Three men escaped in the first kilometers, Costa Rican Andrey Amador, Frenchman Matis Louvel and Italian Daniel Oss. But with just over 80 kilometers to go, the trio is only 45 seconds ahead of the peloton.
As expected, the first two of the three climbs listed on the 179.8km course through Puy-de-Dôme and Allier did not weigh on the course of the race and the same should go for the third, suggesting a massive sprint in the city of Coco Chanel.
The mercury has dropped significantly, with France forecast of 24°C/25°C at the finish in Moulins, far from the heat wave that tormented the peloton on Tuesday throughout the 10th stage.
Tour de France 2023 11th stage © Vincent LEFAI, Sabrina BLANCHARD / AFP
In the wake of the baroud of honor of the Spaniard Pello Bilbao in Issoire and the heat stroke on the peloton that arrived almost three minutes later on Tuesday with the favorites Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE), still separated by 17 seconds overall, the stage of the day unfolds in a more linear and much less hectic way.
"It's a stage that we wanted to be as flat as possible to concern the teams of sprinters," explained the tracer of the Tour, Thierry Gouvenou. "We will have a nice straight of 800 meters to make a nice sprint. It shouldn't escape them. "
On the eve of a more rugged stage on Thursday to Belleville-en-Beaujolais, the wearer of the green jersey, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin), may have the opportunity to bring to four his number of victories in this 110th edition.
Belgian cyclist Jasper Philipsen (3rd from right) during the sprint finish of the 7th stage of the Tour de France, in Bordeaux on July 7, 2023 © Marco BERTORELLO / AFP
Behind the three breakaways, he settled the peloton in the intermediate sprint of Lapeyrouse.
Moulins is preparing to repair an oversight: it was the last metropolitan prefecture not to have yet hosted the Tour de France in 120 years.
The finish is scheduled around 17:30 p.m., for a race at 44 km/h on average.
© 2023 AFP