Alberto Contador may be hopelessly gapped, but his teammate Rafal Majka did the hero ride today, going on a solo breakaway to finish more than five minutes ahead of yellow jersey wearer Chris Froome.
Majka attacked with 48km to go while climbing the Hors Categorie Col du Tourmalet and managed to hold off the chasers to beat runner-up Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) by one minute.
Majka, who took home the polka dot jersey awarded to the race’s best climber last year was the Tourmalet and netted a 5,000 euro ($5,500) prize awarded in honor of a former Tour race director for his effort.
The day’s results had little impact on the overall standings, a day after a superior Froome impressed his top rivals by winning Stage 10, which featured a tough uphill finish.
Froome (Team Sky) finished 5min 21sec later in ninth place alongside the new ‘Fab Four’ of Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) and will hold onto the yellow jersey for another day.
More detail to come later.
Stage 11 Brief Results:
- Rafal Majka (Poland / Tinkoff – Saxo) 5:02:01″
- Daniel Martin (Ireland / Cannondale) +1:00″
- Emanuel Buchmann (Germany / BORA) +1:23″
- Serge Pauwels (Belgium / Team MTN) +2:08″
- Thomas Voeckler (France / Europcar) +3:34″
- Julien Simon (France / Cofidis)
- Bauke Mollema (Netherlands / Trek) +5:11″
- Alejandro Valverde (Spain / Movistar) +5:19″
- Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) +5:21″,/li>
- Nairo Quintana (Movistar) s.t.
General Classification After Stage 11:
- Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) 41:03:31″
- Tejay van Garderen (U.S. / BMC Racing) +2:52″
- Nairo Quintana (Colombia / Movistar) +3:09″
- Alejandro Valverde (Spain / Movistar) +3:59″
- Geraint Thomas (Britain / Team Sky) +4:03″
- Alberto Contador (Spain / Tinkoff – Saxo) +4:04″
- Tony Gallopin (France / Lotto) +4:33″
- Robert Gesink (Netherlands / LottoNL) +4:35″
- Warren Barguil (France / Giant) +6:44″
- Bauke Mollema (Netherlands / Trek) +7:05″
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