Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. . . I give you the winner of Stage 11, Mr. Wout van Aert! On a day when the peloton tackled TWO ascents up the mystical Mont Ventoux, van Aert bested all breakaway companions to solo to an iconic stage win in Maulacène. After placing second in yesterday’s sprint stage behind the Manx Missile, today’s victory featured many of Wout’s classics: the Wout Pout , the Wout Vampire Stare, and the Wout Smile of Swooniness. The Little French Prince That Could, Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo) came home second, more than a minute behind the Belgian champion. In a surprising twist, the Johns of the world can further rejoice as Elissonde’s teammate, Bauke Mollema, managed to come to the line with him to finish third.
In the everlasting saga for the yellow jersey, there was a minor moment of panic and excitement as Jumbo-Visma’s Jonas Vingegaard dropped Tadej Pogacar prior to the summit of the second ascent of Mont Ventoux. All efforts were for naught, however, as Pogacar, Rigoberto Uran, and Richard Carapaz caught the youngster before the line. The big loss of the day was for Ben O’Connor, who lost contact early on the second ascent of Ventoux and tumbled down the GC after beginning the day in second overall. His misfortune moves Uran up to 2nd overall and Vingegaard into 3rd while Pogacar retains yellow with a healthy lead of more than 5 minutes.
Wout a winner!
After fighting to get into the breakaway at the start of the day, Jumbo-Visma’s Wout van Aert ultimately succeeded and provided many of us with hope for greatness. As expected, the man in the tricolor did not disappoint as he delighted fans up and down the mountain!
Lots of peeps on Ventoux #TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/sOiWFHhg8w
— VeloVoices (@VeloVoices) July 7, 2021
Even as attacks from the likes of Julian Alaphilippe, Kenny Elissonde, and Bauke Mollema in the break, Wout kept his cool (and his zombie face).
"Alors, t'es où Mathieu ?" #TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/GD8qsexAfU
— Dans la Musette (@DansLaMusette) July 7, 2021
Wout zombie face is kind of a smolder. #tdf2021 pic.twitter.com/zQv58yTnWh
— Chris Carlson (@Kiss_my_Panache) July 7, 2021
Hmmm, where have we seen this face before? pic.twitter.com/pKDgtQa0WM
— Les is More (@LesKnits) July 7, 2021
The look on Wout van Aert's face. The kind of lad who'd look at a driveway covered in snow and just grab the shovel and crack on.
— Orla Chennaoui (@SportsOrla) July 7, 2021
With better climbers alongside him, it became more and more unclear if the Wout the Magnificent would be able to pull a win out of his mighty bag of tricks. Nevertheless, fans held out hope. . .
Wout Van Aert
Went up Ventoux
Killed Kenny in the process
Can he win
Remains to be seen
This ending's anyone's guess.#tdf133— Les is More (@LesKnits) July 7, 2021
Eventually, the Fine-Faced Belgian broke free from all else and began his lone ascent up Ventoux, for the second time.
Second in a bunch sprint one day, leading on Mont Ventoux the next. Wout Van Aert is a special rider.#TDF2021
— Cyclist (@cyclist) July 7, 2021
Wout isn't riding up Mont Ventoux.
He's pushing Mont Ventoux down. #TDF2021 #CouchPeloton— Belinda (@reallyspoketome) July 7, 2021
With more than four minutes on the GC favorites at the base of the climb and a healthy advantage of those that remained within reach from the breakaway, Wout was easily able to crest Ventoux and descend into town for a glorious stage victory without much difficulty. Just look at his little smiles!
He knows he's got it now ❤️@WoutvanAert #TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/AbTQIj1ZZq
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 7, 2021
Perhaps most of all, this victory goes a long way to saving Jumbo’s Tour de France after having a crashfest as a team during the first week and a half.
🇫🇷 #TDF2021
B O O M !💣 pic.twitter.com/SK1SO1wMMv
— Team Jumbo-Visma cycling (@JumboVismaRoad) July 7, 2021
Another stage, another post-stage interview that warms the hearts of cyclist fans everywhere.
"I'm lost for words." #TDF2021
He's already won three times on the Tour, but Ventoux is special. Here's your winner ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/tZmWrpEAcX
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 7, 2021
I'd bet Wout can also type 100 words a minute.
— daniel mcmahon (@cyclingreporter) July 7, 2021
And he stopped during Stage 4 to escort a family of ducks across the road. #couchpeloton
— Benjamin, R.N. 😷🌵🚴🏼♂️⚜️🐍 (@BennyTheSpoke) July 7, 2021
Wout a GC battle. . . or not
Let’s be honest with one another. The GC fight today was just. . . weird. We had INEOS pulling the peloton all day (why?), we had Ben O’Connor tumble down the GC (not all that surprising, sorry #CouchPeloton), and we had Pogacar show his first sign of weakness (fat chance, really). There’s no real sense to make of any of it, so we might as well begin with INEOS, who made the least sense of all.
Fantastic and selfless teamwork from @GeraintThomas86 – working on the front of the peloton for the cause 👊👏🙌 #TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/sAiEGQJ0rW
— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) July 7, 2021
With their best-placed rider nearly 6 minutes behind the yellow jersey, which is held by a man whose team cannot control the race whatsoever, it is an absolute mindf*ck why Ineos decided to give UAE and Pogacar a free ride today. Some lovely Twitter commentators had their thoughts on the reasoning behind it:
What if maybe, just maybe, Ineos have no goddam idea how to properly launch an attack?
— nyvelocity (@nyvelocity) July 7, 2021
Surely Geraint Thomas, when he reflects on his career as a creaking 50 year old man, will be looking back through fusty photos of his racing days and thinking "why the fuck did I wear those stupid glasses in every. single. race"
— Cillian Kelly (@irishpeloton) July 7, 2021
Let's be logical: Ineos aren't Idiots. They settings a high tempo obv. Because 1) Carapaz is feeling good 2) Pog might not be great in the heat 3) Drop Pogas Teammates, isolate him. What other options do they have? None. So I agree with their Strategy. Safer infront. #TdF2021
— Willie Smit (@williesmurfy) July 7, 2021
The mystery still remained, however.
looks like we got some Ineos Gnomes out on course today pic.twitter.com/vAFZdFmXx0
— How The Race Was Won® (@Cyclocosm) July 7, 2021
One Tweeter brought perhaps the best explanation of all, really.
a counterinsurgency doctrine arising from all this: Ineos starts a community liaison mission in Slovenia, puts cultural anthropologists together with some time trialists to win over the hearts and minds – when that fails they come in on big fat bikes and jump everybody's curb
— базаров нет (@chewy_sky) July 7, 2021
O’Ben
Right then, now that we have Ineos settled, let’s move on to Ben O’Connor. Let’s be honest about Ben for a minute – he was never going to continue to fly high in the GC at this Tour. While he certainly didn’t win Stage 9 on a fluke, he got into the GC by one, and he was out of his depth. With that said, it is a bummer to see one of our Brown Shorts Boys struggle some vigorously. [Do we really want to call them that? – ed].
Oh dear. O’Connor going O’backwards. #TDF2021
— Chris Carlson (@Kiss_my_Panache) July 7, 2021
It's back, but we've had to offer Ben O'Connor's GC ambitions to the Gods in turn as a sacrifice. https://t.co/3enExhLAtv
— Freddie Shires (@fshires) July 7, 2021
Full Disclosure: I didn’t know that Ben had only tumbled down to 5th overall until I went searching for an Ag2r tweet for this review. To my surprise, he’s still within 6 minutes of yellow and within 26 seconds of the podium. Good on you, Ben! Apologies for my True Professional lifestyle!
🇫🇷 – @letour #11
Encore plus dur que prévu. Ben n’a rien lâché même dans les moments difficiles. Il est désormais 5ème au général. L’équipe est fière de lui. 👊
–
Even harder than expected…. Ben never gave up and he is now 5th overall. We’re proud of him. 👊#AG2RCITROËNTEAM pic.twitter.com/4yPgmjb5ta
— AG2R CITROËN TEAM (@AG2RCITROENTEAM) July 7, 2021
Pog v Vinge
Finally, let’s talk about Pogacar vs Vingegaard! There is a bit of speculation that Jonas Vingegaard was the first to break Tadej’s armour today based on this attack. . .
🤍 Youth to the forefront! The 2 best young riders of #TDF2021 let loose as 🇩🇰 Jonas Vingegaard drops 🇸🇮 @TamauPogi !
🤍 La jeunesse au pouvoir ! Les deux meilleurs jeunes du #TDF2021 s'en vont et 🇩🇰 Jonas Vingegaard lâche 🇸🇮 @TamauPogi ! pic.twitter.com/BMfn5zduhp
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 7, 2021
Imagine having such a young face that you make 22 year old Tadej look like Valverde in comparison
— Holly (@hollycamefrom) July 7, 2021
I am not here to say that Pogacar isn’t a wee bit tired (I know I would be) or that Vingegaard isn’t a proper contender in his own right, but I am here to say that I don’t think there’s much reason to be worrying about Pogacar.
I don't think Pog cracked. I think he chose to ride conservatively and preserve energy because *checks notes * HE HAS FIVE FUCKING MINUTES!
— John Galloway (@VelocastJohn) July 7, 2021
Nevertheless, some great commentary was created out of the momentary panic.
So INEOS were working for Jumbo then?
— Stephen J Schilling (@SonOfTheDude) July 7, 2021
Vingegaard used his Lego skills to drop Pog, but could not build on it on the descent.
— velochimp (@velochimp) July 7, 2021
Ultimately, however, all gaps were nullified and Pogacar remains as firm as. . . well, nevermind that.
Vingegaard was caught by Pogacar, Carapaz and Uran in the last kms. But at least we can dream that maybe him and Wout can explode the race in the Pyrenees. #TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/u2Vf3bNBX3
— Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60) July 7, 2021
Wout’s the time cut off?
For as much excitement and enjoyment as the sprinters have brought us during the flat stages, they have also brought a high level of nervousness and panic for fans. Each day in the mountains has been an “everything crossed” moment in hopes of keeping Mark Cavendish in the race and today was no different.
What's the time limit, and where's Cav? #TDF2021
— (((Lukas Knöfler))) (@lukascph) July 7, 2021
Grupetto watch. #CouchPeloton #TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/d0u03Pt3wO
— Belinda (@reallyspoketome) July 7, 2021
Luckily for my heart and soul, and I am sure those of many others, our boy Mark made it safely home with a bit of time to spare. I’ll be honest with you, I am no fan of QuickStep’s WolfPack mentality, but the way that the team has rallied behind Cavendish during this race – both in successes and struggles – has warmed my heart.
*sighs in relief*
Aaaaand he's safe and he's fistbumping his teammates as they come across the line 💚#TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/itADwJL5BV
— Issie 💙 (@IssieAtch) July 7, 2021
And what a ride by SKA to stay in the race by the slimmest of margins!!
Søren Kragh Andersen (DSM) reaches the finish with seconds to spare before the time cut. Seems Luke Rowe (Ineos) is still out on the road
— the Inner Ring (@inrng) July 7, 2021
Unfortunately, Luke Rowe failed to do the same. That’s what you get for riding the front all day, Ineos!
The last word
I want the feeling of descending down Ventoux without the feeling of ascending up Ventoux beforehand
— Robyn (@robynjournalist) July 7, 2021
Results
Stage 11 Top 5
1 Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) 5:17:43
2 Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo) +1:14
3 Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo)
4 Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) +1:38
5 Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-Nippo)
General Classification Top 10
1 Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 43:44:38
2 Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-Nippo) +5:18
3 Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) +5:32
4 Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) +5:33
5 Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën Team) +5:58
6 Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe) +6:16
7 Alexey Lutsenko (Astana-Premier Tech) +6:30
8 Enric Mas Nicolau (Movistar Team) +7:11
9 Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) +9:29
10 Pello Bilbao Lopez De Armentia (Bahrain Victorious) +10:28
All the Jerseys
Leaders jersey : Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)
Points jersey: Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quick Step)
KOM jersey : Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic)
Best young rider jersey : Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates)
For full stage review, go to cyclingnews