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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Your support makes all the difference.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
Click on stage 11 to refresh the live tracker
25km to go: So our four-man break of Aime De Gendt, Lilian Calmejane, Stephane Rossetto and Anthony Perez remain out in front of the rest, but for the first time since they set off a few hours ago their lead is down to within a minute.
20km to go: A few tumbles in the peloton, out of nowhere really. Giulio Ciccone, who was wearing the yellow jersey a few days ago, is now a long way adrift of the peloton and is trying to get back in contact. Nairo Quintana and Richie Porte were also involved in an incident but were quickly back up and running. It shows that the pace has really ripped up in the peloton as the winds increase.
16km to go: The breakaway are now only 35 seconds clear of the rest and their day in the spotlight is almost over. Quick-Step, Jumbo-Visma and Lotto-Soudal are all working hard to reel them and set up this bunch sprint.
13km to go: Team Ineos are keeping themselves snug near the front without doing any of actual work, which is the perfect ploy.
7km to go: Aime de Gendt has surged forward and extended his lead to 36 seconds. Meanwhile De Buyst rider has been squeezed off the road and into the grass verge after a CCC rider puts out an elbow to balance himself then nudges him off. All accidental.
3km to go: Aime de Gendt has been caught and Jumbo-Visma leads the peloton. The pace is increasing all the time here.
Caleb Ewan wins stage 11!
It's a photo finish in Toulouse and Ewan finishes fractionally ahead of Dylan Groenewegen after Van Aert gave his teammate the perfect run to the line.
What a win to win your first ever Tour stage! The Lotto Soudal rider came from nowhere to beat his countryman by a matter of millimetres,
The results mean that France's Julian Alaphilippe retained the overall leader's yellow jersey
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