Wout Van Aert wins Stage 11 as Tadej Pogacar retains yellow

Wout Van Aert beat the peloton to an impressive finish on Stage 11 of the 108th Tour de  France on Wednesday, July 7. 

Wout Van Aert made history as he won Stage 11 of the Tour de France on Wednesday 7 July as the first Belgian rider to conquer a stage with a double climb of Mont Ventoux.

He has been a favorite to win stages since the start of the Tour, most anticipating a rivalry between him and Mathieu van der Poel to play out once the latter won the yellow jersey.

Wout Van Aert leaft chasing riders behind

He managed to get in and stay in the breakaway and pull out ahead of other general classification contenders. Western Australian Ben O’Connor attempted to catch up to a chasing group of general classification riders to maintain his overall position of second but got dropped before the final few kilometers.

Tadej Pogacar’s teammates Kwiatkowski and Vingegaard assisted him in moving up the climb, placing him in a good position to chase and claw back enough time on the descent to remain in first position overall.

Rigoberto Uran and Richard Carapaz also managed to stay with a group of chasers, making the most of Ben O’Connor losing time and moving up the overall race standings.

Tour de France standings after Stage 11

Uran moved up into second place overall with Vingegaard in third place, Carapaz in fourth and O’Connor only losing a bit of time to come fifth.

Van Aert has to still make up more time to get spot in the top five overall. Mark Cavendish should retain the green jersey for the overall sprint points, while Pogacar will also retain the white jersey for the best young rider classification.