98km to go: With less than 100km to go, the breakaway have 38secs on the bunch. Both group of chasers have been caught by the peloton and now it looks as if they’re working together to drive down that gap.
Tour de France 2025: stage 11 updates as race resumes around Toulouse – live | Tour de France 2025
Published: 2025-07-16 14:04:57 | Views: 8
Key events
Mike has emailed in with a question about how the Tour de France jerseys are prepared for the riders:
Good afternoon and thanks for the excellent coverage!
I have a question about the jerseys: Ben Healy is the holder of the yellow jersey and is resplendent in yellow today. Do the teams have some yellow, green or polka dot kit on stand by in case someone gets to the top of the classification or are they magically rustled up overnight?
Has anyone ever not had one ready and had to go without? The behind the scenes intrigue of the tour!
It’s a good question. It’s actually the race organisers who provide the Tour de France jerseys, not the individual teams.
Rouleur have an interesting interviw with Fabrice Pierrot, who for the past 20 years, has printed the team names and logos on to the yellow, green, polka dot and white jersey every day for the post-stage podium ceremony. According to the article, each rider receives a short-sleeve and long-sleeve jersey, a sleeveless vest and, if necessary, a rain jacket, plus a skinsuit if they request it. Pierrot said: “I’m never quite sure, but during the Tour, I print over 1,000 jerseys.”
In regards to a rider not having one ready, I don’t know but will have a look into this! Unless any readers out there know?
108km to go: Clément Berthet, Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Matteo Vercher (Total Energies) join Delettre and Haller in the chase. This group is 43secs behind the breakaway. Connor Swift (Ineos Grenadiers), Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin Deceuninck), Gregor Mühberger (Movistar) and Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) attack and chase the chasers. During the first hour of riding, the pace has been full on – 52km/h apparently.
115km to go: With 40km already covered at speed, Schmid, Ballerini and Abrahamsen are still out front and have 1min 13secs on the peloton. Haller and Delettre continue to chase. Intermarché-Wanty drive the peloton.
120km to go: Total Energies’ Alexandre Delettre is chasing the breakway (Uno-X Mobility’s Jonas Abrahamsen, Jayco-Alula’s Mauro Schmid and XDS Astana’s Davide Ballerini) – hope this makes you happy Michael! Delettre is joined by Marco Haller (Tudor Pro Cycling) and they sit about 40secs behind the break.
125km to go: It’s a rapid start and these riders are not messing about. The three-man breakaway are trying to push on but their lead has reduced to about 30secs. The peloton momentarily split, with Ben Healy behind in the second group. It’s come back together now though, so we have the peloton and the breakaway as they were.
131km to go: The peloton are pushing up the first climb of today, the category four Côte de Castelnau-d’Estrétefonds (1.5km at 6.6 %). Alaphilippe, Campenaerts and Van Aert take turns attacking on the climb. Quin Simmons (Lidl-Trek) also attacks and Van Aert follows. Abrahamsen was the first at the summit from the trio in the breakaway. He grabs one KOM point.
132km to go: Sean Kelly and Rob Hatch have been chatting about how fast today’s stage could be. Kelly says it’s going to be a “rapid day”. There have even been predictions that today’s stage could be done and dusted in three hours, given it’s just over 150km. The trio in the break have a minute on the peloton now.
Here are some pictures from so far today:
138km to go: Thomas Gachignard (Total Energies) and Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) have got away and are chasing the break together. They’re only 10secs ahead of the peloton, while the gap to the breakaway continues to increase.
141km to go: Robert Stannard (Bahrain Victorious) tried to bridge across but is back in the peloton now. The breakaway has 46secs on the bunch. Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek) attacks again.
148km to go: Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) attacks but is reeled back in.
150km to go: As well as Van Aert, Jenno Berckmoes (Lotto-Caps), Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Connor Swift (Ineos Grenadiers), Niklas Märkl (Picnic-PostNL), Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) and Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) were in the chasing group. They’ve been swallowed up by the peloton now. The trio out front have about 20secs.
153km to go: Abrahamsen, Schmid and Ballerini have managed to stay away and have 20secs on the peloton. Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) chases! Others join him to create an eight-man chase group.
The racing has begun!
156km to go: The flag has been waved and the race is under way. Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) immediately set off and was followed by Mauro Schmid (Jayco Alula) and Davide Ballerini (XDS Astana). Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) is up there too.
Jeremy Whittle
For more than a decade, the interest in British riders racing in the Tour de France was focused on familiar names – Mark Cavendish, Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas – but now a new generation of English-speaking talent is making its mark on the world’s biggest race.
Ben Healy, West Midlands-born but with Irish heritage, has been the revelation of the Tour so far, and was fully rewarded for his unrelenting efforts with the yellow jersey of race leadership on the Bastille Day stage to Puy de Sancy.
Healy was briefly a teammate to Tom Pidcock as a teenager before shining as an under-23 rider. Success in the “Baby Giro” in Italy drew him to the attention of the American team, EF Education-EasyPost.
More than his results, Healy’s approach to racing, free of the risk-averse tactics of some predecessors, is refreshing and exciting. Unafraid to fail, his attacking style has sometimes fallen short, with a stage win in the 2023 Giro d’Italia the notable exception.
In this Tour, however, with victory in Vire and a yellow jersey just four days later, he has finally fulfilled his promise. His success has been Ineos Grenadiers’ loss, as he is understood to have rejected an opportunity to move to the British team.
For Oscar Onley, currently seventh overall, his second Tour has been a world apart from his debut, in 2024, when he finished 39th. The 22-year-old from Kelso admitted that he was overwhelmed on his first appearance in the race. “I really struggled during the first week,” he recalled. “I was wondering: ‘What am I doing here?’”
This year, Onley is seventh overall as the race looks towards the Pyrenees. So far, he has coped much better, holding on to a high overall placing through one of the toughest and fastest opening weeks in Tour history. “Once you’re racing, it’s just another bike race,” he said, “but it’s the scale of everything around it, the expectations, the media.”
The viewers of TNT Sports have voted on who they think will win today’s stage. They rate Jonathan Milan, followed by Wout Van Aert, Tim Merlier and then Mathieu Van der Poel.
There’s about 8km left of the neutralised start. On the TV coverage, reporters have been asking the riders how they spent the rest day. Both Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar say they had haircuts. Pogačar seemed very pleased that he’d had a ride with a proper cafe stop as well.
Bill has emailed in with his thoughts on today’s stage:
Given the profile of the parcours, I can’t see any breakaway thrilling heroics ending well, as the day sets in for the bunch sprint.
I’m genuinely pleased that Healy is in yellow, he got a proper stomp on on Monday, and seems to be in a position to keep hold of the jersey today. If he keeps his wits about him, it’s only his Toulouse.
Great pun. Bravo.
Today’s rollout has begun
Stage 11 of the Tour de France 2025 is under way. The peloton have rolled out from Toulouse. There’s a 16.5km neutralised section before the racing begins at approx. 1.45pm CEST/12.45pm BST.
Matt Stephens on TNT Sports spoke to Ben Healy (EF Education-EasySport) before today’s stage. Healy said he reckons it’s a day for the break, “hopefully” he added with a conspiritorial grin. He described the final climb before the finish as a “real kicker”.
There’s also an official stage 11 briefing by Continental and French former professional cyclist, Jean-Marc Marino. He said:
Stage 11, Toulouse to Toulouse, 156.8km – this is a special stage because it comes right after the first rest day, and it’s a tough one with five categorised climbs, but also a good amount of flat terrain overall.
We call this the Lauragais hills, with beautiful views of the Pyrenees, and especially the final climb: 900m at 12.4%, with the first 200m reaching 20%, and the summit is 8km from the finish.
The stage ends in Compans-Caffarelli, right in the centre of Toulouse – this could be a day for the breakaway. It could suit someone like Van der Poel, Alaphilippe or Van Aert attacking late in the stage. Or maybe even Pogačar. A solo rider, a small group – anything could happen. It’s a wildcard stage. Maybe 40 riders will contest a sprint, maybe two, maybe one, or two, or three, or twenty.
In case you wondered how the Tour riders spent a long awaited rest day, here’s what yellow jersey leader Ben Healy got up to:
Allow Instagram content?
This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'.
This is what general director of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme, has to say about stage 11:
The teams banking on a bunch sprint won’t be hampered by any hilly terrain as they focus on their mission for the day. Vigilance will be required at the end of the stage due to the changes in direction that could be exploited if there’s a strong wind blowing. However, ‘Avenue Cavendish’ is one of those finish straights that’s ideally suited to a contest between the peloton’s most renowned thoroughbreds.
Here is the route profile of stage 11:
Allow Instagram content?
This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'.
Stage 11: Toulouse to Toulouse, 156km
Here’s a look at today’s stage, Wednesday 16 July: Toulouse to Toulouse, 156.8km, with William Fotheringham’s preview:
This could go either of three ways: full bunch sprint, reduced bunch sprint, or break. The finale with its series of little hills might burn off a fast man or two, and will certainly make a coordinated chase difficult. This could be the last full bunch sprint of the Tour, so let’s plump for Philipsen; if the break goes and the sprinters’ teams tire in the finale the wily Dane Magnus Cort is a good bet.
The preview was written before the Tour, so Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won’t be in the mix today after having to withdaw from the race on stage three.
Preamble
After a rest day on Tuesday, the Tour riders are back for stage 11: a 156.8km loop, starting and ending in Toulouse. It’s classified as a flat stage with 1,750m of elevation gain, but there are a few bumps for the peloton to navigate: four category four climbs and a category three climb at the end.
Sprinters such as, Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quick-Step) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) will be eyeing up this stage, which could very well end in a bunch sprint. However, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) has speed and strength that could come in handy for a flat stage with some lumps. It’ll also be interesting to see what Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) does, wearing the yellow jersey that he grabbed off Tadej Pogačar’s (UAE Team Emirates XRG) shoulders on stage 10. As always, I’d love to get your thoughts, so please email via the link above.
Before the action starts at 1.15pm CEST (12.15pm BST), here’s a reminder of how stage 10 played out:
Source link
