Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) may have played second fiddle to Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) in the first half of Tour de France 2024 but the Dane got the upper hand today on a very demanding stage 11 in the Massif Central.
Though Ireland's Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) was among a group of strong and eager riders who got up the road early, with designs on stage victory, the UAE Team Emirates squad of yellow jersey Pogačar kept them on a tight leash.
And that ultimately meant when the general classification battle erupted with about 30km remaining of the 211km stage into Le Lioran, Healy and those he was with were overhauled and denied their chance.
The final of the stage saw the big two general classification men - Vingegaard and Pogačar - rider clear of everyone else, just ahead of the two men who now appear to be in a fight for the final step on the podium, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal QuickStep) and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe).
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At the finish, though Vingegaard did most of the pulling on the front in the final kilometres, he proved too strong for Pogačar in the final sprint to the line. The Danish rider, who has won the last two editions of this race, took his first win since his crash in the Basque Country in early April, and his eighth of the season despite being sidelined for almost three months.
But, more importantly, Vingegaard landed a major blow on Pogačar; first closing him down after the Slovenian attacked and took a 40-second gap, and then getting the verdict from him in the final push to the line.
And while Pogačar may still win this race overall, today could also prove the first day of a big Vingegaard comeback, in which his superiority may become even more obvious in the final week, like it did 12 months ago.
Today, Healy spent just over 100km up the road after he and team mate Richard Carapaz proved determined to make an impression from the start of the day. And though both riders - and team mate Alberto Bettiol - were very active in the opening couple of hours, about 90km would be raced before the main breakaway of the day went clear.
? A crazy stage fought at full speed on the roads of the Massif Central! The favourites fought a Homeric battle, but it was Jonas Vingegaard who won this fight!
⏪ Here is the summary of this magnificent 11th stage of #TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/3s016AvFOU
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 10, 2024
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And when it did, Healy and Carapaz were present alongside: Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies), Oscar Onley (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Oier Lazkano (Movistar Team). Though they set about flying up the road, after the first climb of the day, the Côte de Mouilloux, UAE Team Emirates were clearly not inclined to generosity today.
The breakaway pulled put an advantage of three minutes, but the yellow jersey's team let it go no further. And on such hard roads, with plenty more climbing to come, it was always doubtful three minutes would be enough. And that outlook did not change even when four more riders got across to the breakaway - Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ).
With 70km to go, the breakaway's gap was down to 1:30 as UAE Team Emirates piled on the pressure. And though that gap soon crept up again to two minutes, the work rate of Pogačar's team always suggested the yellow jersey was up for having a good dig today.
On the Col de Néronne, crested with some 45km remaining, the breakaway's advantage was halved again and when Lazkano pressed don, Healy went after him; that duo leading over the top before being joined by Carapaz as they race into the cat 1 Puy Mary, crested with 31km remaining.
And though Healy proved the last man standing on that climb, dropping the others, the remains of the bunch were just seconds behind him on the upper slopes of the climb before he was caught. Pogačar then attacked just before the top of the climb and went clear.
However, on the Col de Pertus it was Vingegaard and Roglič who began to show signs of life, as Evenepoel looked second rate in comparison. And though Pogačar has a habit of stomping away to victory when he gets ahead, Vingegaard pressed on in the chase alone.
He caught the Slovenian just short of 15km to go, still on the penultimate climb, though Pogačar had kept enough in the tank to win the sprint for the bonus seconds at the top. From there, the big two rode in to the finish, where the Dane won the day.
In the chase behind, Evenepoel finished 3rd at 25 seconds - far from a crisis - after Roglič hit roadside barriers close to the finish, but was credited with the same time as Evenepoel under a modified 3km rule. For his part, Healy still finished in 17th place - best of the breakaway men - in a group at 4:49.
The result today means Pogačar still leads overall, and even extended his advantage today; Evenepoel now 2nd at 1:06 rather than the 33 seconds he trailed by this morning. And though only closed the gap by one second to the yellow jersey today, now at 1:14, he looks like he is riding himself into this race.
On a very hard day, when Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious) was just over an hour down, and eight minutes outside the time limit, Irish sprinter Sam Bennett is still in the game. The Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale man was 148th today, at 38:02.
