Tour de France 2023 Stage 11 recap: Jasper Philipsen snares fourth win ahead of Dylan Groenewegen

Our man Matt Stephens spoke to Tadej Poogacar ahead of today's stage and the two-time champion admitted he was hoping for an easier day in the saddle after the fireworks on Tuesday.

"It was one of the toughest so far - but we leave it in the past. We were all there - a lot of GC riders - and it was just a hard and selective start. I hope for more calm today. It's going to be really tough [later in the week] so today let's hope for an easy one so we can rest a bit. Tomorrow with be tricky but hopefully one for the breakaway, then it will be full-on."

It's pushing two minutes now for Amador, Oss and Louvel. They surely won't go the distance, but there's always a chance that something behind - or perhaps even some blustery winds - plays into their hands.

There was a Lidl-Trek rider in the mix but he's sat up. So we now have a trio with a small gap off the front with Andre Amador (EF Education-EasyPost) joined by Matis Louvel (Arkea-Samsic) and Daniel Oss (TotalEnergies). They have 20 seconds but the gap is growing...

The only Costa Rican pro cyclist with a Russian mother finds himself in the odd position of riding 30m ahead of a peloton that is completely uninterested in chasing him down. And as he's not joined by anyone, Amador has doubts and eases up - but is still not reabsorbed by the pack.

There's a slight delay owing to a puncture for Yevgeniy Fedorov of Astana, which means the peloton actually passes kilometre zero before Christian Prudhomme waves the flag. When he does eventually do that, there's an early attack from Andrey Amador and... no one else.

No overnight withdrawals to report which means we have 169 riders currently soft-pedalling their way through this long neutral zone ahead of the official start. Still 4km to go of this warm-up on the outskirts of Remi Cavagna's home town of Clermont Ferrand. It's a cloudy day and not as hot as yesterday's swelterfest. The temperature is currently 24 degrees and the sun is doing its best to burst through the clouds.

While a fourth win for the in-form Philipsen seems the logical prediction for any bunch sprint we may see in Moulins, there's a host of top-tier sprinters who will see today's stage as an opportunity to get their races back on track.

Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-QuickStep) came fourth in Bayonne but has been laid low by injury ever since his crash in the finale in Stage 4. The Belgian is leaving QuickStep at the end of the season and needs to get back to winning ways.

Caleb Ewan (Lotto Dstny) has not won on the Tour since 2020 and really suffered on his 29th birthday yesterday. Third and second in successive stages in the opening week, the Australian has missed the boat in sprints since then.

Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla), meanwhile, has not yet finished higher than fourth despite the hard work from his team-mates in paving the way. He was eighth in Bayonne in Stage 3 and then 14th at Nogaro. The Dutchman needs a win just as badly as the others.

Stage 11 from Clermont-Ferrand to Moulins is largely flat save for three Cat.4 climbs. There are numerous other unclassified hills but we should see the race come back together for a bunch sprint finale. That said, there are some tired legs out there - most notably among the sprinters, many of which had to battle to avoid the time-cut yesterday - and so if the right kind of move goes, then a breakaway could pull off a surprise.

Yesterday's stage winner rose six places from 11th to 5th in Issoire with Romain Bardet dropping out of the top 10.

1. Jonas Vingegaard
2. Tadej Pogacar +17
3. Jai Hindley +2:40
4. Carlos Rodriguez +4:22
5. Pello Bilbao +4:34
6. Adam Yates +4:39
7. Simon Yates +4:44
8. Thomas Pidcock +5:26
9. David Gaudu +6:01
10. Sepp Kuss +6:45

Denmark's Matthias Skjelmose - who was in the breakaway yesterday - set tongues wagging with a comment before the stage suggesting that Wout van Aert was about to go home to be at his wife's bedside ahead of the birth of their second child. With the Belgian going on the attack on numerous occasions during the stage, it had the air of a farewell of sorts. But he's still here ahead of Stage 11 - and his leader Vingegaard confirmed that, "He's going nowhere."

Yesterday's crazy stage saw both the yellow and white jerseys infiltrate the early breakaway after Tadej Pogacar responded to an attack from Jonas Vingegaard - who, in turn, was replying to an acceleration from Simon Yates - to force a split with 160km remaining. Both the "Big Two" eventually dropped back to the main pack after a diplomatic ceasefire was called - allowing the remainder of the break to go the distance.

Pello Bilbao became the first Spanish winner on the Tour de France since Omar Fraile in Mende in Stage 14 of the 2018 Tour - meaning the win came exactly 100 stages after the last one, ending the longest drought for Spain since the 1980s when they went 118 stages without a win.

10 days after the Tour left Bilbao for the grand depart, Pello Bilbao swooped to victory in Issoire yesterday in memory of his late team-mate Gino Mader. It was a textbook finish from the Spanish climber, who outfoxed Georg Zimmermann to rise to fifth place in the general classification. Bilbao was part of an initial 14-man breakaway and had to help reel in lone leader Krists Neilands 3km from the finish before sprinting to his first ever Tour stage win in style.

After completing his hat-trick in the opening week of the race, Belgium's Jasper Philipsen will no doubt see today's flat(ish) Stage 11 as a chance to take his fourth win and strengthen his vice-like grip on the green jersey. Meanwhile, will we see any action from the GC favourites after Jonas Vingegaard in yellow and Tadej Pogacar in white tested their legs in the Massif Central yesterday?