Stage 11 of the Tour de France should have been a typical stage for the sprinters, but a strong wind and some motivated teams blew the race apart on the approach to Montpellier. Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) went clear with teammate Maciej Bodnar and were joined by an opportunistic move by race leader Chris Froome and his Team Sky teammate Geraint Thomas.
The four went clear with around 8km to go in the stage, and managed to hold off the panicked chase behind, led by a mix of sprinter's teams and those of the other general classification contenders, but they fell six seconds shy of catching the leaders.
Sagan handily won the sprint over Froome, while Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) angrily pounded his handlebars after leading the sprint to the line, denied yet again.
