Jonas Vingegaard claims stage 11 but Tadej Pogacar extends Tour de France lead

Jonas Vingegaard won stage 11 of the Tour de France as Tadej Pogacar's bid to distance his main rival for yellow fell short in the Massif Central.

It came down to a sprint finish between the two in Le Lioran but for once Pogacar came off second best in such a scenario as defending champion Vingegaard took it by half a wheel.

That was after Vingegaard clawed back the 30-second lead Pogacar had built after his attack on the Pas de Peyrol, some 30km from the finish of this 211km stage from Evaux-les-Bains to Le Lioran.

Vingegaard remains third overall after Remco Evenepoel fought his way to the line to keep second place, but the win shows the Dane’s form is where it needs to be in his first race since suffering horrible injuries in a crash in the Basque Country in April.

The 27-year-old, who has come back from a punctured lung, fractured ribs and collarbone in the last few months, shed tears after the stage.

"Of course it’s very, very emotional for me," Vingegaard said. "Coming back from the crash, it means a lot. All the things I went through in the last few months, it makes you think of that and I would never have been able to do this without my family…

"I couldn’t follow the attack (Pogacar) had, it was very, very strong, and I just had to fight. I didn’t think I would be able to make it back, I just kept fighting and I made it back. I was a bit surprised I could beat him in the sprint but of course it means so much.

"I never thought I would be able to do this three months ago."

Pogacar did extend his lead in yellow, now 66 seconds over Evenepoel with Vingegaard another eight seconds back, but the Slovenian was left wondering how his plan to take total control of this race fell apart.

The second longest stage of this Tour had