One of the last days for the sprinters, stage 11 was going to be hotly contested from the start to the finish line in Poitiers, 167.5km later, and only one fourth category climb would give the peloton cause to slow down.
While the sprinters were confident the day would end in a sprint, one brave solo rider made the jump off the front. Never allowed to take more than a few minutes’ advantage, the gap was sitting at around 2:30 most of the day and the peloton seemed happy with this, only reacting when Lukas Pöstlberger went on the attack, taking five others with him in an attempt to push the pace, reeling him back in quickly.
It was only when the race entered its final 60km that the peloton started chipping away at the break’s lead. With Peter taking fourth in the intermediate sprint, attention turned to the finale. The lone leader of the stage was still out in front, but carrying their speed from the intermediate sprint, the bunch soon caught the escapee and absorbed them back into the bunch with 43km to go.
Having been struggling during the stage, Gregor Mühlberger abandoned the race with 30km remaining. While the Austrian rider had ridden well on Sunday – a strong performance after his crash at the Dauphiné – this was too much of an effort for him to recover from to ride well today.
The race was now on for the finish, the sprinters having staked their claim on the day. With 6.2km remaining, Lukas went on the attack again to shake up the sprinters and disrupt the finale, The two riders from Deceuninck Quick Step who went with him were clearly suffering, and peeling off with 2.1km left, Lukas had burnt out two of the green jersey’s sprint train. In a race of pure power where the sprinters had to battle for the win without their teams supporting them.
Having fought for space on his way to the line, Peter was against the barriers and losing space, passing one rider but touching another. The Slovak rider took second position, however, this incident in the closing meters of this tense finale saw Peter relegated from the day’s standings.
