Ben Healy holds on to yellow jersey after Tour de France Stage 11
Tour de France
finished in Toulouse with
Ben Healy
safely retaining his leader's yellow jersey. That being the order of the day, Healy was content to roll in with the main peloton.
After Tuesday's first rest day, the Tour resumed with Stage 11, a dynamic 154km loop around Toulouse in the heart of the Occitanie. The last 50km were a proper rollercoaster, the testing Cote de Pech David coming 8km before the finish.
From there it was a downhill run back into Toulouse, where Denmark's Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X Mobility took the stage win just ahead of Mauro Schmid of Team Jayco Alula, the pair being the last survivors from a couple of breakaways that opened over three minutes on the main contenders inside the last 20km.
There was some drama with 4km to go when reigning champion
Tadej Pogačar
crashed on a flat stretch of road before quickly remounting and rejoining the main peloton.
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Pogačar still came home with Healy, who finished 24th, three minutes and 27 seconds behind Abrahamsen, along with the other main general classification contenders, perfectly safe in yellow for at least another day.
Healy had started Stage 11 leading the GC by 29 seconds from Pogačar of UAE-Team Emirates, with Belgian Olympic road-race champion Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quick-Step third, 1'29 down on Healy.
Healy, Pogačar, Evenepoel and two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard of Team Visma-Lease a Bike (fourth in the GC, 1'46 down on Healy), all finished together in the peloton, leaving the GC gaps unchanged.
Remco Evenepoel (white), Ben Healy (yellow) and Jonathan Milan (green) at the start of the 11th stage of the 2025 Tour de France. Photograph: Jasper Jacons/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images
For Healy and his team EF Education–EasyPost, this was always going to be a day of protecting, not attacking. There were a series of breakaway efforts in the opening half of the stage, Healy and his team-mates riding at the front of the peloton, showing no interest in charging away.
Decked out in yellow, Healy had spoken beforehand about doing his best to protect the leader's jersey for at least one day.
In the end, none of the main contenders showed their hand. Healy still holds on to the white jersey, awarded each day to the best rider aged 25 or under, ahead of Evenepoel.
After finishing within sight of the Pyrenees, Thursday's 181km Stage 12 will head straight for the mountains, finishing on the fearsome Hautacam, the first hors-category climb of the Tour so far. That is sure to shake up the GC – as will Friday's hilly 11km time trial.
Healy, however, will get to wear yellow for one more day, at the very least, everything about Stage 11 suggesting he is well up for the battle up Hautacam.
After his storming ride on Bastille Day, his third-place finish on Stage 10 saw him become only to fourth Irish rider to be awarded the yellow jersey, the first since Stephen Roche wore it for three days during his outright Tour win in 1987. Shay Elliott held the race lead for three days back in 1963, as did Seán Kelly for one day in 1983.
'I just want to honour the jersey the best I possibly can do,' Healy said ahead of Wednesday's stage. 'I know what I'm up against, so it's going to be hard. But I'll give it my all, that's for sure. To have everyone there who means so much to me and who got me to where I am ... that's going to be a super special day.'
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