Jonas Abrahamsen secured Uno-X their first Tour de France stage win at the end of an exhilarating stage in Toulouse, having attacked from the gun. The win came despite a desperate chase from Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin Deceuninck) and as Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) crashed in the final kilometres.
Abrahamsen was the first rider to attack today doing so as the race went past the kilometre zero marker where the racing starts. Swiss champion Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) went with him and the pair were never seen again. The win comes after the Norwegian faced a race against time to get to the Tour’s start in Lille.
“I broke the collarbone four weeks ago, in the Belgium Tour” a breathless Abrahamsen said after the race, grinning in disbelief.
“I was crying in the hospital because I didn’t think I’d make it to the Tour de France. I went on the home trainer, and every day I hoped to come back, and so to make it to the Tour de France and win a stage is just amazing.
Despite the stage being classified as ‘flat’, intense racing saw the bunch split up and a small group of favourites move clear of an already diminished peloton on the final category three climb.
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma – Lease a Bike) put in his first attack of the Tour and was ably followed by Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal – Quick-step), before Matteo Jorgensen made his move. But the real drama for the defending champion came with 4km to go. As a rider attacked on the right, another rider in front of Pogačar switched across the road taking out the Slovenian’ front wheel. The world champion broke his fall with his left foot, but still hit the deck, suffering cuts to his left thigh and elbow.
The racing at this point was in full flow, but in moments the group decided to sit up and not take advantage. Something Pogačar thanked everyone for after the line. In the end, EF Education-EasyPost’s Ben Healy kept hold of the yellow jersey, and his 29 seconds advantage over Pogačar.
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“He [Schmid] was so strong throughout the race, but I was just thinking I have to win the stage, I have to win the stage.” Abrahamsen said of his stage-11 riding partner. “Then I got a wheel in front and that was so nice. The main goal of the team was to take a stage win and we knew we had to be a little bit smarter, and not go over the limit.
It is so nice to be part of a team that I’ve been with from the start in 2017, and see that team growing every year, with really nice people. I’m so proud to be part of that team, and that they believed in me to be part of the Tour after that crash, and it’s so so nice.”
How it happened
Five categorised climbs littered an otherwise flat stage in Toulouse, with three cat 4s and one cat 3 climbs clustering the final 50km of the course as it made its near-circular way around the French city. The nature of the course therefore made for an unpredictable race, one that could tire out sprinters and prove a game of stamina too long for climbers. With this first race back after rest day, the GC riders seemed from the outset determined to ride a calmer race, making it a domestique’s stage to win or lose.
Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) made a first, dominant push to the front of the peloton early into the race, before sucking back into it for much of the rest of the race. A successive number of attacks ensued throughout the first 20 kilometres, with riders keen to make it into the breakaway, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Lewis Askey (Groupama FDJ), Arnaud Demare (Arkea-B&B Hotels) and Connor Swift (Ineos Grenadiers) strong early on as the road width varied, pulling with it an undulating peloton.
However, it was Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), Davide Ballerini (XDS Astana), and Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) who made a successful break into the first climb with 131km to go until the finish. Dominant from the start, Abrahamsen clinched the first KOM sprint up for grabs in Stage 11 on Côte de Castelnau-d’Estrétefonds.
Meanwhile, towards the back of the race, the peloton broke down after successive attacks on the first category four climb. Lidl-Trek’s Quinn Simmons broke into the first chase group as the peloton pushed uphill, leaving big GC names in the back, including Remco Evenopoel ( Soudal Quick-Step) and current yellow jersey holder, Ben Healy of EF Education-EasyPost.
The race looked to be one of attrition, a flat-out grind punctuated by consistent attacks from the peloton and chase groups throughout, with little indication of who might take the win at 97km to go. The race also looked to be the fastest of the Tour so far, with riders keeping a consistent 50km per hour as the peloton withheld almost constant reshuffling.
With 65km to go, Milan looked to have dropped back beyond contention for the upcoming sprint, while Healy, Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) attacked in the peloton, the riders separated by 1:13 from the breakaway.
The race, once deemed a predictable one, showcased two moments of the unspoken rules of cycling chivalry. One – never attack when the race-favourites are taking a nature break. In Stage 11, however, the rule was broken, with some in the peloton pushing ahead as Pogačar, Vingegaard and others stopped for a break.
Soon after, the chase group looked close to closing the gap on the second climb, separated from Abrahamsen, Schmid and Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious) who lead the break by only 20 seconds. However, they weren’t yet to meet them, with Wright winning two successive King of the Mountain sprints on Cote de Montgiscard and Corronsac, dominating the two cat 4 climbs with the soon-to-be winner in close pursuit. Heading into the lumpy, hill scattered finish, the front five riders had so far managed to successfully hold off the chase group, with a 20 second time gap consistently held despite hours of leading across multiple classified climbs.
Close behind in the chase group, Simmons attacked Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) with 14km to go as Abrahamsen showed signs of struggling for the first time in the race. Wright was dropped from the break as Simmons pushed towards him.
The growing drama played out across the 12.4% incline across 800metres on the final climb was heightened by plumes of blue smoke and crowds thronging the sides of the road. Then the peloton began to crumble, with an attack led by Vingegaard with 6km to go.
This is when the drama of the Tour heightened once again, and Pogačar overlapped the wheel of one Uno-X rider, sending him straight over the back wheel and landing heavily on his side. He was quickly back on his bike after brief aid from a mechanic, and then caught back up with the peloton. Cluttered with GC riders, the peloton had slowed to allow for Pogačar’s return in the second demonstration of the Tour’s unspoken rules.
Then, at the front of the race, the two riders who had clung to the break over more than 140km of racing, were sprinting towards the finish, pursued by a lone Van der Poel just nine seconds behind them and charging towards the line. All riders up and out of their seats, it was a battle in the end between break teammates Abrahamsen and Schmid, with the Norwegian emerging on top in a triumphant return just four weeks after breaking his collarbone in Belgium.
Results
Tour de France 2025, stage 11: Toulouse > Toulouse, 156.8km
1. Jonas Abrahamsen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, 3:15:56
2. Mauro Schmid (Sui) Jayco AlUla, at same time
3. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Deceuninck, +7s
4. Arnaud De Lie (Bel) Lotto, +53s
5. Wout van Aert (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike, at same time
6. Axel Laurance (Fra) Ineos Grenadiers, ast
7. Fred Wright (GBr) Bahrain-Victorious, ast
8. Mathieu Burgaudeau (Fra) TotalEnergies, ast
9. Quinn Simmons (USA) Lidl-Trek, ast
10. Davide Ballerini (Ita) XDS Astana +1:11
General classification after stage 11
1. Ben Healy (Ire) EF Education-EasyPost, in 41:01:13
2. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirate-XRG, +29s
3. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +1:29
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +1:46
5. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +2:06
6. Kévin Vauquelin (Fra) Arkéa-B&B Hotels, +2:26
7. Oscar Onley (GBr) Picnic PostNL, +3:24
8. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +3:34
9. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +3:41
10. Tobias Halland Johanssen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, +5:03
