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On the eve of Cadel Evans’ first moment of truth in the 2011 Tour de France, Mark Cavendish made it a hat-trick of wins and goes into the Pyrenees finally wearing the green jersey.
In what has been a very eventful and sometimes dramatic first half of the tour, Stage 11, although wet, was pretty uneventful in comparison and pretty much went according to the script.
A breakaway group got away early in the stage, the peloton led by the work of Cavendish’s HTC Highroad team slowly reigned it in, with the last escapee, Rabobank’s Lars Boon, being caught with 2.2 km to go.
As the finish line approached, the teams with the strong sprinters organized themselves to fight out the finish.
The chase had taken its toll on the HTC team, but Cavendish, this time, had nothing to fear – entering the last kilometre of the sprint he still had his main lead out man, Matt Renshaw with him.
Renshaw piled on the pace, with 200 metres to go Cavendish came off his wheel, ignited the afterburners and scored a very comfortable victory.
Sprint rivals Andre Greipel and Tyler Farrar left in his wake and fought it out for the minor placings.
It was the Manxman’s 18th stage win. He was also presented with the green jersey as the tour’s sprint points leader. His goal will now be to survive the climbs, make it 20 wins and be the green jersey winner by tour’s end.
The general classification contenders stayed out of trouble and finished with peloton.
Which bring us tonight 211km stage from Cugnaux to the ski station at Luz Ardiden.
This is the stage all Australian Tour fans have been waiting for.
The stage has three big climbs. Including 2 massive all category climbs.
• Km 141.5 – Hourquette d’Ancizan (1538 m) – 9.9 km climb to 7.5 % – Category 1
• Km 175.5 – Col du Tourmalet (2115 m) – 17.1 km climb to 7.3 % – Category H
• Km 211.0 – Luz-Ardiden (1715 m) – 13 km climb to 7.4 % – Category H
The pressure will be on Alberto Contador to make up lost time on his rivals.
For Andy Schleck, he has to try and start making time on Cadel Evans as he needs at least a two minute gap on him before the penultimate and decisive time trial stage of the tour.
Cadel just knows that he just has to keep pace and cover the attacks on the climbs. It will be a damage limitation exercise. The less damage, the better his chances of finally wearing yellow entering Paris.
Expect to see some very good climbers break away to try and win the stage.
In the breakaway, expect riders from the main contender’s teams as they will provide invaluable assistance on the big slopes to their leaders.
It will make for a riveting nights viewing.
Stage 11 Results
Standing Rider Team Time Gaps
1. CAVENDISH Mark HTC – HIGHROAD 3h 46′ 07″
2. GREIPEL André OMEGA PHARMA – LOTTO 3h 46′ 07″ + 00′ 00″
3. FARRAR Tyler TEAM GARMIN – CERVELO 3h 46′ 07″ + 00′ 00″
4. GALIMZYANOV Denis KATUSHA TEAM 3h 46′ 07″ + 00′ 00″
5. HAGEN Edvald Boasson SKY PROCYCLING 3h 46′ 07″ + 00′ 00″
6. FEILLU Romain VACANSOLEIL-DCM 3h 46′ 07″ + 00′ 00″
7. ROJAS Jose Joaquin MOVISTAR TEAM 3h 46′ 07″ + 00′ 00
18. RENSHAW Mark HTC – HIGHROAD 3h 46′ 07″ + 00′ 00″
29. SCHLECK Andy TEAM LEOPARD-TREK 3h 46′ 07″ + 00′ 00
47. CONTADOR Alberto SAXO BANK SUNGARD 3h 46′ 07″ + 00′ 00″
50. EVANS Cadel BMC RACING TEAM 3h 46′ 07″ + 00′ 00″
Overall Standings
Rider Team Time Gaps
1. VOECKLER Thomas TEAM EUROPCAR 42h 06′ 32″
2. SANCHEZ Luis-Leon RABOBANK CYCLING 42h 08′ 21″ + 01′ 49″
3. EVANS Cadel BMC RACING TEAM 42h 08′ 58″ + 02′ 26″
4. SCHLECK Frank TEAM LEOPARD-TREK 42h 09′ 01″ + 02′ 29″
5. SCHLECK Andy TEAM LEOPARD-TREK 42h 09′ 09″ + 02′ 37″
6. MARTIN Tony HTC – HIGHROAD 42h 09′ 10″ + 02′ 38″
16. CONTADOR Alberto SAXO BANK SUNGARD 42h 10′ 39″ + 04′ 07″
Green Jersey Standings
Standing Rider Team Points
1. CAVENDISH Mark HTC – HIGHROAD 251 pts
2. ROJAS Jose Joaquin MOVISTAR TEAM 235 pts
3. GILBERT Philippe OMEGA PHARMA – LOTTO 231 pts
4. GREIPEL André 33 OMEGA PHARMA – LOTTO 164 pts
5. HUSHOVD Thor 51 TEAM GARMIN – CERVELO 163 pts
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