What just happened? Stage 11 of the Tour de France – one of the most explosive, relentless and unabating days of a Grand Tour we’ve seen in a long time – has left cycling fans breathless. Gone is the era of bike racing following a set script in which the breakaway establishes itself and the peloton sets into a monotonous rhythm behind. This day was pure instinct, speed and aggression – brought to you by a generation of bike riders who know no better.
For a long time it has seemed like professional cycling could be understood through its patterns. Each type of Tour de France stage has a relative routine which once we would have been able to rely on. As a spectator, you could almost plan your day of consuming the race around this loose schedule: the breakaway formation phase might be worth a watch, then it would be time to go for lunch or a coffee break before returning to the television to see who would be decided as the stage winner a few hours later. The reality has now changed. Stage 11 of the Tour was the perfect example of that – in 2025, we never know what to expect.
It began as predicted, with attacks being thrown in the opening kilometres of the 156.8km stage from Toulouse – the punchy, rolling terrain was primed for a breakaway win. However, this is a peloton with so many riders who are now strong enough to fight for the break of the day. The result? An average opening hour raced at 52kph, causing splits to emerge in the bunch, including one in which even the yellow jersey was caught out. Eventually, a small group chipped off the front. It seemed, at first, like the regrouped peloton was happy with this. But not for long.
The general classification hopefuls aren’t, on paper, supposed to come to the front of the bike race still with 67km remaining when there is a group up the road. But the rules no longer exist. Without warning, midway through the stage, the likes of race leader Ben Healy, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) were ripping things up behind the break, alongside Classics-specialists like Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel.
The race situation was fluid and changeable, with almost every big rider experiencing their turn on the back foot. Eventually, a chase group behind the break emerged, featuring some of the biggest names in the peloton when it comes to one-day racing. At the front, original members of the day's initial break Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) and Mauro Schmid (Jayco-Alula), were managing to stay clear of the jaws of the small group of superstars in their pursuit.
In the end, it was the Uno-X rider who took the stage win in Toulouse after outsprinting Schmid at the finish line, but this was only one part of the narrative in today’s stage. The general classification group was not done with the drama until the final metre was ridden of the day; Visma-Lease a Bike attacked Tadej Pogačar on the final climbs, and the world champion even managed to crash with five kilometres to go, though he made it back to the group without losing time. So much had happened over four hours of furious bike racing; Abrahamsen emerged victorious from the chaos, Pogačar was battered and bruised, but the stage was a win for cycling fans everywhere. This was real ciclismo.
Yellow jersey wearer Healy said at the finish in Toulouse: “I think I’ve lost a few years of my life on that stage. It was just a crazy, crazy day with non-stop attacks. As a team, we were really trying to lock the race down, but it was honestly just impossible.”
We are living through a time where, as Healy says, professional cycling cannot be ‘locked down’. The sport has changed for good, with puncheurs racing GC contenders and Classics-riders doing lead-outs up mountains. It’s all gone a little bit loopy, but perhaps racing is better off for it. Sport is entertainment, after all, and stage 11 of the Tour de France certainly gave us that.
