Tour de France stage 11: Caleb Ewan wins by a tire width in Toulouse

Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) won stage 11 of the Tour de France by the narrowest of margins, lunging at the line to beat Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) by a tire width in Toulouse. It was the 25-year-old Australian’s first ever stage win at the Tour. With his win, Ewan became the 11th different stage winner on each of the 11 stages this year.

“To be honest, I can’t believe it,” Ewan said. “I’ve been close in the last four sprints I’ve done and my team never lost faith in me and I never lost faith in my sprints. I knew if everything came together then I could be there, the fastest on the day, and today I showed that.”

Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) followed closely behind in third and fourth, respectively.

There was no change in the general classification.

Ewan’s win wasn’t a sure thing, especially considering he was caught behind a crash with only 10km to go in the stage.

“I was really at the back of the bunch,” Ewan said. “Roger [Kluge] came back for me and he basically took me from the back of the bunch to Groenewegen’s wheel in the last few kilometers. Once I was there I had a bit of time to recover and luckily I had the legs to win in the end.”

Most sprint wins are a team effort, and Kluge summed up the strength of the Lotto-Soudal team, and what it took to bring Ewan his first ever Tour stage win.

“We knew there were not many chances left,” Kluge said. “We took every opportunity we had here. We were very close the last two [stages]. So we still knew he had it in his legs. We were very confident we work for him; Maxim [Monfort] rode the whole way and controlled the break. Even [Caleb] was behind a crash, but we stayed calm, stayed confident. I was able to bring him up again to the wheel of Groenewegen in the last 3km and from there he did a perfect final.”

For Ewan, who was left off his previous Mitchelton-Scott team roster at the Tour last year, the result was a dream come true.

“There’s no other race that I’ve dreamt of winning since I was a young kid,” Ewan said. “The Tour de France was something that was so distant, from Australia, something we just watched on TV. I can’t believe I’m even here, and to win a stage is a real dream come true for me.”

How the stage unfolded

On a steamy day in the south of France, stage 11 kicked off with Lilian Calmejane (Total Direct Energie), Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis), Anthony Perez (Cofidis), and Aimé De Gendt (Wanty-Gobert) attacking immediately at Kilometer 0. The peloton was satisfied to let the break go, casually pedaling out of Albi as the group of four quickly established their lead. With 160km to go, their gap grew to over two minutes. With 150km to go, that lead had crept up to 2:45 as they reached the first category 3 climb of the day, on the Côte de Tonnac.

Perez took the KOM points on offer at the summit, as the lead of the breakaway group swelled to 3:15 at the crest of the climb.

It then settled to 2:30 as the break and peloton cruised through the Tarn department of France. Perez, who hails from the stage’s finish town of Toulouse, once again took maximum KOM points atop the category 4 Côte de Castelnau-de-Montmiral. He also passed first over the sprint line of the day, at Gaillac. In the sprint for the green jersey, Elia Viviani (Decueninck-Quick-Step) pipped Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) for fifth across the line.

Whispers of crosswinds stirred the peloton into action, led by sprinter teams Deceuninck-Quick-Step, Lotto-Soudal, and Jumbo-Visma, and just like that the lead of the breakaway precipitously dropped to one minute with less than 50km to go. The winds never materialized, however, and the gap settled in at between one minute and 1:30.

Suddenly, about 30km from the line, a crash took down several riders. Niki Terpstra (Total Direct Energie) was the worst off, sitting on the ground with what looked like a broken collarbone. He abandoned.

Of the GC riders, Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) were caught behind the carnage. Quintana required a new bike. Movistar and Trek both dropped several riders to help pace them back to the peloton. Other riders who suffered injuries included Sebastian Langeveld (EF Education First), Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), and Giacomo Nizzolo (Dimension Data). Both were able to continue despite ripped bib shorts and bloody elbows.

With 10km to go, a single rider, Jens Keukeliere (Lotto-Soudal), was pushed into the grass by a chain-reaction in the peloton. It left Caleb Ewan with one fewer lead-out man.

The breakaway riders finally stirred themselves into action as the peloton bore down on them. De Gendt eventually made a solo move and remained 25 seconds ahead with 5km to go. By 4.5km to go, his lead had vanished, and the peloton continued to smash its way toward the line.