Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard won stage 11 of the Tour de France following a sprint to the line with rival and overall leader Tadej Pogacar.
Defending champion Vingegaard, of Visma-Lease a Bike, edged out Pogacar of UAE-Team-Emirates as the pair raced for the line after several climbs on the 211km stage to Le Lioran in France’s Massif Central region.
Pogacar remains in the yellow jersey and is now one minute six seconds ahead of Remco Evenepoel, who was third on the stage, with Vingegaard a further eight seconds behind.
When Slovenian Pogacar attacked with 32km to go he pulled away from the rest of the field but Vingegaard reeled him back in on the penultimate climb.
Denmark’s Vingegaard, 27, suffered a major crash in early April which left him with multiple serious injuries and he said through tears after the stage: “It is very emotional for me, coming back from the crash…
“It means a lot and all the things I went through in the last three months… I would never have been able to do this without my family.”
On Monday’s rest day Pogacar had suggested that Vingegaard was “a little afraid” of him and his team, following Sunday’s stage nine in which Vingegaard chose only to follow Pogacar’s wheel.
But Vingegaard was the first to launch the sprint on Tuesday as they accelerated to the line, and stayed ahead of the straining Pogacar, 25.
“Now we can all see it’s a fair fight and [Vingegaard] is in top shape,” said Pogacar afterwards.
“He beat me really good on the line. Let’s continue to do it like this.”