It was a real shocker of a stage on the Tour today with some brutal climbs allied to shocking weather on the final climb making life extremely difficult for the riders. Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) proved a worthy winner having been out front in the breakaway all day.
Chris Froome survived a day of attacks on the 11th stage of the Tour de France as Joaquim Rodriguez claimed his second victory of the race.
The 36 year-old Katusha rider had been part of the day’s break and he held on for a memorable win to go alongside his stage 3 victory on the Mur de Huy in Belgium last week.
Today, he attacked fellow breakaway men Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) before skipping across to lone leader Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx – Quick-Step) on the final climb.
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He would drop the reigning world champion on the way to a thoroughly convincing win.
It wasn’t enough to vault him back into the frame for the overall as he still trails leader Froome (Team Sky) by almost 14 minutes; though the Spaniard has already said he is going for stage wins now.
There was no shake-up in the general classification but there were plenty of late surges by those closest to Froome on the final ramp up to the line at Plateau di Beille in the Pyrenees.
Big-name contenders such as Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde (both Movistar) launched some stinging attacks.
And a brief foray by Alberto Contador (Tinkoff Saxo) was also brought back by Froome’s Sky team-mates Richie Porte and Geraint Thomas.
A sodden Dan Martin battles to the finish. He lost more time today, but is now riding for stage wins and after yesterday's effort few would bet against him (Photo: Sirotti)
The man in yellow did not look as imperious as he did when he won on La Pierre Saint Martin two days ago, but he did an effective containing job on his biggest challengers.
Valverde grabbed one second with a strong sprint to the line, coming home 6:46 behind Rodriguez.
Froome, Quintana, Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) and Contador were next in, ending what was a wet and cold ascent to the line.
The general classification remained largely unchanged with Froome, van Garderen, Quintana, Valverde, Thomas and Contador continuing to occupy places first through sixth.
Afterwards, Quintana was interviewed and he said he felt confident that his 3:09 deficit to Froome would be wiped out when the race hits the Alps next week.
He pulled no punches with his comments despite being dropped by Froome on Tuesday.
“We are going to take the jersey with an attack or just to ride Froome off our wheels in the mountain stages,” Quintana told reporters.
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“Our team is strong; we are going well, also with Alejandro [Valverde], who is going very well. No, the race isn’t over. If I’m able to, I’ll ride clear.”
Nicolas Roche put in a huge shift today, both into the final climb and on that ascent (Photo: Sirotti)
Nicolas Roche did another sterling job in service of his leader Froome today and was with him for a large chunk of that final climb before peeling over to the side.
For Cannondale-Garmin's Dan Martin and Bora-Argon 18's Sam Bennett, today was a case of recovering and getting inside the time-limit, respectively.
Martin was clearly exhausted from his stunning ride yesterday and was distanced with over an hour of racing remaining.
Today was never going to be a stage that suited Bennett and he came over the line in a bunch of around 40 riders around 36 minutes back.
Tomorrow’s stage takes the riders 198 kilometres from Muret to Rodez and there are three categorised climbs in the final 60 kilometres of the race.
Though those ascents lack the punishing gradients of the last three days, the category three climb after 130 kilometres reaches 422 metres and for 3.8 kilometres it has an average gradient of 5.8 per cent.
After that there are two category four ramps, at kilometre marks 156 and 167 respectively.
Stage 12: Lannemezan to Plateau de Beille (195km)
1. Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Katusha
2. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana at 1:12
3. Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r at 1:49
4. Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Movistar at 4:34
5. Louis Mentjes (RSA) MTN-Qhubeka at 4:38
6. Jan Barta (Cze) Bora-Argon 18 at 5:47
7. Romain Sicard (Fra) Europcar at 6:03
8. Mikael Cherel (Fra) Ag2r at 6:28
9. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar at 6:46
10. Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky at 6:47
40 Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) @17:02
65 Dan Martin (Garmin Cannondale) @23:09
148 Sam Bennett (Bora Argon 18) @36:54
General Classification
1. Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky
2. Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing at 2:52
3. Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar at 3:09
4. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar at 3:58
5. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky at 4:03
6. Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo at 4:04
7. Robert Gesink (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo at 5:32
8. Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto-Soudal at 7:32
9. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana at 7:47
10. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing at 8:02
22 Dan Martin (Garmin Cannondale) @33:00
47 Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) @1:00:14
173 Sam Bennett (Bora Argon 18) @2:21:36
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