Results Tour de France 2026 Stage 11 - History made! Soren Waerenskjold goes from last to first in fastest Tour stage ever
CyclingWednesday, 15 July 2026 at 17:17
Soren Waerenskjold completed a remarkable last-to-first turnaround at the 2026 Tour de France, winning Stage 11 in Nevers only 24 hours after finishing at the back of the race at Le Lioran.
The Uno-X Mobility sprinter launched from distance and held off Olav Kooij and Jasper Philipsen at the end of the fastest stage in Tour history, completed at an average speed of approximately 50.9km/h.
Four-rider break drives record-breaking stage
The 161.3-kilometre stage began on wet roads around Vichy, with Mathieu van der Poel launching the first attack despite Alpecin-Premier Tech having Philipsen among the leading contenders for victory.
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Several teammates followed with moves of their own before Julian Alaphilippe, Mathis Le Berre, Nelson Oliveira and Anthon Charmig established the day’s breakaway.
NSN Cycling Team, Soudal – Quick-Step and XDS Astana Team kept the quartet within approximately 1:30 for Biniam Girmay, Tim Merlier and Max Kanter. Decathlon CMA CGM Team later joined the pursuit for Kooij.
Le Berre took maximum points at the intermediate sprint, while Philipsen led the peloton through in sixth. Mads Pedersen finished ahead of Girmay to add another point to his green-jersey advantage.
Charmig collected the mountain point on both fourth-category climbs. Alaphilippe was unable to follow on the Cote de Billy-Chavannes and was caught before also losing contact with the peloton.
Le Berre, Oliveira and Charmig continued resisting as the speed remained around Tour-record level. The combination of flat roads, a slight tailwind and a consistently small breakaway advantage forced both the escapees and peloton to maintain the relentless pace.
A feed-zone crash brought down Ben O’Connor, Abel Balderstone and Georg Zimmermann. All three continued, although Zimmermann required medical attention before returning to his bike.
Waerenskjold surprises favourites in Nevers
Alpecin-Premier Tech and Team Picnic PostNL joined the pursuit as the three remaining leaders carried 45 seconds into the final 20 kilometres.
Charmig and Oliveira performed most of the late work while Le Berre fought to remain attached. Their advantage fell to 20 seconds with 10 kilometres remaining before they were caught immediately after a chicane and narrowing at six kilometres.
The peloton negotiated that dangerous section without incident, but the pace then eased as teams found it difficult to improve their positions on the narrow road. Decathlon accelerated with two kilometres remaining and began stretching the bunch towards the final straight.
Merlier was left with ground to recover as NSN moved forward for Girmay and Alpecin assembled around Philipsen. A late attack from Cees Bol added further disorder before Waerenskjold committed to a long sprint.
The Norwegian held his speed to claim the stage ahead of Kooij and Philipsen. Fretin took fourth, with Huub Artz fifth and Girmay sixth.
Waerenskjold completed the stage in 3:10:06, producing an average speed of approximately 50.9km/h and surpassing the record set during Mario Cipollini’s victory in 1999.
Carlos Silva is a writer for CiclismoAtual.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he contributes race reports, interviews, analysis pieces, and live coverage of the international cycling calendar. Holding a degree in Sports from the Jean Piaget Institute, he combines academic knowledge of performance, training, and competition with hands-on journalism experience in professional cycling.
Throughout his career, Carlos has conducted interviews with leading figures in the sport, including Alberto Contador, Joaquim Rodríguez, Óscar Pereiro, João Almeida, Isaac del Toro, Derek Gee, John Degenkolb and Geraint Thomas. These conversations reflect direct engagement with Grand Tour winners, Classics specialists, and emerging talents.
He has provided on-site coverage at major events ranging from the Vuelta a España to the Tour de France, alongside stage races such as Vuelta a Andalucía, Volta ao Algarve, Volta a Portugal and O Gran Camiño. Covering the mythical climbs of the Giro d'Italia remains one of his professional ambitions.
Carlos is responsible for liveblog coverage of all major WorldTour races and beyond, including the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España. His reporting integrates verified data from ProCyclingStats to ensure statistical accuracy, contextual depth, and analytical precision.
A lifelong cycling enthusiast, he approaches storytelling across written, photographic, and video formats with a focus on credibility, tactical insight, and informed race interpretation.
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- Well, it is certainly less boring than something like stage 3 (a mountain bunch sprint where you already know who wins)
Rafionain-Glas15-07-2026 - They're only going after him because they know it doesn't take that much of their horsepower to get him. They're just too good to take risks.Veganpotter15-07-2026
- I'm certain Pogi knows he's already done that.Veganpotter15-07-2026
- It could be said that flat stages like these are boring. Everything comes down to the bunch sprint, and anyone could win it. I'd much rather have a solo win vs a bunch sprint and more special if it's from a breakaway. The chase is always exciting.
PogiFan2Day15-07-2026 - About 95% of them were without him and people were not absent. I don’t get the feeling tdf crowds have outgrown others lately, you should try visiting any popular tourist spot completely out of season in Europe these days it’s like the middle of summer used to be 20 years ago, same with concerts, festivals, any location made famous by movies. Given the amount of effort ASO have made to promote the Tour since he turned up, the result in growth is actually quite disappointing. Cycling has growth in certain areas, non traditional markets, non traditional times of the year and non traditional events (think gravel) but those are not doing much for tdf growth which was basically as popular in 14&15 as in 20 or 22 or 25.Jumpyjohn15-07-2026
- The link to this article states: jury-fines-tour-de-france-2026-update-stage-10-uno-x-take-massive-fine-after-late-sticky-bottle But the article says something else Time to ask for details, as so often. The protocol for heatwaves was supposed to give greater tolerance to drinking zones, was this the case or not? A little easy to unilaterally decide the rules for others don’t need to apply to you. The consequences of not getting fined include, everyone else sees it’s ok to ignore the rule and if bothered will all suddenly claim they also have headaches. A bit like a diluted version of why we suddenly had so many asthma sufferers with great results in cycling.Jumpyjohn15-07-2026
- “People come to watch the races because Pogacar is participating,” Millar said on the For the Love of Cycling podcast. “Imagine the Tour de France without him.” !MajorPayne15-07-2026
- When you sprint as dangerously as Jasper does, you lose the benefit of the doubtCrashjames15-07-2026
- Never heard a rider telling his team or on something no-one else has yet. Things tend to be legal before they’re discovered by those who ban them, that’s why they only get banned after being used. THG, PFC, and many others, were completely undetectable at first.Jumpyjohn15-07-2026
- Rasch succeeded in making it into a rider safety vs UCI issue. Congrats.Rafionain-Glas15-07-2026
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