Caleb Ewan Grabs his First Tour Stage Win in 2019 Tour de France Stage 11

Kevin Curry

Jul 17, 2019 — 2 min read

Australia's Caleb Ewan frontL), past Netherlands' Dylan Groenewegen, wins on the finish line of the eleventh stage of the 106th edition of the Tour de France cycling race between Albi and Toulouse, in Toulouse on July 17, 2019. (Photo by Marco Bertorello / AFP) (Photo credit should read MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP/Getty Images)

Caleb Ewan picked up his first Tour de France stage win today, I doubt it will be his last. In a mass sprint at Toulouse on Wednesday Ewan grabbed the stage victory with no more than the width of a road tire as Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe kept the overall lead.

Defending champion Geraint Thomas and his Ineos teammate Egan Bernal also finished safely in the main pack, so there was no change in the overall top three after a 167km run from Albi to Toulouse. The most notable GC action of the day was Nairo Quintana’s unexpected facetime with the pavement which threw him into a panicked effort to catch back up with the race.

Ewan’s sprint was timed perfectly, catching and overtaking Dutch sprinter Dylan Groenewegen right on the line. Elia Viviani was third on a finish.

“I’ve been close in the last four sprints that I’ve done,” said Ewan.

“It took me half the Tour de France to get my win, but I got it in the end”

“My team never lost faith in me. I never lost faith in my sprint. I knew that if everything came together I could be the fastest on the day, and I think I showed that today.”

In just his first season with the Lotto-Soudal team, Ewan has managed to win stages at all three Grand Tours (three wins on the Giro and one on the Vuelta in addition to today). Sprint points leader Peter Sagan kept his green jersey after finishing fourth behind Ewan.

2019 Tour de France Results

Stage 11 results

1 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Lotto Soudal 3:51:26
2 Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) Jumbo-Visma
3 Elia Viviani (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep
4 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
5 Jens Debusschere (Bel) Katusha-Alpecin
6 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
7 Jasper Philipsen (Bel) UAE Team Emirates
8 Cees Bol (Ned) Sunweb
9 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
10 Warren Barguil (Fra) Arkéa Samsic

General classification after stage 11

1 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 47:18:41
2 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos 0:01:12
3 Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos 0:01:16
4 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Jumbo-Visma 0:01:27
5 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:45
6 Enric Mas (Spa) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:01:46
7 Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 0:01:47
8 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar 0:02:04
9 Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates 0:02:09
10 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:02:33