A stage of only mild scares in the Tour de France finished in Toulouse with Ben Healy safely retaining his leader’s yellow jersey. That being the order of the day, and with the fearsome Pyrenees now lying in wait, Healy was content to roll in alongside the other main general classification contenders.
After Tuesday’s first rest day, the Tour resumed with Stage 11, a dynamic 154km loop around Toulouse in the heart of the Occitanie. The last 50km were a proper rollercoaster, the testing Cote de Pech David coming 8km before the finish, before the downhill run back into Toulouse.
It was there, with 4km to go, when Tadej Pogačar crashed at high speed on a flat stretch of road, outside the 3km safety zone where he would have been awarded the same time no matter where he finished. Pogačar quickly remounted and gave chase, with the group including Healy slowing up enough to allow the defending Tour champion to rejoin.
Up the road, Denmark’s Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X Mobility took the stage win just ahead of Mauro Schmid of Team Jayco AlUla, the pair being the last survivors from a couple of breakaways that opened over three minutes on the main contenders inside the last 20km. Abrahamsen’s win comes just three weeks after he broke his collarbone.
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Healy, who finished the stage 24th, came home alongside Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates) and other GC contenders Remco Evenepoel (Soudal–Quick-Step) and Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), three minutes and 28 seconds behind Abrahamsen, perfectly safe in yellow for at least another day.
Healy had started Stage 11 with a 29-second lead over Pogačar in the GC, with Evenepoel third (1′29 down on Healy), and Vingegaard fourth (1′46 down). As they all finished in the main group those gaps remain unchanged for Stage 12.
“Honestly, I think I’ve lost a few years off my life after today, it was pretty stressful,” said Healy after Wednesday’s stage. “The team just did a super effort to keep me in it, even when I missed the split, early on. From then on we were on the ball, the whole day.
“Just a few little attacks in the final (km) there, but able to stay with the group, and just really happy to hold on to yellow for another day. The family has all flown out, just to see me in yellow, which is so special, and it’s just been a crazy, crazy couple of days.”
For Healy and his EF Education–EasyPost team, this was always going to be a day of protecting, not attacking. There were a series of breakaway efforts in the opening half of the stage, Healy and his team-mates riding at the front of the peloton, showing little interest in also getting away.
Of Pogačar’s late tumble, Healy added: “I was on the right of him, honestly didn’t really see what happened, but just hoping he’s okay.”
Decked out entirely in yellow, Healy spoke before Wednesday’s stage of wanting to do his best to protect the yellow jersey.
In the end, none of the main contenders showed their hand. Twenty-four-year-old Healy also still holds the white jersey, awarded each day to the best rider 25 or under, ahead of Evenepoel.
After finishing within sight of the Pyrenees, Thursday’s 181km Stage 12 will head straight for them, finishing on the brutal Hautacam, the first hors-category climb of the Tour so far. That is sure to shake up the GC – as will Friday’s hilly 11km time trial.
Healy, however, will wear yellow for another day at the very least, everything about Stage 11 suggesting he is well up for the battle up Hautacam.
“I’m optimistic,” Healy said of Thursday’s stage. “I think it’s going to be a pretty hard fight to hold on to yellow, but I’m going to fight right until the end, and just hopefully I’ll have some super legs tomorrow.”
After his storming ride on Bastille Day, his third-place finish on Stage 11 saw him become only to fourth Irish rider to wear the yellow jersey in 112 editions of the Tour de France, the first since Stephen Roche wore it for three days during his outright Tour win in 1987. Shay Elliott also held the race lead for three days back in 1963, while Seán Kelly donned it for one day in 1983.
