{"id":7891,"date":"2026-07-15T17:36:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/15\/norways-waerenskjold-wins-fastest-tour-de-france-stage-in-history\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T17:36:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:36:06","slug":"norways-waerenskjold-wins-fastest-tour-de-france-stage-in-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/15\/norways-waerenskjold-wins-fastest-tour-de-france-stage-in-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Norway\u2019s Waerenskjold wins fastest Tour de France stage in history"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>At an average speed of 50.91kph, Soren Waerenskjold\u2019s sprint was the fastest road stage in the 113 editions of the Tour.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Norwegian Soren Waerenskjold launched a long-range sprint to claim victory at the Tour de France in the fastest stage in the race\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p>Dutchman Olav Kooij, who won the fifth stage, took second at the end of the 161-kilometre (100-mile) 11th stage from Vichy to Nevers, with Belgian Milan Fretin promoted from fourth to third after his compatriot Jasper Philipsen was demoted.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/7\/15\/lamine-yamal-name-history-barcelona-spain-fifa-world-cup-final-2026-what-to-know\">Beauty and grace: Spain prodigy Lamine Yamal\u2019s game lives up to his name<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/7\/15\/spains-oscar-winning-actor-raises-palestine-flag-at-world-cup-match\">Spain\u2019s Oscar-winning actor raises Palestine flag at World Cup match<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/15\/a-role-model-djed-spence-first-muslim-england-player-lifts-hopes\">\u2018Football is for everyone\u2019: Djed Spence and the Three Lions\u2019 Muslim moment<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/gallery\/2026\/7\/15\/photos-france-fireworks-fade-as-spain-march-into-world-cup-final\">Photos: Spain ends Mbappe and France\u2019s World Cup dream to reach final<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>At an average speed of 50.91km\/h (31.63mph), Wednesday\u2019s sprint was the fastest road stage in the 113 editions of the Tour de France.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt means everything, it\u2019s my biggest win so far,\u201d said the 26-year-old who was second in the seventh stage to Bordeaux and last year won the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad one-day classic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I came here, I knew that there are two or three guys that are faster than me, but if I\u2019m lucky and I have a good sprint like today, then it\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes, I have really good confidence, and I believe in myself, but there\u2019s many, many times where I feel super tired and it\u2019s impossible to win here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once again, there was a fairly disjointed sprint finish with none of the teams able to organise a sprint train to set up their fast man.<\/p>\n<p>Kooij\u2019s lead-out rider Cees Bol launched off the front as the main sprinters hesitated, but Waerenskjold was the first to chase after the Dutchman.<\/p>\n<p>He instantly put several bike lengths of daylight between himself and the rest, and although both Kooij and Philipsen caught him by the line, they did not have enough strength to edge past Waerenskjold.<\/p>\n<p>Belgian Tim Merlier, who had won the seventh and eighth sprint stages, finished a disappointing 14th.<\/p>\n<p>Eritrean Biniam Girmay finished fifth to cut Mads Pedersen\u2019s lead in the sprinters\u2019 green jersey competition to 43 points after the Dane could finish only 10th.<\/p>\n<p>It was the second race stage victory for the Norwegian Uno-X Mobility team, which is in its first year as a World Tour outfit, after Jonas Abrahamsen succeeded once last year.<\/p>\n<p>The team also held the yellow jersey for two stages this year with Torstein Traeen before he crashed out with a concussion and broken ribs.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4773778\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4773778\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AFP__20260715__C2A93KD__v1__MidRes__CyclingTdf2026Stage11-1784132192.jpg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C513&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"Uno-X Mobility team's Norwegian rider Soren Waerenskjold celebrates after winning the 11th stage of the 113th edition of the Tour de France cycling race\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4773778\">Uno-X Mobility team\u2019s Norwegian rider Soren Waerenskjold celebrates after winning the 11th stage [Tim De Waele\/AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Reigning champion Tadej Pogacar finished safely in the pack to retain his overall lead of more than three and a half minutes to two-time former winner Jonas Vingegaard.<\/p>\n<p>He put down the rapid pace partly to the strength of the breakaway riders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was a lot of chance for the breakaway to go to the finish line, and the sprint teams, they control and they need to catch them,\u201d said the 27-year-old world champion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday was a strong breakaway, that\u2019s why the speed has to be high.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce we caught them, we slowed down immediately, and it was so funny to ride from 5km to 2km [3.1-1.2 miles]\u00a0 to go \u2013 we ride the slowest of all day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe biggest reason is also the tailwind. With the headwind will be much, much less speed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut when you have such a strong breakaway in front, you go fast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A four-man breakaway had set off early into the stage, which began in the ancient spa town of Vichy.<\/p>\n<p>They were never allowed a longer leash than one minute and 40 seconds, and four became three when Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe, a former world champion and yellow jersey-wearer, was dropped on a short climb with about 40km (25 miles) left.<\/p>\n<p>But Anthon Charmig, Mathis Le Berre and Nelson Oliveira collaborated well together to resist the inevitable return of the peloton.<\/p>\n<p>With 10km (6.2 miles) to ride, their lead was down to just 20 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>But within four kilometres (2.5 miles), their resistance was over, and the expected sprint took centre stage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At an average speed of 50.91kph, Soren Waerenskjold\u2019s sprint was the fastest road stage in the 113 editions of the Tour. Norwegian Soren Waerenskjold launched a long-range sprint to claim victory at the Tour de France in the fastest stage in the race\u2019s history. Dutchman Olav Kooij, who won the fifth stage, took second at &#8230; <a title=\"Norway\u2019s Waerenskjold wins fastest Tour de France stage in history\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/15\/norways-waerenskjold-wins-fastest-tour-de-france-stage-in-history\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Norway\u2019s Waerenskjold wins fastest Tour de France stage in history\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}