead-out train to rely on.
Caleb Ewan is the only one of the big-name sprinters without a stage win and his Lotto-Soudal team-mates will be be desperate to set up the Australian for victory here, and his compatriot Michael Matthews is one of a raft of other riders – like Van Aert and Teunissen – would could deny the pure sprinters.
For the GC riders it is another day to stay vigilant. Stage 10 showed just how quickly months of hard work and preparation can unravel, and Geraint Thomas, Egan Bernal and the rest of Team Ineos will be eager to punish any more mistakes from their rivals.
If you’re just tuning in to this Tour de France for the first time, where have you been? You’ve missed some gripping stages, as well as one or two admittedly god-awful days too. Anyway, because I’m good to you, here’s a debrief on the state of play coming into this stage 11.
So, they are 30km through this stage 11 and it's fair to say the pace is leisurely in the peloton. To be fair to them, it's been a pretty brutal first 10 days with the rest day bumped back a little later than usual, so and with what's coming over the next 10 they can be forgiven for taking it easy. Up ahead a four-man breakaway has formed, and even they aren't exactly belting down the road, though they have a lead of three minutes over the rest.
110km to go: I suppose I should tell you which four riders make up this breakaway. Aime De Gendt, Lilian Calmejane, Stephane Rossetto and Anthony Perez are the quartet out in front by about 2min 25sec. Calmejane was born in Albi, where today's race started, so I suppose it's no surprise he's decided to put himself in the spotlight, that and the fact that he loves a break. He is the only one of the four who has it in his armoury to win a stage of this ilk, I would suggest, but even he is unlikely to stay away until the finish line.
85km to go: The four breakaway riders have scaled the second and final categorised climb of the day and are now making their way towards the intermediate sprint marker, which will not be of much interest to any of them in terms of points, although the cash prize tends to be worth fighting for. I forget exactly but it's about couple of thousand Euros. They have a lead over the peloton of around three minutes.
Back in the peloton a little race is sparked by the intermediate sprint, which is edged by Elia Viviani over Peter Sagan. Sagan is destined for his seventh green jersey regardless, assuming he finishes this race.
62km to go: The breakaway's lead is falling, and that's in large part down to the fact that Quick-Step and particularly Lotto-Soudal want to engineer a bunch sprint in Toulouse. Lotto's Australian sprinter Caleb Ewan is desperate to clinch a stage and opportunities are running out.
50km to go: Michael Matthews has been discussing the frustration of missing out on the stage victory on stage 10. He was in pole position with a strong lead-out train and looked favourite coming into the final 2km, but was jumped on the final straight by Elia Viviani, Wout van Aert and others. The Australian doesn't seem to happy with his team-mates, but adds: "Today's another day."
The breakaway's lead is down to only 1min 25sec.
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