Make that 18 for Mark Cavendish. He admitted that, a day earlier, André Greipel rode the “perfect sprint” to beat him but in Lavaur the top two positions were reversed. And the work of the HTC team netted the reward it sought for a lead-out that effectively began as soon as the escape was established at the start of the stage. ‘Cav’ finishes off the job but the victory is one for the team and Danny Pate and Lars Bak deserve as much credit for the win as Mark Renshaw – the force of a rider who delivers ‘Supermanx’ to the line as the final part of the train that was back on the rails again on the eve of the Tour’s arrival in the Pyrenees.
Rain fell at the start of the 11th stage of the 2011 Tour de France from Blaye-les-Mines to Lavaur. There were 177 riders at the sign on with John Gadret (ALM) the non-starter. The temperature at the start was 17.5 degrees Celsius. The itinerary included two categorized climbs, the cat-3 cote de Tonnac (at 28.5km) and the cat-4 cote de Puylaurens (135.5km). The intermediate sprint was in Gaillac (at 85km). It wasn’t until the 13.5km mark that an escape was able to gain any time on the peloton.
Delage (FDJ) again instigated the successful escape of the day, he was joined at the front of the stage by Perez Moreno (EUS), Boom (RAB), Grivko (AST), Valentin (COF) and Engoulvent (SAU). Boom led over the top of the first climb and his group had a lead of 4’15”. The maximum gain of the escape was 4’25” at 33km.
The best in the overall standings of the escape was Perez Moreno who was 83rd after 10 days of racing, 30’41” behind Voeckler. Two HTC riders rode at the front of the bunch from the 15km onward, the whole Europcar team followed the lead of Pate and Bak.
Delage’s initiative early in the stage meant that he would become the rider who has spent more time in escapes than any other in the 2011 Tour. Before the start of the stage, he had been on the attack for 392km out of the 1,749km.
The average speed for the first hour was 46.2km/h. Delage lead the escape over the line for the intermediate sprint but appeared to apologize to his escape companions for riding ahead just beforehand. HTC led out the sprint for Cavendish in Gaillac and the winner of two stages led his rivals over the line 2’50” behind the escape group.
Four HTC riders took points at the intermediate sprint. The average speed for the second hour was 47.0km/h. A tailwind pushed the peloton along at a rapid pace after the sprint in Gaillac.
It was overcast but dry for the second and third hours but with 40km to go, it started to rain again. The escapees were 2’30” ahead, the advantage dropped quickly thanks to the efforts of all the HTC team, as well as Lang (OLO), Hejsdal (GRM) and, later, Gerrans (SKY) at the front of the bunch.
With 35km to go, the advantage was 1’40”. Delage took on point on the Puylarense climb and the peloton was at 1’34”. With 10km to go, the peloton had HTC and BMC at the front just 30” behind the escapees. Boom attacked the lead group with 4.8km to go when the peloton was just 11” behind.
The five were caught with 3.5km to go and Boom was swallowed up 2.8km to go.
“My most dangerous point is my acceleration,” said Mark Cavendish after winning the 11th stage, which was his 18th victory in the Tour de France. He was delivered to the line to perfection (again) by Renshaw (THR). And the sprint began properly with about 300m or less to go in the wet in Lavaur. Millar (GRM) led with 1km to go and Dean and Hushovd were up front in the final kilometer but then the HTC Express came up on the right of Farrar and Cavendish got “the gap” that he said he could get one day earlier.
He was pushed by Greipel and Farrar but eventually saluted the win with an advantage of over one bike length.
Voeckler finished 75th in the stage but with the same time as the winner. He will wear the yellow jersey in stage 12.
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