Tour de France 2025 - Stage 11: Toulouse - Toulouse | 156,8 Kilometers
After a rest day, 157 hilly kilometers await. Four climbs of the fourth category and one of the third category must be conquered. Just under nine kilometers before the finish line is the Côte de Pech David, 800 meters long with an average gradient of 12.4%, the steepest section of the profile. A puncheur could attack a group there.
It is to be expected that a group will break away and that two races will take place in one: The peloton with the GC riders will probably take it a little easier, while teams that have not yet won anything will send their riders into the breakaway group. A glance at the roadbook shows that there will not be many more opportunities for non-climbers to compete for a stage victory in this Tour.
Review Healy
Anyone planning to spend the day on breakaway will once again want to be as aerodynamic as possible at the start. Role model: Ben Healy. The Irishman, who starts the eleventh stage in yellow, showed how a long solo breakaway can be successful with his victory on the sixth stage: through good pacing and top aerodynamics. Healy has published the power data from his ride on Strava. According to this, he pedaled at an average of 322 watts (around 5 W/kg) during his breakaway, which lasted just under an hour. This is remarkable, especially since a lot of power was needed at the start of the race to establish the breakaway group. However, Healy did not pedal evenly towards the finish line but rode very dynamically until the end with the aim of always keeping his speed as high as possible. His ride shows a series of power peaks from 400 to 700 W, and at the beginning he even briefly pedaled at 1,000 W. With this riding style, he achieved an average speed of 46.3 km/h – despite several climbs, the longest of which was 4.4 kilometers long. His heart rate recording also reveals how well he paced himself. Healy only reached his maximum heart rate of 187 beats per minute on the final climb, five kilometers before the finish. His average heart rate during the breakaway was 170 beats per minute. In relation to the power output, Healy was very fast, which speaks for excellent aerodynamics. This was certainly a key factor in his success.
Position comparisons
Even faster than Healy were breakaway riders Jonas Rickaert and Mathieu van der Poel on the ninth stage of their epic 170-kilometer breakaway towards the finish line: their average speed was just over 50 km/h(!), accelerated by the tailwind. The breakaway riders rode the second-fastest Tour stage of all time as a pair time trial! The daring breakaway almost succeeded. It was only 650 meters before the finish line that Mathieu van der Poel was caught by the sprinting peloton.
Rickaert and van der Poel attacked at kilometer zero and there was no resistance because the peloton probably calculated that they could easily catch up with two men. However, it was not easy for the peloton to close the gap. Although the wind turned from a tailwind to a headwind towards the end, which was disadvantageous for the breakaway riders, they defended their lead tenaciously and the sprinter teams had to work hard to make up any time at all.
Aerodynamics are crucial in this uneven battle of two against many. After such a long breakaway, the breakaway riders can no longer accelerate as much as a larger group of pursuers, who can better share the workload in the wind. The breakaway riders can only try to ride smart, give each other optimal slipstreaming, and offer as little surface area as possible to the wind. The more muscular Rickaert looked significantly less aerodynamic than van der Poel, but we don't have any figures to back that up.
In terms of equipment, Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Rickaert were top of the line. The Canyon Aeroad is one of the fastest bikes in the field, and nowhere can a top aero bike show off its advantages better than in such a long breakaway. There, the advantage over a mediocre bike adds up to many minutes.
Nevertheless, technology is no guarantee that the breakaway will succeed. Whether breakaway riders get through depends more on the group dynamics in the peloton and whether the pursuers correctly assess the breakaway riders' condition. If they don't go full throttle right away and are able to pick up speed in the final phase just like the peloton, the pursuers may miscalculate. The quality of the breakaway riders also plays a role. A world-class rider like Mathieu van der Poel can put up a stronger fight than a second-tier professional. It was a close call.
Is it worth fighting for every gram?
But back to the eleventh stage. After the demonstrations of the last few days, an aero bike is a must for any further breakaways. But what influence does weight have when there is still a short, steep 800-meter ramp to climb 10.5 kilometers before the finish? Should the mechanics work overtime to magically remove the last few grams of excess weight? We explore this question in our simulation.
The number of the day: 19 seconds
From the attack at the foot of the last hill to the finish line, the fastest bikes save 19 seconds compared to the slowest. Aero beats pure weight, because the speed must be maintained from the climb to the finish line. However, a lightweight bike helps to make the attack on the climb successful.
That's why we see the Cervélo S5 in the 1x12 setup in the lead again. It is the fastest on the climb, so it helps you get away. Further on, the aero high-flyer Van Rysel RCR-F Pro catches up but just misses out in the overall standings.
Team Visma's tactic of making top aerodynamics as light as possible with tricks such as single-speed drivetrains is paying off. Our advice to the mechanics is therefore: do everything you can to push the aero bikes towards the 6.8-kilogram minimum weight.
The (almost) complete field at a glance*
The table shows the ranking of the bikes after an attack on the last hill, 8.8 kilometers before the finish. The Cervélo S5 wins with its mixture of top aerodynamics and mini weight. Pure light bikes ride behind, they are a handicap in the flat finish.
*) The calculations are based on the bikes tested by TOUR in the laboratory and wind tunnel. The machines used in the Tour de France may differ in detail. Of course, we were not yet able to examine last-minute prototypes. Background information on the simulation.
Our expert
Robert Kühnen studied mechanical engineering, writes for TOUR about technology and training topics and develops testing methods. Robert has been refining the simulation calculations for years, they are also used by professional teams.
