Stage 11 of the 2012 Tour de France is complete, and Pierre Rolland Of Team Europcar powered his way through the Alps to earn a second-consecutive victory for Europcar. Bradley Wiggins held on to the yellow jersey with a sixth-place finish behind Rolland, and Christopher Froome finished with the third-best time in Stage 11 and is still chasing Wiggins for the yellow jersey. Here are the results from Thursday:
Stage 11 Results
1. Pierre Rolland, Europcar, 4h 43' 54"
2. Thibaut Pinot, FDJ-BigMat , +00' 55"
3. Christopher Froome, Sky , +00' 55"
4. Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Lotto-Belisol +00' 57"
5. Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas-Cannondale , +00' 57"
6. Bradley Wiggins, Sky , +00' 57"
7. Chris Anker Sorensen, STB , +01' 08"
8. Janez Brajkovic, Astana , +01' 58"
9. Vasil Kiryienka, Movistar , +02' 13"
10. Frank Schleck, RadioShack-Nissan , +02' 23"
11. Cadel Evans, BMC Racing , +02' 23"
12. Tejay Van Garderen, BMC Racing , +02' 23"
Here is a portion of the in-depth breakdown of Stage 11 from SB Nation's cycling blog, Podium Cafe:
Pierre Rolland gave Europcar and French cycling a second consecutive victory in the Alps with a solo effort to take Stage 11 of the Tour de France. The 25-year-old Loire Valley native can add La Toussuire to his palmares, which already includes Alpe d'Huez from last year's Tour, after he dropped a trio of Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar), Robert Kiserlovski (Astana), and Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo-Tinkoff), who were the animators of today's stage, trading blows over the Col de la Croix de Fer and Col de Mollard. The four regrouped for the final climb, but Rolland had the most left when the attacks came, and there was no meaningful response when he made his move. Sky's Bradley Wiggins maintained his yellow jersey, but not without wobbling a bit, while Cadel Evans of BMC cracked on the final climb to surrender his top placing.
For additional details on the stage including maps and route information, visit the Tour de France website. If you want even more analysis of the Stage 11 route, check out the embedded video from SB Nation Studios.
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