The Tour de France 2026 continues today with Stage 11, a 161.3km route from Vichy to Nevers. The peloton set off at 12:50 PM BST, with expectations of a fierce contest among the sprinters as the terrain is largely flat, featuring approximately 1,400m of climbing.
Today's stage includes two categorised climbs: the Côte de Billonnière, a category-four ascent measuring 1.1km with an average gradient of 5.8%, and the Côte de Billy-Chevannes, a 1.5km hill with a 5% average gradient, located 37.9km from the finish. An intermediate sprint point is positioned early in the stage, after 27.8km, at Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule, where Lidl-Trek is anticipated to try and set up Mads Pedersen, who currently holds a strong lead in the points classification.
The race continues under the shadow of Tadej Pogacar's formidable dominance, who further solidified his position in yesterday's Stage 10. The Slovenian rider secured another solo victory in Le Lioran, extending his overall lead to 3 minutes and 36 seconds over his long-time rival, Jonas Vingegaard. Vingegaard, who struggled in the Massif Central's seven categorised climbs, lost additional time to other contenders for the podium.
Pogacar's latest triumph, marked by a trademark attack on the penultimate climb, was met with a mixed reaction from the roadside crowd, including some boos – a phenomenon reminiscent of Chris Froome's dominant era almost a decade ago. Despite this, UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Pogacar have maintained firm control over the race, with even the efforts of teams like Visma-Lease A Bike appearing insufficient to challenge their overwhelming strength.
For today's relatively flat stage, the focus shifts away from the general classification battle and towards the points classification and the stage victory. Sprinters' teams, particularly Alpecin-Premier Tech for Jasper Philipsen and NSN for Biniam Girmay, are determined to prevent a breakaway from succeeding, especially as both riders are yet to secure a stage win in this year's Tour. However, given his recent form, Tim Merlier could potentially achieve a hat-trick of stage wins in Nevers.