A review of what happened Wednesday and a look at what to expect in today’s stage:Today’s 12th stage favors sprinters on a 104.7-mile flat route from Lavelanet to Narbonne.
Wednesday’s stage: A 104.1-mile trek through medium mountains from Lannemezan to Foix in hot temperatures. The trek featured one tough Category 1 climb, the last big ascent in the Pyrenees.
Winner: Norwegian champion Kurt-Asle Arvesen just beat Swiss rider Martin Elmiger and Italy’s Alessandro Ballan in a photo finish for his first Tour stage win. All were timed in 3 hours 58 minutes 13 seconds.
Yellow Jersey: Cadel Evans of Australia kept the yellow jersey and remains one second ahead of Frank Schleck of Luxembourg and 38 seconds ahead of Christian Vande Velde of the United States, who is in third place.
Quote of the Day: “Today I rolled the dice and everything worked well. Winning a stage of the Tour while I’m wearing my national jersey -- it can’t get much better than that.” -- Arvesen.
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STAGE 11 RESULTS
*--* 1. Kurt-Asle Arvesen, Norway 3:58:13 2. Martin Elmiger, Switzerland same time 3. Alessandro Ballan, Italy same time 4. Koos Moerenhout, Netherlands 0:02 behind 5. Alexandre Botcharov, Russia 0:11 behind *--*
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OVERALL STANDINGS
*--* 1. Cadel Evans, Australia: 46:42:13 2. Frank Schleck, Luxembourg: 0:01 behind 3. Christian Vande Velde, U.S.: 0:38 behind 4. Bernhard Kohl, Austria: 0:46 behind 5. Denis Menchov, Russia: 0:57 behind *--*