Tour de France 2023 stage 11 LIVE: Result and reaction as Jasper Philipsen wins again
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 LIVE
Stage 11 is 180km flat route from Clermont Ferrand to Moulins
Jasper Philipsen wins again for his fourth stage of Tour
Tour de France stage 11
16:32 , Luke Baker
Brilliant riding by Philipsen, he sat on Groenewegen’s wheel and picked his moment to stream past. Groenewegen ends up in second, with Coquard fourth.
It’s four sprint wins from four by Philipsen - he’s undoubtedly the quickest man at this year’s Tour. The Alpecin-Deceuninck man didn’t even need Van der Poel’s lead-out.
Tour de France stage 11 - JASPER PHILIPSEN WINS
16:29 , Luke Baker
Finish: Groenewegen goes early, tries to drag race it to the finish and he looks like he might get there but in the final 100m Philipsen, who was sitting on his wheel powers past!
JASPER PHILIPSEN WINS AGAIN!
Tour de France stage 11
16:28 , Luke Baker
1km to go: Van Aert and Ewan right near the front, Philpsen on Ewan’s wheel. I think Dylan Groenewegen is winding up for a big kick. Final kilometre
Tour de France stage 11
16:27 , Luke Baker
2km to go: These roundabouts are causing mayhem and now we’re over a bridge and round a tough right-hand turn. Riders are losing their teammates - everyone is strung out.
Tour de France stage 11
16:26 , Luke Baker
2.5km to go: Pogacar and Vingeagaard safely near the front in case there’s a crash. Good riding from the heads of state.
Tour de France stage 11
16:26 , Luke Baker
3.3km to go: That roundabout has strung out the peloton slightly. The sprinters have a bit more room at the front. Veteran Peter Sagan has popped up near the front.
Tour de France stage 11
16:25 , Luke Baker
5km to go: We hit the first roundabout and there are a couple more to come. Everyone round safely. Soudal-Quickstep, Lotto-Dstny, Jumbo-Visma all lurking near the front.
Tour de France stage 11
16:23 , Luke Baker
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
16:20 , Luke Baker
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
16:16 , Luke Baker
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
16:15 , Lawrence Ostlere
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
Tour de France stage 11 - breakaway hanging on
16:15 , Luke Baker
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
16:09 , Luke Baker
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
16:01 , Luke Baker
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
Tour de France stage 11
15:58 , Luke Baker
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
15:46 , Luke Baker
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
15:36 , Lawrence Ostlere
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.”
Tour de France stage 11 – day’s final climb completed
15:24 , Lawrence Ostlere
55km to go: The Côte de la Croix Blanche is done, and the peloton rolls on towards the finale in Moulins about 25 seconds behind this half-hearted breakaway.
Tour de France stage 11 – breakaway still leads
15:12 , Lawrence Ostlere
65km to go: Our three-man breakaway – Matis Louvel (Arkea Samsic), Andrey Amador (EF Education) and Daniel Oss (TotalEnergies) – are still about half a minute up the road from the rest.
They are reaching the foot of the day’s final categorised climb: the Côte de la Croix Blanche (1.6km at 5.4%) shouldn’t prove too taxing and from there the road will be pretty flat all the way to the finish.
How Mark Cavendish became a Tour de France legend
15:04 , Lawrence Ostlere
How Mark Cavendish would have loved to compete on a day like this one, a mostly flat ride destined for a sprint finish. We spoke to some of his former teammates and rivals about what made the Manx Missile so special:
How Mark Cavendish became a Tour de France legend – according to rivals and teammates
Tour de France stage 11 – breakaway still leads
14:58 , Lawrence Ostlere
75km to go: A three-man breakaway got up the road earlier: Matis Louvel (Arkea Samsic), Andrey Amador (EF Education) and Daniel Oss (TotalEnergies).
They remain about 30 seconds up on the peloton, which has ticked over at a steady pace of around 42km/hr to ensure they don’t get too far down the road. This one is surely going to finish as a bunch sprint in Moulins, because that is what the mob wants.
Who are the challengers to Philipsen today?
14:48 , Lawrence Ostlere
Jasper Philipsen will be favourite here again having already collected all three victories on flat stages in this Tour.
Who can possibly challenge him? Among the pure sprinters, Caleb Ewan and Phil Bauhaus have both come close to winning stages already this Tour and will try to get amongst it once more. Fabio Jakobsen continues to struggle with his injuries from a crash in Nogaro and it is unclear whether he can compete for victory. Dylan Groenewegen has Tour stage wins on his palmarès but hasn’t always been able to position himself for the sprint finish in this Tour so far.
And then there is Wout van Aert. The Jumbo-Visma superstar has been trying desperately to clinch a stage, and probably should have won stage two in San Sebastian when Victor Lafay was allowed to escape from the final group and couldn’t be reeled in. Van Aert was controversially squeezed out of the race to the line on stage three in Bayonne, and was beaten in the stage-eight sprint in Limoges by Mads Pedersen.
Van Aert is clearly hurting at what has been a pretty unfortunate set of near misses. He will not want to go away from this Tour empty handed, even if there is the potential consolation of playing a key role in Jonas Vingegaard’s yellow jersey defence, and this could be an opportunity to finally get on the board with what would be a 10th career win at the Tour de France.
The Belgian was given a scare yesterday when he was told of rumours that he had to leave the Tour for the birth of his second child – his wife is due to give birth to a baby boy shortly after the race. But he confirmed to the media that he is not going anywhere yet. “I just did a quick call to my wife to check if everything’s alright and luckily she’s doing fine. So I don’t know where it’s coming from but I’m in the Tour for hopefully as long as possible.”
Stage 11 preview: Can anyone stop Jasper Philipsen?
14:41 , Lawrence Ostlere
Stage 11 has been under way for about two hours, without a huge amount of action to report so far. More on what’s happened in a moment. First, here’s a more detailed look at today’s stage – a sole second-week opportunity for the sprinters:
Tour de France stage 11 preview: Can anyone stop Jasper Philipsen?
Tour de France – stage 11 LIVE
14:36 , Lawrence Ostlere
Follow live updates from the Tour de France today.
