Stage 11

The road

At the start

The only day in the heart of the Alps

Thomas Voeckler outfoxed four men in Bellegarde and took the mountains jersey; at the top nothing moved, Wiggins still 1:53 up on Evans and 2:23 on Nibali. Tony Martin and Rémy Di Grégorio have both left the race. Today is the Tour's only day in the high Alps: the Madeleine, the Croix de Fer by way of the Glandon, the hairpins off the Mollard, and a summit finish at La Toussuire.

How it was won

1. 1108 km to go

   Twenty-eight go over the Madeleine

   Velits edges Kessiakoff for the points at the top with the break three minutes clear of the yellow jersey. Behind them Edvald Boasson Hagen begins a turn on the front that will not end until the race is halfway up the next mountain.

2. 262 km to go

   BMC throw everything at it

   Seven kilometres from the top of the Croix de Fer, Tejay van Garderen attacks. Cadel Evans goes across to his own team-mate, Moinard drops back out of the break to help, and for a few minutes BMC have three riders up the road and the defending champion racing rather than following.

3. 355 km to go

   Rogers shreds it, Evans's move dies

   Michael Rogers answers by raising the pace until there is nothing behind him but four Sky riders. Moinard drops away, Van Garderen is still full of running, and Evans cannot hold his own twenty-three-year-old's wheel. At the summit Kessiakoff and Rolland fight elbow to elbow for the points and the Swede takes the polka dots back.

4. 435 km to go

   Velits splits the break on the Mollard

   Peter Velits attacks and takes Rolland, Sørensen and Kiserlovski with him, Kiryienka bridging afterwards. Rolland leads the five over the top with the yellow jersey group three minutes behind.

5. 510 km to go

   Nibali attacks, Froome answers

   Brajkovic goes, then Pinot, then Van den Broeck, and Sky do not move. Then Nibali jumps and they have to. Chris Froome goes to the front and rides so hard that the yellow jersey group is destroyed behind him — and at almost the same moment, ten kilometres out, Pierre Rolland decides he cannot wait for the summit either and attacks the break.

6. 6At the line

   Froome rides away from his own leader

   Rolland is the only escapee not caught, and takes La Toussuire by fifty-five seconds. But the story is happening a minute behind him: over the last five kilometres Froome finds a gear that Evans has no answer to and that Bradley Wiggins, in the yellow jersey, cannot follow either. Froome is called back. Nobody who watches it forgets what they saw.

The result