The 2025 Tour de France continued Wednesday with stage 11 – a 156.8-kilometer ride in relatively flat terrain from Toulouse and back. The stage would feature some small hills and five categorized climbs (Categories 3 and 4). Our cycling experts expected the stage to be won from a long breakaway or for the pure sprinters to battle in a mass sprint finish if their teams proved able to keep the action under control. Jonathan Milan, Axel Laurance, Wout van Aert, and Quinn Simmons were some of the stage favorites.

Stage 11 followed the first rest day of the Tour de France and Bena Healy had surprisingly been able to spend the rest day in the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification of this year’s Tour de France following the EF Education-EasyPost rider’s admirable breakaway quest in Monday’s stage 10. Tadej Pogacar had been able to enjoy a more relaxed rest day, as he was only second in the GC, 29 seconds behind Healy. Remco Evenepoel was third (1:29 minutes back), while Jonas Vingegaard was fourth in the GC, 01:46 minutes behind the persistent Irishman.

Stage 11 got off to a relaxed start as the riders in the Tour de France peloton rode through the streets of Toulouse while passing beautiful historical buildings and monuments as well as crossing the Garonne River and Canal du Midi. The city of Toulouse had chosen to honor the arrival of Le Tour with golden decorations that lined the streets and decorated the town squares.

Breakaway attempts were launched from the Tour peloton immediately after kilometer zero. Uno-X Mobility riders were eager and active from the beginning as they had missed out on all opportunities in the Tour so far. Jonathan Milan also tried his luck in the green points jersey for Team Lidl-Trek. Wout van Aert launched an attempt for Visma-Lease a Bike as did other riders. The weather conditions were sunny with 27 degrees Celsius and wind speeds around 9 km/h.

Mauro Schmid (Jayco-Alula) established a lead with Davide Ballerini and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility). Thomas Gachignard of Team TotalEnergies tried to bridge the gap to the front group in cooperation with Nelson Oliveira of Movistar.

Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe tried his luck on a hill for Tudor Pro Cycling Team but did not establish a viable lead.

Quinn Simmons attacked from a fragmented peloton with 130 kilometers remaining and the US national champion was joined by Wout van Aert and other optimists.

With 108 kilometers left of the stage, the front trio of Schmid, Ballerini and Abrahamsen were 45 seconds ahead of chase group one, which featured Marco Haller (Tudor Pro Cycling Team), Clement Berthet (Decathlon-AG2R), Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon-AG2R) and the TotalEnergies duo of Alexandre Delettre and Matteo Vercher. A second chase group featuring Connor Swift (Ineos-Grenadiers), Xandro Meurisse and other riders was 55 seconds behind the front trio. Meanwhile, attacks were still being launched from a strung-out main peloton just 01:15 minutes back.

When 97 kilometers remained, the Schmid-Ballerini-Abrahamsen trio was still in front, but with a lead of just 24 seconds. Meanwhile, the two chase groups had been reeled in by the main peloton where the speed was high and Wout van Aert and other riders were attempting to break free of their chains.

Frenchman Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies Team) managed to bridge to the front trio in a joint effort with Great Britain’s Fred Wright of Bahrain-Victorious. The quintet had an advantage of two minutes over the peloton with eighty kilometers of the stage yet to battle.

Several riders in the peloton, however, were still having an appetite for attacks with the clear intention of seeking a memorable stage victory in the greatest Grand Tour of them all.

Quintin Pacher was chasing with Groupama-FDJ teammate Clement Russo and Gianni Vermeersch of Alpecin-Deceuninck. The trio was 01:25 minutes back with 75 kilometers to go. Belgian Wout van Aert was chasing further back together with Laurenz Rex, Roel van Sintmaartensdi, Santiago Buitrago, Kamil Gradek, Simone Consonni, Xandro Meurisse, Matteo Trentin, and other riders.

Some GC outsiders – including Oscar Onley - joined a breakaway group, which caused a stir in the main peloton and Visma, UAE and EF responded. Jonas Vingegaard and a Ben Healy completely dressed in yellow bridged to a breakaway group up the road. Remco Evenepoel was attentive and well-positioned and joined the group as well. General classification leader Ben Healy was enjoying time and attention on his brand-new yellow Cannondale SuperEvo EVO Lab71 bike. The GC-related action got neutralized later.

Fred Wright and his fellow four frontmen were still in front with 56 kilometers left and had a lead of 02:35 minutes over the main peloton. At the same time a chase group featuring van Aert, Axel Laurance, Simmons, Mathieu van der Poel, and Arnaud de Lie was 46 seconds behind the front group.

The front group approached Cote de Corronsac, which was a Category 4 climb that featured sections of up to 9.3 percent. Chase group 1 was twenty-five seconds behind the frontmen, while the main peloton was 02:30 minutes back.

Fred Wright proved the strongest rider on Cote de Corronsac and earned the maximum points for the best climber classification when the was the first rider to reach the summit line.

Riders from EF Education-EasyPost dominated the front of the action in the main peloton for GC leader Ben Healy when twenty-five kilometers remained. The front quintet was still intact, and the Van Aert-Laurance-Van der Poel chase group was in between.

Ballerini had been dropped from the front group and the remaining four riders had almost been caught by the chase group as Quinn Simmons attacked solo from the chase group with fifteen kilometers to the finish line in Toulouse. Abrahamsen and Schmid then attacked from the front quartet.

Fred Wright joined Simmons, and the duo fought hard to catch the riders further up the road.

Ten kilometers remained and Schmid was approaching Toulouse together with Abrahamsen. Wright, Simmons and Burgaudeau were chasing twenty seconds behind, while Van Aert, Laurance, Van der Poel, Ballerini, and De Lie were 34 seconds back and the main peloton 03:40 minutes behind.

The riders were now climbing Cote de Pech David, which was the final categorized climb of the stage. The remaining kilometers would then be virtually flat all the way to the finish line.

Van der Poel attacked from the chase group. Van Aert, Laurance, and the other riders appeared unable to respond. The main peloton was dominated by riders from EF Education and Visma-Lease a Bike. Asgreen and Campenaerts were active.

Mauro Schmid and Jonas Abrahamsen were cooperating well in front with 6.5 flat kilometers remaining, but Van der Poel was 23 seconds back.

Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Tadej Pogacar attacked from the main peloton on the climb the main peloton was still on. Other riders joined the GC favorites, and the climb didn’t cause any noteworthy changes.

Tadej Pogacar crashed with a rider from Uno-X Mobility with four kilometers left. He instantly got up and got back on his bike. Despite the crash being non-serious, the other GC riders decided to wait for Pogacar and thereby gave the spectators at home a boring Tour instead of choosing to animate the race.

Meanwhile, Schmid and Abrahamsen were still together in front with two kilometers left, but Mathieu van der Poel was closing in on the duo, which had a lead of only eight seconds. 

Would the stage be decided in a sprint-a-deux or would van der Poel catch them before the finish line?

Jonas Abrahamsen launched his sprint and crossed the finish line under stunning sycamore trees in Toulouse ahead of Mauro Schmid as winner of stage 11 of Tour de France for Team Uno-X Mobility. Mathieu van der Poel finished completed the stage podium seven seconds later. All major GC riders finished within the same group.

Ben Healy remains general classification leader after stage 11 and the EF Education-EasyPost rider will be wearing the yellow jersey and riding his yellow bike in tomorrow’s stage as well. Pogacar is second, 29 seconds behind the Irishman, while Remco Evenepoel is third, 01:29 minutes back. Jonas Vingegaard is fourth.

The Tour de France will continue Thursday with stage 12 – a 156.8-kilometer ride in serious mountain terrain as the peloton will enter the high mountains on a route from Auch to Hautacam. Stage 12 will be 180.6-kilometers long and will conclude on Hautacam, which is beyond category. The stage will be continuously challenging as it will also include Col du Soulor (Category One) as well as a Category 4 and a Category 2 climb.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete coverage from the 2025 Tour de France.