Tour de France 2011 – Stage 11

(UPDATE: July 14, 2011 – Stage 11 Summary Video below the fold.)
Blaye-les-Mines to Lavaur – 167.5 km

Tour de France 2011 Stage 11 Profile

Tour de Fance 2011 - Stage 11 Map

After a rolling start the racers crossed the Start line at 1:14 PM CET (7:14 AM EST)

9:51

Tour de France 2011 Stage 11 - LIVE - 9 47 AM EST

10:12

Recap – the race so far

The six escapees now out front left the Peloton early – at 7:31 AM, or 13 km into the race. At the 28km mark – the top of the days first climb, the Category 3, Côte de Tonnac – a 3.6 km climb at 4.9 % the escapees lead was 4:15. Team HTC is pacing the Peloton. In the first hour of the race the lead increased to 4:25 – the average speed of the race in the first hour was 42.6 km/hr.. Then the rain came… . The escapee’s lead began to dwindle at 8:51 EST – down to 3:35.

The 6 escapees:

R. Perez Moreno
L. Boom
A. Grivko
M. Delage
T. Valentin
J. Engoulvent

The second hour of racing clocked in at an average of 47 km/hour.

At 9:25 EST Garmin-Cervelo moved the front of the Peloton to pace the group. HTC had all 9 riders up front as well.

Near the end of the third hour of racing, three teams are vying to control the race and to place their sprinter at the lead of the Peloton for the end of the race – to win the stage. Team HTC, Omega Pharma-Lotto and Garmin-Cervelo are in long trains.

Ryder Hesjedal is out front right now pacing for Garmin-Cervelo’s Tyler Farrar.

At 10:03 (125.5 km mark) the Peloton had closed the gap to 2:05.

10:16

Tour de France 2011 Stage 11 - LIVE - 10 13 AM EST

At 10:21 the Peloton crested the second climb of the day – at the 135.5 km mark, the Category 4, Côte de Puylaurens, a 4.2 km climb at 3.8 % – the gap had been reduced to 1:20.

10:43 AM EST

Tour de France 2011 Stage 11 - LIVE - 10 42 AM EST

10:58

Two team trains are pacing the Peloton with-in 10 km to the finish, and 30 seconds behind the escape group – Team HTC and BMC are ‘training’ right beside each other at the head of the massive Peloton

11:58

Team HTC leads out!

At 5km to go the gap is just 9 seconds!

The escapees split – Boom out front by 5 seconds. At 1km to go the team sprinters for HTC Pharma-Lotto and Garmin-Cervelo are on his tail – the rest of the escape group has been caught.

11:00

Cavendish wins!

Greipel second, Farrar third.

Wow! What a finish. You can’t catch an escapee any closer to the line than that I don’t think. Holy light-speed Bat-Man!

Post race post

July 14 2011 – 9:04 AM

Versus/NBC Video summary of stage 11
(see all Tour de France 2011 videos from Versus/NBC)

Stage 11 Finish Order – top 10 and notable

Total distance covered: 167.5 km

 
Place Rider                 Team       Time         Gaps
1.    CAVENDISH Mark        HTC        3h 46' 07" 	 
2.    GREIPEL André         LOTTO      3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"
3.    FARRAR Tyler          CERVELO    3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"
4.    GALIMZYANOV Denis     KATUSHA    3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"
5.    HAGEN Edvald Boasson  SKY        3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"
6.    FEILLU Romain         DCM        3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"
7.    ROJAS Jose Joaquin    MOVISTAR   3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"
8.    TURGOT Sébastien      EUROPCAR   3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"
9.    VENTOSO Francisco     MOVISTAR   3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"
10.   BONNET William        FDJ        3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

18.   RENSHAW Mark          HTC        3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

26.   CANCELLARA Fabian     TREK       3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

29.   SCHLECK Andy          TREK       3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

44.   GESINK Robert         RABOBANK   3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

46.   HUSHOVD Thor          CERVELO    3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"
47.   CONTADOR Alberto      SAXO BANK  3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

50.   EVANS Cadel           BMC        3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

55.   HINCAPIE George       BMC        3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

66.   GILBERT Philippe      LOTTO      3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

70.   PEREZ MORENO Ruben    EUSKALTEL  3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

75.   VOECKLER Thomas       EUROPCAR   3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

82.   SCHLECK Frank         TREK       3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

96.   LEIPHEIMER Levi       RADIOSHACK 3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

104.  CASAR Sandy           FDJ        3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

111.  COSTA Rui Alberto     MOVISTAR   3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

115.  VALENTIN Tristan      COFIDIS    3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"
116.  DELAGE Mickaël        FDJ        3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

118.  CHAVANEL Sylvain      QUICK STEP 3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

122.  HESJEDAL Ryder        CERVELO    3h 46' 07"   + 00' 00"

134.  ENGOULVENT Jimmy      SOJASUN    3h 46' 42"   + 00' 35"

137.  BOOM Lars             RABOBANK   3h 47' 17"   + 01' 10"

143.  GRIVKO Andriy         ASTANA     3h 47' 48"   + 01' 41"

158.  RIBLON Christophe     AG2R       3h 51' 50"   + 05' 43"

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