Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) once again amazed the cycling world, as he captured his fifth stage victory of the 104th Tour de France on Stage 11.
A three-rider break quickly formed, as Frederik Backaert (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Marco Marcato (UAE Team Emirates), and Maciej Bodnar (Bora-Hansgrohe) put in a surge from the departure, which received no response from the peloton.
By the 12 kilometer mark, Backaert Marcato, and Bodnar had built their gap to 3'30'' on the field, which steadily rose to a 4'30'' cushion 40 kilometers into the stage.
The day's attack group did not go out in the same high tempo pace as the leading duo on Stage 11, and covered just over 43 kilometers in the first hour of racing.
Soon, the trio in the break began to slow, covering 41.2 kilometers in the seconds hour, as the peloton had begun to whittle to lead group's cushion down to 1'45'' 93 kilometers into the stage.
Just after the leaders had ridden 100 kilometers into the stage, Frederik Backaert put in a surge of his own, creating a 40'' gap on Marcato and Bodnar. The Belgian rider would however be pulled back in to the group with Marcato and Bodnar, as the three riders continued to hold off the peloton.
As the three-man lead group approached the only intermediate sprint of the stage in Aire-sur-l'Adour, Backaet and Bodnar deferred and no race to the line occurred, with Marco Marcato crossing the line first.
At the front of the peloton, a small sprint for the line took place in the final 300 meters, as Katusha-Alpecin rider Alexander Kristoff beat out Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb), while the holder of the green jersey, Marcel Kittel, cruised across the line behind Kristoff and Matthews to take 10 more points to cushion his lead in the green jersey classification.
Soon after the leaders passed through Aire-sur-l'Adour, they began the category 4 climb up the Cote de Aire-sur-l'Adour. Once again, no jockeying for position occurred, as Frederik Backert crossed the line first and took the single point available in the mountains classification.
Not long after the climb to the Cote de Aire-sur-l'Adour, and with 40 kilometers remaining to the finish in Pau, the three riders in the lead group held together with a 50'' cushion on the chase pack.
With just under 28 kilometers left on the stage, Maciej Bodnar sensed that the leading trio were quickly getting tracked down by the peloton, and put in a courageous surge to take single control of the lead.
Soon after Bodnar broke off from the lead group, Backeart and Marcato were overtaken by the chase pack, and Bodnar had built up a 1' gap on the field with 24 kilometers to go.
With 12 kilometers remaining Bodnar continued to hold onto his solo lead, as his gap held at 40'' in front of the chase group.
Despite his valiant effort over the final 30 kilometers of the stage, Bodnar was finally tracked down only 500 meters from the finish line after leading the stage for over 202 kilometers.
Going into the final 500 meters, Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floor) controlled the lead out, as the final sprint began with 300 meters to go.
In the last 50 meters to the line, Marcel Kittel, Dylan Groenewegen (Lotto NL-Jumbo), and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) lead the field, putting as much power into their pedals as they could.
In the end, Kittel was once again able to beat out the field and capture his fifth stage victory at the 104th Tour de France on Stage 11.
Rounding out the top five finishers were Dylan Groenewegen in second, Edvald Boasson Hagen in third, Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) in fourth, and Daniel McLay (Fortuneo-Oscaro) in fifth.
No changes in the classifications occurred after Stage 11, as Chris Froome (Team Sky) retained the yellow leader's jersey ahead of Fabio Aru (Astana), Warren Barguil (Team Sunweb) kept his comfortable lead in the polka dot jersey as king of the mountains, Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) maintained his lead in the best young rider classification, Team Sky held onto their lead over AG2R La Mondiale in the team classification, and Marcel Kittel will keep the green jersey after padding his lead with another massive stage victory.
Stage 12 will bring the riders back into the mountains, as the field will depart from the city of Pau before heading into the Pyrenees Mountains and finishing at high altitude at the ski resort of Peyragudes.
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