Waerenskjold surprises to win fastest stage in Tour de France history

Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) won the fastest road stage in Tour de France history when he beat Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) to the line in a frantic bunch sprint in Nevers.

The average speed of stage 11 was an eyewatering 50.91km/h which surpassed the previous mark of 50.356km/h recorded by Mario Cipollini when he won in Blois in 1999.

In a frantic final kilometre, Kooij’s lead-out man Cees Bol unexpectedly found himself off the front and he opted to proceed with his long-range effort.

Behind, Wærenskjold opted to strike out from distance, and he opened what proved to be a winning gap as he had just enough in hand to fend off the fast-closing Kooij and Philipsen.

The stage was animated by a four-rider break, but the last men standing, Anthon Charmig (Uno-X Mobility), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) and Mathis Le Berre (TotalEnergies), were swept up with 6km to go.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) finished safely in the peloton to retain the yellow jersey, 3:36 ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease a Bike) and 4:06 up on Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).

The fast men were never going to be denied on the road to Nevers, and their teams had learned the lesson from their desperate pursuit of Liam Slock (Lotto Intermarché) on the road to Bergerac on Saturday.

That didn’t discourage Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) from partaking in some early attacking, and the Dutchman made multiple attempts to forge clear. The sprinters’ teams, however, were reluctant to allow him any leeway and he was eventually reeled in.

Shortly afterwards, the day’s break took shape, with Anthon Charmig (Uno-X Mobility), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) and Mathis Le Berre (TotalEnergies) clipping away ahead of the intermediate sprint, with Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) beating Max Kanter (XDS-Astana) to the points behind.

The race quickly – and quick was the operative word on Wednesday – settled into a holding pattern, with the four leaders establishing a buffer of 1:30 on a fast-moving bunch that was eager to keep them on a tight leash.

Soudal Quick-Step, XDS-Astana and NSN formed a coalition at the head of the peloton and their efforts ensured the average speed would remain north of 50kph throughout the afternoon.

With 40km to go, the break’s lead was down to a minute, with Olav Kooij’s Decathlon CMA CGM team joining the chase effort behind. 

Alaphilippe sat up from the break at that point, leaving Charmig, Le Berre and Oliveira out in front. That seemed destined to doom the escapees, but they put up fierce resistance and they still had 45 seconds in hand when they reached the final 20km.

By then, however, Alpecin-Deceuninck had finally unleashed Silvan Dillier to supplement the chase, and the gap began to shrink on the run-in to Nevers.