Pogacar accelerates early, but Vingegaard shows character, wins photo finish and clinches bizarrely beautiful mountain stage in the Tour

Stage 11 was one that perhaps half the peloton had set their sights on. Pre-race the main question was whether the four-part climb of Neronne-Peyrol-Perthus-Font de Cère was tough enough to spark a battle among the general classification contenders. We began the grueling stage around 11:30, covering 210 kilometers and more than 4300 meters of elevation gain.

A significant part of this was in the first 150 kilometers, despite the absence of any major climbs. The course constantly went up and down, leading to a long and exhausting fight for the breakaway. Numerous riders tried, from Wout van Aert to Tom Pidcock, Victor Campenaerts to Maxim Van Gils, Ben Healy to Alberto Bettiol. Many French riders were making moves, and Bart Lemmen also threw his hat into the ring. However, no group managed to gain more than twenty seconds due to many riders missing the initial break. It was fascinating to watch, with nearly eighty kilometers covered in the first hour and a half.

This intensity made for a long day for some riders. Fred Wright fell behind early, along with Cofidis duo Ion Izagirre and Alexis Renard, who let the battle pass them by. With 130 kilometers to go, a group finally managed to create a gap, including Richard Carapaz, who had been active from the start. They gradually built a small lead.

Alongside Carapaz, we spotted Ben Healy for EF Education-Easypost, as well as Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale's duo Paul Lapeira and Bruno Armirail. In total, there were ten breakaway riders, including Oscar Onley (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Matteo Vercher (TotalEnergies), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Oier Lazkano (Movistar), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) and Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek). Their lead never exceeded 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

Until about 65 kilometers from the finish, the situation remained the same, until the peloton accelerated. UAE Team Emirates wanted to ramp up the difficulty, and they succeeded. The pace increased dramatically, making it impossible for the breakaway to succeed. Healy, Carapaz and Lazkano held on the longest, but their mission was doomed from the start of the first real climb, the Neronne.

The last escapees survived this climb, but most of the peloton did not. At the top of the Neronne, only about twenty riders remained. Immediately after, on the Pas de Peyrol, big names started to drop. Juan Ayuso had to let go, as did Jai Hindley and Egan Bernal, in a rare display of attrition in the Central Massif. Adam Yates was superb, positioning Pogacar near the summit. The pace was so brutal that only five riders remained. Pogacar then attacked, dropping the last four or five riders, which included Remco Evenepoel, Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Carlos Rodríguez.

Vingegaard looked back and called for Roglic's help, and the two former teammates rode up the final part of the Peyrol together. Pogacar had a ten-second lead over the duo at the summit, and twenty seconds over Evenepoel. However, the race was not over yet. Two more climbs remained in the last twenty kilometers. Pogacar slightly extended his lead. Roglic and Vingegaard stuck together, as did Evenepoel with Rodriguez, Yates, Almeida and Giulio Ciccone. Pogacar descended so aggressively that he all but flew off the road on one of the corners.

On the penultimate climb, the Pertus, Vingegaard and Roglic immediately pushed the pace, stabilizing the gap. Evenepoel couldn't keep up and chose to ride at his own pace. The other riders had already been dropped. Gradually, the reigning Tour champion chipped away at the lead. Had the yellow jersey started too early? Meanwhile, Roglic overextended himself and was exhausted. Vingegaard continued alone, chasing Pogacar.

And he was closing in on his target. 31 seconds became 24, 24 became eighteen. At times, this part of the race gave us a fantastic second battle between the great riders. Evenepoel gained on Roglic. However, they both fell further behind, losing time to the leading two. Pogacar began to look back, a bad sign for the yellow jersey. And then it happened – Vingegaard caught up! The Slovenian looked increasingly weaker and seemed to have taken off too soon. He still won the bonus sprint, but his Danish rival looked fresher.

On the descent, Roglic and Evenepoel managed to claw back some time, while Pogacar visibly needed to recover. Therefore, a small third-category climb, the Font de Cère, would decide this crazy beautiful stage. In the thrilling finale, Pogacar no longer took the lead from Vingegaard. This hesitation allowed the duo Evenepoel/Roglic to come back within 30 seconds. Roglic was honest and told the young Belgian that he couldn't take over.

On the final climb, 3.3 kilometers long, not much happened. Pogacar seemed uncertain, Vingegaard content, Evenepoel focused, and Roglic was simply counting down until the finish line. The time gaps stabilized, except compared to the other general classification riders, who were far behind. On the descent, everyone was focused on staying upright and making it to the sprint. Pogacar was the first to launch, but Vingegaard impressively came back and defeated the yellow jersey by half a wheel. Roglic had a minor crash in the finale, losing slightly more time to Evenepoel, Pogacar and Vingegaard.