• Caleb Ewan narrowly beat Dylan Groenewegen at the line to win Stage 11 of the Tour de France.
• It’s the first Tour victory for the 25-year-old Australian, who had already reached the podium four times this year.
• Julian Alaphilippe defended his yellow jersey with no major changes to the General Classification.

After reaching the podium four times already in the 2019 Tour de France, Caleb Ewan finally earned a stage victory on Wednesday.

The 25-year-old Australian narrowly beat Dylan Groenewegen at the finish on Stage 11, a 161K transitional course from Albi to Toulouse following the Tour’s first rest day.

Despite losing a few seconds about 10K from the line – he’d gotten caught behind a minor solo crash by his Lotto–Soudal teammate Jasper De Buyst – Ewan bounced back. He responded well to an attack by Groenewegen with metres to go, crossing the line mere centimetres in front of the Stage 7 winner.

The well-earned victory comes after Ewan placed third on Stage 1, third on Stage 4, second on Stage 7, and third on Stage 10. It’s the first-ever Tour de France win for the race rookie, and the second this year for Lotto–Soudal.

“I’ve been close in the last four sprints that I’ve done,” Ewan told reporters after the stage. “My team never lost faith in me, and I never lost faith in my sprinting. But I knew if everything came together I could be the fastest on the day.”

Stage 4 winner Elia Viviani came in third, while Peter Sagan – who extended his lead in the green jersey competition to 73 points over Viviani – took fourth.

As expected, there were few major changes in the General Classification. Julian Alaphilippe, who has led the Tour since Stage 8, defended his yellow jersey a day before the race heads into the Pyrenees. Ineos’s Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal sit behind him at 1:12 and 1:16 behind. Steven Kruijswijk remains in fourth, and Emanuel Buchmann kept fifth.

Giulio Ciccone, who nabbed the Tour lead from Alaphilippe on Stage 6 and held it for two days, fell out of the top 10 after getting caught in a crash that forced Dutch rider Niki Terpstra to abandon the race. Overall favourite Thibaut Pinot, who lost major time in the crosswinds on Stage 10, took Ciccone’s spot in 10th place.

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