Soren Waerenskjold stunned the big guns with a long-range sprint to take the fastest ever stage of the Tour de France, Yankee Scores reports.
The 26-year-old Norwegian was on his fourth Tour and scored his first stage win and only the second for his team, Uno-X Mobility.
Tadej Pogacar, the current overall race leader, is three minutes and 36 seconds ahead of Jonas Vingegaard in the general classification.
The peloton averaged 50.9km per hour on stage 11, beating the previous record of 50.3kph set in 1999, per BBC Sport.
Wednesday’s stage was a 161.3km flat course from Vichy to Nevers that was expected to end in a sprint finish and the first move was made by Cees Bol as the peloton rolled into the final 500m after reeling in the day’s breakaway.
But team-mate Olav Kooij didn’t follow and as the riders hesitated Waerenskjold slipped through a gap beside the barriers to launch a counter-attack with 400m to go.
He zipped past Bol, Kooij and Jasper Philipsen chasing but they had left themselves too much to do as Waerenskjold won by nearly a bike length from Kooij.
Philipsen crossed the line third, but was demoted for moving in the sprint, with Milan Fretin promoted to the podium.
“On the seventh stage I was behind Tim Merlier but I thought I was too far back and then it opened up on the right side like it doesn’t do normally.
