Tour de France 2023 stage 11 LIVE: Result and reaction as Jasper Philipsen wins again
Jasper Philipsen took his fourth stage win of this year’s Tour de France with another imperious sprint victory
Stage 11 of the 2023 Tour de France is a final opportunity for the sprinters before the road tilts up into the hills and mountains of the Alps.
The day begins in the university city of Clermont-Ferrand before the riders wind north and then east to Moulins, a small town on the Allier river. There is still some climbing to be done including three category-four hills along the route, but any breakaway is likely to be reeled by those teams with dedicated sprinters eyeing their only opportunity for a stage win between the two rest days.
Jasper Philipsen will be favourite here again having already collected all three victories on flat stages in this Tour. Caleb Ewan, Phil Bauhaus, Fabio Jakobsen and Dylan Groenewegen will all try to challenge if they can find the form and positioning to do so, and then there is Wout van Aert, the Jumbo-Visma superstar trying desperately to clinch a stage, and end his run of near misses.
Follow the stage 11 route map, standings and latest updates below:
Tour de France stage 11
7km to go: Alpecin-Deceuninck showing their faces at the front to set things up for Mathieu van der Poel. Bahrain Victorious also showing interest
Tour de France stage 11
9km to go: Lotto-Dstny and Soudal-Quickstep taking turns leading the peloton at the moment, they’ve both done a decent stint on the front.
Tour de France stage 11
12km to go: Aaaaand there’s the catch. 13.5km to go as Oss rejoins the main group. Will anyone try a little punch off the front in these final kilometres or leave it up to the sprinters
Pello Bilbao dedicates first Tour de France stage win to Gino Mader
A reminder of what happened yesterday...
Pello Bilbao took his first career Tour de France stage win from a breakaway in Issoire and dedicated the victory to his late teammate Gino Mader.
Bilbao beat Georg Zimmermann to the line as six riders made it to the finish to contest the stage win, sparking emotional scenes as he and his Bahrain Victorious team remembered Mader, who died aged 26 following a high-speed crash at the Tour de Suisse last month.
The main peloton came to the line a little under three minutes later with Jonas Vingegaard retaining the yellow jersey and his 17-second advantage over Tadej Pogacar, but Bilbao’s win saw him move up to fifth overall. Following Mader’s death, Bilbao had pledged to replicate the Swiss rider’s charitable gesture – donating one euro to environmental causes for every rider he finishes ahead of on each stage, also promising to double the donation if he won the stage.
Pello Bilbao dedicates first Tour de France stage win to Gino Mader
Mader died aged 26 following a high-speed crash at the Tour de Suisse last month
Tour de France stage 11 - breakaway hanging on
14km to go: To his credit, Oss is valiantly clinging on for an extra couple of kilometres, sitting around 10 seconds ahead of the swarming mass of the peloton rattling along at 60 km/h for a little while.
Fair play to him. I mean, there’s no chance of him hanging on but it’s still an admirable effort.
Tour de France stage 11
20km to go: Just 20 klicks to go now and Daniel Oss is just about to be reeled back in. Time for the sprinters’ teams to start getting themselves in position and planning for the finish.
There’s a couple of roundabouts in the final few kilometres that could cause some problems to the unalert.
Stage-by-stage guide to the Tour de France
Where does this race go next? Well it’s heading across towards the Alps and some brutally high climbs. Here is our stage-by-stage guide to the 2023 Tour de France:
Stage-by-stage guide to the 2023 Tour de France route
A closer look at every day of the race from Bilbao to Paris
Tour de France stage 11
28km to go: The peloton looked a bit shifty earlier at the prospect of some cross-winds - a lot of directeurs sportif anxiously on their radios. Things have largely settled down though
Daniel Oss has actually stretched his solo lead out to about 46 seconds but that suits the peloton fine. He’s easy enough to haul in whenever they decide. Oss should at least win the combativity prize today and TotalEnergies have had some TV time to keep the sponsors happy!
Tour de France stage 11
37km to go: This is the last genuine chance for the sprinters to have their day in the sun for another week, so it’s no surprise that they weren’t going to let a breakaway get away today.
Poor old Daniel Oss is just being hung out to dry, about 25-30 seconds ahead of the peloton. They’ve got it completely under control. Matis Louvel (Arkea Samsic) and Andrey Amador (EF Education) gave it up and were hauled back in by the main group, by the way
Pidcock to bid for mountain bike world title
Tom Pidcock will swap the Tour de France for his mountain bike when he targets a rainbow jersey at the UCI World Championships in Scotland at the start of August.
Pidcock is riding high in the top 10 of the general classification at the Tour this month, but the Olympic mountain bike champion will be back on the mud in Scotland as he headlines Great Britain’s 59-strong squad for the cross-country and downhill events.
The squad also includes 2021 world champion Evie Richards and six-time world champion Rachel Atherton.
Pidcock, the former European and under-23 world champion on the mountain bike, has picked up wins in both cross-country and short track events this season while balancing his ambitions on the road, and will be seen as one of the favourites for the cross-country race in Glentress.
“It’s been great so far this year to be able to include a good number of mountain bike World Cups in amongst my road races and taking two wins always boosts your confidence ahead of a World Championships,” the 23-year-old said.
“After a big three weeks on the road, it’s always great to pull on a GB jersey and have some fun back on the mountain bike - especially in front of a home crowd who I’m sure will show up and bring the atmosphere.”
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