Geraint Thomas rode his way into the yellow jersey with a memorable victory on stage 11 of the Tour de France to La Rosiere. The Team Sky rider attacked six kilometres from the top of the final climb of this 108.5km stage from Albertville to claim his second career Tour stage win. His mission when he first made his move was to catch rival Tom Dumoulin, the Team Sunweb rider who was looking to make his own gains in the general classification, but what do the full standings at the 105th edition of the Tour look like after 11 days of racing?<doc-sep>Geraint Thomas dominates first summit finish Geraint Thomas celebrates after taking the yellow jersey on stage 11 of the Tour de France (Credit: Yuzuru Sunada) (Image credit: Yuzuru Sunada) One month ago and Geraint Thomas was taking a big leap towards the Critérium du Dauphiné title at La Rosière, and today he stood atop the same climb pulling on the yellow jersey of the Tour de France. Thomas put in a virtuoso performance on the final climb, attacking as soon as Michal Kwiatkowski pulled off the front with 5.5km to go, riding across to Tom Dumoulin like he was standing still, and then going on the attack with a kilometre to go to catch and pass Mikel Nieve to take the stage victory. >>> Geraint Thomas storms to yellow jersey and Tour de France 2018 stage 11 victory The result puts Thomas into the yellow jersey by 1-25 ahead of team-mate Chris Froome, and more than two minutes ahead of everyone else with the exception of Dumoulin. With that margin and performance Thomas looks a strong favourite to hold yellow beyond Alpe d'Huez tomorrow, and also a serious threat to Chris Froome's hopes of winning a fifth Tour de France. The only uncertainty is Thomas's ability to keep things together for another week-and-a-half. Chris Froome forced to play second fiddle At the start of the race it looked as if the likes of Nairo Quintana and Romain Bardet would be the biggest threats to Chris Froome's search for a historic Giro/Tour double, but the 33-year-old instead found himself stranded with these riders as he watched Thomas ride up the road to La Rosière. The good news for Froome is that he wasn't stranded for long, eventually being able to shed Quintana, Bardet, Vincenzo Nibali, and Primoz Roglic, and was able to combine with Dan Martin to ride up to Thomas and Dumoulin. However before he got there, Thomas was on the attack again, leaving Froome to unsuccessful try to get rid of Dumoulin in the final kilometre before the Dutchman pipped him on the line for a couple of bonus seconds. Inevitably there will now be questions over who is really Team Sky's Tour de France leader, with answers potentially emerging on Alpe d'Huez tomorrow. Dumoulin plays things to perfection Tom Dumoulin sets the pace ahead of Geraint Thomas on stage 11 of the Tour de France (Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images) (Image credit: Getty Images) While Thomas and Froome lit up the stage with displays of brute force, Tom Dumoulin's second place on the stage and consequent leap up the general classification was as much a case of wits as watts. We didn't quite see what happened on the descent of the Cormet de Roselend, but Dumoulin and team-mate Søren Kragh Andersen were able to distance the the rest of the GC group to give the Dutchman a 30-second advantage going onto the final climb and link up with Alejandro Valverde and Marc Soler. And Dumoulin really needed that advantage as despite dropping Valverde he ended up climbing to the finish slower than Froome and Thomas, and would doubtless have struggled to match their accelerations in the final five kilometres had he been sitting in the group. Being able to finish with Froome meant that Dumoulin moved up to third place in the general classification, but he's certain to come under more pressure on Alpe d'Huez on Thursday. Movistar's tactical manoeuvre enlivens the race but ultimately falls flat Alejandro Valverde goes on the offensive on the Col du Pré on stage 11 of the Tour de France (Credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images) (Image credit: Getty Images) After Team Sky took complete control of yesterday's stage, Movistar seized stage 11 by the horns to put Marc Soler in the break, send Alejandro Valverde on the attack with 54km to go, and join up with his team-mate to hold a lead of 1-15 over the Team Sky peloton by the top of the Col du Pré with 57.5km remaining. That descent had slimmed to 30 seconds by the base of the finishing climb, and disappeared altogether as cracks began to show in the Valverde armour after he was joined and then dropped by Dumoulin, quickly falling back to and out of the back of the main GC group. Meanwhile Mikel Landa didn't last much longer as he was also dropped from the GC group, eventually finishing 1-47 behind Thomas, while Nairo Quintana could do nothing to resist Chris Froome's counter-attacks, finishing alongside Bardet, Nibali, and Roglic at 59 seconds. That means that Movistar's three leaders now sit seventh, ninth, and 11th in the GC, with all needing a quick turnaround in form if they are to pose the same tactical threat that they posed early in this stage later in the race. Sprinters suffer in short mountain stage Marcel Kittel finishes outside the time limit on stage 11 of the Tour de France (Credit: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images) (Image credit: Getty Images) While the GC contenders were battling it out on the short mountain stage, stage 11 was simply a matter of survival for those at the back of the race, with not everyone surviving the day. Having battled to stay inside the time cut by just 28 seconds on stage 10, there was no repeat miracle for Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel, and Mark Renshaw, all of whom were eliminated from the race after failing to finish within the time cut of 31-27, and Cavendish finishing more than an hour down. However the commissaires took mercy on Kittel's Katusha-Alpecin team-mate Rick Zabel, who put in a last gasp sprint to cross the line just four seconds outside the limit, but will be allowed to start tomorrow and go though another day of agony in the mountains.<doc-sep>Doug Ryder, the boss of the Dimension Data team, has said that Mark Cavendish is “gutted” and “bitterly disappointed” to have been eliminated from the Tour de France. Cavendish, team-mate Mark Renshaw, and Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) all finished well outside the time limit on stage 11 of the Tour de France. The Manxman was the last rider to cross the line more than 30 minutes outside the time cut, which had been extended in recognition of the difficulty of the stage. The captain of the South African team declined to speak to press at the finish but his team manager Ryder told Cycling Weekly that Cavendish had been extremely disappointed when he reached the team’s hotel, just a short ride away. “He’s bitterly disappointed. Riders need their time and Cav is a super-experienced guy who has seen this movie before sadly,” Ryder said. He added that although Cavendish’s best place on a stage of the Tour had been eighth on stage eight, and he scraped through the time cut yesterday with seconds to spare, the team and Cavendish had earlier been optimistic that he could make it through the mountain stages and challenge for wins later in the race. >>> Five talking points from stage 11 of the Tour de France “We were focusing on Friday as another opportunity he was very optimistic about that,” Ryder said. “Stage races are hard and after the rest day you never know how you’ll feel. He suffered yesterday on the first climb and then felt alright. Today he was on the rollers before the start, he was prepared for a big fight. Maybe the fight was just too big today… He’s gutted.” Cavendish has had a torrid couple of years beset by illness and injury. Last year he had glandular fever for the first half of the season before crashing out of the Tour de France and breaking his collarbone. This season he crashed out of the Abu Dhabi Tour and Milan-San Remo. “We are a team that believes in the dreams of individuals and Mark [Renshaw] and Mark [Cavendish] - but particularly Cav - have worked hard but the sport is brutal it’s tough," Ryder continued. "Having not ridden a complete Grand Tour since 2015 it’s really hard. Especially with the incidents and illnesses it’s too hard to keep coming back, when you don’t have a full season.” Watch: Tour de France stage 11 highlights Ryder went on to praise his charge’s commitment this season, pointing out that Cavendish had missed out on being around his son Casper who was born in March because he was preparing for the Tour. He said there was still a reason to believe they could be successful in the Tour. “We picked ourselves up last year. Then we lost Cav on stage four and we ended up winning a stage and were on the podium several times. We are an opportunistic team and we’ll take our chances, it wasn’t the plan but we’ll give it a full go.” The prospect of sprinters being thrown out of the race had been a topic of conversation for teams since the route was announced as short mountain stages are always difficult for the fast men to ride within the time cut. >>> Chris Froome hails Thomas's 'perfect' attack as Team Sky take control of Tour de France At the finish Renshaw, who will also be kicked out of the race for missing the time cut, was asked if he felt emotional at having to leave the Tour. “No. That’s what the Tour de France wanted the stage to be like. I don’t know who else is out but they knew what was coming,” he said. “It’s too hard for the sprinters and too hard for me. “On a short stage like that its every man for himself. I was with Dylan Groenwegen for a long time but I couldn’t follow on the second to last climb and that was it.”<doc-sep>
Mark Cavendish and Marcel Kittel have been eliminated from the 2018 Tour de France after failing to make the time cut on Wednesday's tough mountain stage between Albertville and La Rosière. Cavendish was dropped on the very first climb of the day, the Montée de Bisanne, and was forced to climb the Col du Pré alone nearly half an hour behind the front of the race after team-mates Mark Renshaw and Jay Robert Thomson left him in order to try and make the time cut themselves. The two sprinters only narrowly avoided elimination on stage 10 of the race as he came home in a small group of riders just 28 seconds inside the time limit. >>> Mark Cavendish 'bitterly disapponted' after missing time cut and being eliminated from Tour de France However there was going to be no repeat of that on Wednesday's stage, and with the time cut set at 31-27 after the finish of stage winner Geraint Thomas, Kittel crossed the line 42-51 in arrears while Cavendish finished more than an hour behind Thomas. There was also for Mark Renshaw, who had left Cavendish earlier in the day, also missing the cut. There was also a dramatic finish for Katusha-Alpecin's Rick Zabel, who sprinted across the line only to miss the time cut by four seconds before commissaires took mercy on the German and allowed him to stay in the race. Watch: Tour de France stage 11 highlights This is the fifth time that Cavendish has failed to finish the Tour de France. In his debut Tour in 2007 he made it as far as the end of the first week before abandoning on stage seven, which coincidentally also climbed the Cormet de Roselend. He also pulled out of the 2016 Tour to prepare for the Olympic games, while his other two abandons were as a result of crashes, coming in 2014 when he crashed on British roads at the end of stage one in Harrogate, and in 2017 when he was brought down in a coming together with Peter Sagan at the end of stage four in Vittel, an incident that saw Sagan disqualified from the race.