Flat stages in the Tour de France are for the sprinters, not the general classification contenders, so Durango’s Sepp Kuss and his Visma-Lease a Bike team leader Jonas Vingegaard couldn’t make up any time on Tadej Pogačar over the last two days.
Wednesday and Thursday’s sprint stages were all about the fantastic finishes with the sprinters and domestiques like Kuss keeping their GC contenders out of trouble in the crowded peloton. Fellow Durangoan Quinn Simmons remains inside the top 40 of the GC with the Tour more than halfway over.
The competitors rode 161.3 kilometers from Vichy, France to Nevers, France, in Stage 11 with two Category 4 climbs.
There were early sprint points up for grabs in wet conditions, with four riders breaking away for those points, with the peloton about 1:36 behind. That group of riders eventually shrunk to three riders, and they were caught by the peloton with about 5.4 km left.
The peloton started to split with about 1.5 km left and Søren Wærenskjold held on for the stage win after attacking early from a group of about two dozen riders. Wærenskjold won in three hours, 10 minutes and six seconds. Pogačar finished 48th and Vingegaard finished 66th with the same times as Wærenskjold. Simmons finished 87th and Kuss in 93rd with the same times as Wærenskjold.
“Everyone came through the stage safely,” Visma Lease a Bike sports director Marc Reef said in a press release. “The pace was incredibly high right from the start. Because of that, there was actually very little nervousness in the peloton. Jonas was always well-positioned and surrounded by his teammates. In the finale, we didn’t get involved in the fight for the stage win. Now we turn our attention to tomorrow.”
On Thursday, the cyclists rode 179.1 km from Circuit Nevers Magny-Cours, France, to Chalon-sur-Saône, France, with three Category 4 climbs and an intermediate sprint.
Simmons was seen in the heat of the action early as the sprinters tried to grab the remaining points after Baptiste Veistroffer won the intermediate sprint. Simmons sprinted hard at the front with his Lidl-Trek teammate, Mads Pederson, but Simmons let up before the line when he didn’t have the pace.
Four riders formed a breakaway group after the intermediate sprint, but Simmons started the attack to reel in the breakaway. Then, once the breakaway dissolved and the peloton was all together, Simmons attacked again with about 21 km to go over the final climb.
The sprinters started separating from the pack over the final few kilometers, and Tim Merlier sprinted to victory with riders on the ground behind the top dozen or so after a crash on the final straight. Merlier won in 3:38:53, with Vingegaard in 42nd, Simmons in 44th, Pogačar in 50th and Kuss in 65th, all with the same time as Merlier.
Pogačar remains 3:36 ahead of Vingegaard in the lead of the GC standings after 12 stages. Kuss is 22nd, 20:52 behind, and Simmons is 37th, 1:09:11 behind.
Friday’s Stage 13 will be hilly, and Stage 14 and 15 will be in the mountains, providing Kuss an opportunity to help Vingegaard make up some time on Pogačar.