Moral blow from Jonas Vingegaard who wins the stage against Tadej Pogacar

Although few trusted in Jonas Vingegaard's recovery for the 2024 Tour de France after his terrible fall in the Itzulia, the tough stage 11, through the always challenging Massif Central, leaves a reinforced Jonas Vingegaard who managed to overcome a tough offensive from Tadej Pocagar and also achieved victory just ahead of the Slovenian.

Vingegaard matches 2024 Tour de France battle in the eve of the Pyrenees

The peloton of the 2024 Tour de France redeemed itself after the grotesque spectacle of the previous day. The cyclists faced a tough stage of 211 kilometers, between Évaux les Bains and Le Lioran, crossing the Auvergne region, known for its numerous extinct volcanoes, such as the mythical Puy de Dome, and is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and challenging places for cycling in the always feared French Massif Central.

A day clearly divided into two parts, an initial section with rolling terrain but no categorized climbs, and the last 40 kilometers linking 4 climbs: Col de Néronne, Pas de Peyrol, Col de Pertus, and Col de Ceré, with no rest between them and all except the last one on narrow, short roads with steep ramps. Undoubtedly, ideal terrain to cause damage.

An opportunity that neither the stage victory contenders nor the general classification leaders wanted to miss. So, what had to happen, happened; the race started at full speed with attack after attack, none of which succeeded as UAE Team Emirates and Soudal-QuickStep took control of the race to keep the pace very high. The proof is the 45 km/h and 45 minutes ahead of the scheduled time at which the peloton reached the decisive part of the stage.

Before that, not long before, a breakaway finally formed, composed of top-level cyclists, specifically 10, with names like Oier Lazkano who never ceases to amaze us, or the duo of leaders from EF Education-EasyPost with Ben Healy and Richard Carapaz.

Due to the late consolidation of the breakaway and the ambition of UAE Team Emirates to take advantage of this 11th stage of the 2024 Tour de France, they never had significant gaps. Nevertheless, they fought hard to go as far as possible, which was until the middle of the second climb, the Col de Peyrol, with Oier Lazkano still seeking, just like on the day of the Galibier, a stage that, with this attitude, is very likely to be won.

On the first climb, the Col de Néronne, served to prepare the ground, with UAE Team Emirates pushing hard to toughen up the race to the limit if the intense pace throughout the day had not been enough, not forgetting that it was a stage of over 200 kilometers, a limit that can always bring surprises.

The script repeated itself on the ascent to the Pas de Peyrol, with a final kilometer at a terrible 13.4%. The UAE Team Emirates group matured, with the commendable work of Adam Yates, who even made his teammate Juan Ayuso surrender. This maturation work was culminated by Tadej Pogacar with a hellish attack just 600 meters from the summit, to which Jonas Vingegaard did not respond initially, as he had been doing in the previous days. Remco Evenepoel also couldn't keep up and fell a bit behind, while Primoz Roglic easily held onto the Dane's wheel.

Jonas Vingegaard gradually increased his pace and was about to catch Tadej Pogacar at the summit, with just 4 or 5 seconds separating them, all this while leaving Primoz Roglic behind. However, in the descent, with a powerful start where it was vital to be precise in the corners and pedal forcefully out of them, the Slovenian managed to open a gap of over a minute. Meanwhile, behind, the story of the Galibier repeated itself as Jonas Vingegaard couldn't keep up with the pace and was caught first by Primoz Roglic and a bit later by a group led by Carlos Rodríguez, who is establishing himself as one of the best descenders in the current peloton.

However, at the start of the third climb, the Col de Pertus, Vingegaard set a strong pace from the beginning that dropped his companions. Little by little, the Danish rider from Visma-Lease a Bike closed the gap with Tadej Pogacar until finally catching him with less than a kilometer to go before the summit. The Slovenian took advantage of the effort to catch him to launch an attack and gain a few seconds of advantage at the summit.

In the final, much more gradual climb on a wide road, there were no more movements between them, as they focused on consolidating their lead, which was around half a minute over Roglic and Evenepoel who were chasing behind. The only thing left was to see the outcome of the stage, which, in an uphill sprint, seemed to be decided in advance for the explosiveness of the UAE Team Emirates cyclist.

 

 

 

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In the final meters, Tadej Pogacar closely followed Vingegaard's wheel, and therefore, it was the Dane who launched the attack first, trying to surprise and overcome the tactical disadvantage of his position. He did so with great strength, and Tadej tried to catch up, but in slow motion, so much so that it was not enough to surpass Jonas Vingegaard, who won stage 11 of this 2024 Tour de France by just half a wheel, boosting his morale and dealing a psychological blow to his rival.

In the final descent towards the finish line, just over a kilometer away, Primoz Roglic made a mistake in a very tight corner and crashed, fortunately without apparent consequences. Remco continued on his way, minimizing the losses with only a 25-second difference, and 20 seconds later the Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe Slovenian crossed the finish line.

Worth seeing were the post-stage declarations, while cooling down on the roller, of a tremendously emotional Jonas Vingegaard for whom this stage victory marked the end of the very long ordeal that began with that fateful fall in the Itzulia. A decisive move that occurs on the eve of the Pyrenean weekend, which undoubtedly should decide the 2024 Tour de France almost definitively since the stages in the Maritime Alps of the last week, although tough, are known to be very demanding at that stage of the race, making it more difficult to see major changes unless there are collapses.

 

 

 

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That will be the fear now haunting Tadej Pogacar's mind, who surely must have memories of stage 17 of last year's Tour de France and that brief radio communication "I'm dead, I'm gone" that ended his aspirations a year ago. In any case, it is also not unlikely that Vingegaard himself may find the race too long, considering he is coming back from a very serious injury that surely affected his preparation. We will see in a few days.

Stage 11 Classification

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) 4h58'00''
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) +00''
3. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +25''
4. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +55''
5. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +1'47''
6. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +1'49''
7. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) +1'49''
8. Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) +1'49''
9. Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +1'55''
10. Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +2'38''

General Classification

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 31h21'13''
2. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +1'06''
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1'14''
4. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +2'15''
5. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +4'20''
6. Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +4'40''
7. Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) +5'38''
8. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) +6'59''
9. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +7'09''
10. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +7'36''