These are the profiles and summaries for the individual stages in the 2011 Tour de France, with Stage 12 on 14 July, to Stage 21 on 24 July.
LegendJerseys appearing in the table on the left of the page indicate those worn by the cyclist during the particular stage, while those appearing in the table on the right of the page indicate those awarded to the cyclist after the stage. Denotes the leader of the general classification Denotes the leader of the points classification Denotes the leader of the mountains classification Denotes the leader of the young rider classification Denotes a rider representing the leaders of the team classification Denotes the rider designated as the day's most combative s.t. indicates that the rider crossed the finish line in the same group as the one receiving the time above him, and was therefore credited with the same finishing time.
Stage 12 14 July 2011 — Cugnaux to Luz Ardiden,
For stage 12, the first stage to enter the high mountains, the route included one first category (La Hourquette d'Ancizan, used by the tour for the first time), and two highest category climbs, and a summit finish. The early breakaway, consisting of Geraint Thomas (), Iván Gutiérrez (), Rubén Pérez (), Laurent Mangel (), Blel Kadri () and Jérémy Roy (), established a maximum lead of nine minutes and preserved their lead over the first two climbs. On the final climb, an attack by Jelle Vanendert () and Samuel Sánchez () was the first to overhaul the breakaway, and they were pursued by a group of the main GC contenders, initially with pacesetting by Sylwester Szmyd which reduced the size of the group, although contrary to expectations, yellow jersey wearer Thomas Voeckler remained with the leaders. With remaining, Fränk Schleck broke clear of the yellow jersey group, but was unable to catch Sánchez and Vanendert, who took the first two places. Within the final kilometre, Alberto Contador lost time to some of his main rivals for the overall competition, Ivan Basso, Cadel Evans and Andy Schleck.
Stage 12 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 7" 3 + 10" 4 + 30" 5 + 30" 6 + 30" 7 + 35" 8 + 50" 9 + 50" 10 + 1' 03"General classification after stage 12 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 1' 49" 3 + 2' 06" 4 + 2' 17" 5 + 3' 16" 6 + 3' 22" 7 + 4' 11" 8 + 4' 35" 9 + 4' 57" 10 + 5' 07"
Stage 13 15 July 2011 — Pau to Lourdes,
From the original ten man breakaway, three riders, Jérémy Roy (), Thor Hushovd () and David Moncoutié (), went clear on the highest category ascent to the Col d'Aubisque, with Roy leading over the top by nearly a minute from Moncoutié, with Hushovd more than a minute further behind. Roy's lead over the peloton at that point was over 8 minutes, and he became leader of the King of the Mountain competition. On the descent, Hushovd caught Moncoutie and the pair pursued Roy until Hushovd, who had worn the yellow jersey for 7 stages earlier in the race, dropped Moncountie inside the last , and passed Roy to win the stage: Moncoutié eventually took second place. Most of the other riders from the early break stayed clear of the peloton, from which Philippe Gilbert (), accompanied by Bauke Mollema (), broke away on the descent to regain his place in the top ten overall and gain some points over the other contenders in the points competition. There was little other change in the general classification, with the main peloton coming in some seven and a half minutes behind Hushovd, but Andreas Klöden withdrew earlier in the stage having suffered injuries earlier in the race.
Stage 13 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 10" 3 + 26" 4 + 5' 00" 5 + 5' 02" 6 + 5' 03" 7 + 5' 08" 8 + 5' 16" 9 + 5' 16" 10 + 6' 48"General classification after stage 13 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 1' 49" 3 + 2' 06" 4 + 2' 17" 5 + 3' 16" 6 + 3' 22" 7 + 4' 11" 8 + 4' 35" 9 + 4' 35" 10 + 4' 57"
Stage 14 16 July 2011 — Saint-Gaudens to Plateau de Beille,
This stage had six categorised climbs. From the original break, which had as many as 24 members but was disrupted by several breaks from among the group, Sandy Casar of had the virtual lead at one point, but by the beginning of the last climb, to the highest category finish at Plateau de Beille his lead was little over two minutes. On the steeper lower slopes of the climb the chase group was reduced to the eight leading men in the general classification, Voeckler's teammate Pierre Rolland, Rigoberto Urán, who took the white jersey for the leading young rider at the end of the stage, Jean-Christophe Péraud, and Jelle Vanendert. After three abortive attempts by Andy Schleck to split the group, Vanendert broke from the select group of favourites with some remaining, and was the first to overtake Casar, but only Damiano Cunego was unable to stay with the group. Ivan Basso put the group under further pressure, but Samuel Sánchez was the only one to make any meaningful pursuit of Vanendert, with those two riders reversing the finishing positions from stage 12. Andy Schleck gained two seconds over the group in the final few hundred metres, and Vanendert's stage victory also earned him the leadership of the mountains category.
Stage 14 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 21" 3 + 46" 4 + 48" 5 + 48" 6 + 48" 7 + 48" 8 + 48" 9 + 48" 10 + 48"General classification after stage 14 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 1' 49" 3 + 2' 06" 4 + 2' 15" 5 + 3' 16" 6 + 3' 44" 7 + 4' 01" 8 + 5' 46" 9 + 6' 18" 10 + 7' 55"
Stage 15 17 July 2011 — Limoux to Montpellier,
On the last largely flat stage before the final day of the race, the main breakaway group of the day had five members; and was established from the beginning of the stage. The group—Mickaël Delage (), Niki Terpstra (), Samuel Dumoulin (), Mikhail Ignatiev () and Anthony Delaplace ()—was never more than three minutes clear of the peloton and as the catch approached, Ignatiev and Terpstra moved clear of their colleagues. Terpstra was the last member of the group to be caught, with about remaining; despite some attempts at late breakaways including one by Philippe Gilbert, sprinters dominated the finish, with Mark Cavendish winning his fourth stage of the race ahead of Tyler Farrar and Alessandro Petacchi.
Stage 15 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General classification after stage 15 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 1' 49" 3 + 2' 06" 4 + 2' 15" 5 + 3' 16" 6 + 3' 44" 7 + 4' 01" 8 + 5' 46" 9 + 6' 18" 10 + 7' 55"
Stage 16 19 July 2011 — Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Gap,
The first stage to enter the Alps had a very high pace for the first two hours, with no break from the peloton until the second half of the stage. Ten riders eventually moved clear of the peloton, but extended their margin rapidly to six minutes. After an unsuccessful attempt to move ahead of the bunch by Mikhail Ignatiev (), Ryder Hesjedal () got clear to lead over the category 2 mountain. He was eventually caught by his teammate Thor Hushovd and another Norwegian, Edvald Boasson Hagen (), before Hushovd went on to win the stage, his second of the tour. On the ascent of the Col de Manse, Alberto Contador made two attacks, the second of which was successful, with Cadel Evans and Samuel Sánchez joining him in taking a time advantage on the stage over the other riders in contention for high placings in the general classification, and more than a minute over Andy Schleck.
Stage 16 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 s.t. 3 + 2" 4 + 38" 5 + 52" 6 + 1' 25" 7 + 1' 25" 8 + 1' 55" 9 + 1' 55" 10 + 1' 58"General classification after stage 16 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 1' 45" 3 + 1' 49" 4 + 3' 03" 5 + 3' 26" 6 + 3' 49" 7 + 4' 01" 8 + 6' 04" 9 + 7' 55" 10 + 8' 20"
Stage 17 20 July 2011 — Gap to Pinerolo (Italy),
This stage had five categorised climbs, but as with the preceding stage, finished with a descent. More than had passed before any break was established, but a group of fourteen riders finally got clear and extended their lead to over eight minutes. From that group, Rubén Pérez () broke away to be first over the Col de Sestriere, but was caught by a counterattack on the final climb initiated by Sylvain Chavanel (), which also included Edvald Boasson Hagen (), Bauke Mollema () and Jonathan Hivert (). Boasson Hagen led over the final mountain and retained his lead on the descent to win the stage, while Hivert left the road twice and thus enabled Mollema to take second place. Among the General Classification contenders both Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck were aggressive on the last climb, but were unable to drop their opponents, while on the descent an attack initiated by yellow jersey wearer Thomas Voeckler, accompanied by Contador and Samuel Sánchez, was able to escape the group. Voeckler went off the road on two corners on the descent; and although Contador and Sánchez were able to stay clear for most of the descent, they were caught by a group that included all the other members of the top eight in the overall ranking—apart from Voeckler and Ivan Basso, who both conceded 27 seconds to their rivals.
Stage 17 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 40" 3 + 50" 4 + 50" 5 + 50" 6 + 1' 10" 7 + 1' 10" 8 + 1' 10" 9 + 1' 15" 10 + 2' 20"General classification after stage 17 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 1' 18" 3 + 1' 22" 4 + 2' 36" 5 + 2' 59" 6 + 3' 34" 7 + 3' 49" 8 + 6' 04" 9 + 7' 36" 10 + 7' 53"
Stage 18 21 July 2011 — Pinerolo (Italy) to Col du Galibier–Serre Chevalier,
This stage had three highest category climbs, including both the highest point of the 2011 Tour and the highest finish in the history of the race. A group of 14 riders made a break after , and their lead reached nine minutes, but dropped to five and a half by the time Maxim Iglinsky () led over the Col Agnel. The lead group had been reduced to six by the top of the second climb, the Col d'Izoard, which Iglinski again passed first, but by this time the group of favourites for the overall race had been affected by a solo attack by Andy Schleck. He gained two minutes on the remaining part of that climb, and had assistance from Joost Posthuma and Maxime Monfort, members of his team who had been in the early break. The group of the remaining leading General Classification competitors seemed poorly co-ordinated, and with to go, Schleck had reached the head of the race with an advantage of 4:24 over the yellow jersey group. Cadel Evans was the pace setter for the group in pursuit of Schleck, and some of the leading challengers lost time to the pursuing group, including Alberto Contador and Samuel Sánchez. Andy Schleck's winning margin was reduced at the end of the stage to a little over two minutes, with his brother Fränk passing the remnants of the chase group to take second place. Thomas Voeckler retained the overall race lead, although his advantage was reduced to 15 seconds. More than half the field finished outside the cut-off time for elimination, but were reprieved and instead penalised by the loss of 20 points, which meant that José Joaquín Rojas moved to 15 points behind Mark Cavendish in the competition for the green jersey.
Stage 18 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 2' 07" 3 + 2' 15" 4 + 2' 18" 5 + 2' 21" 6 + 2' 27" 7 + 2' 33" 8 + 3' 22" 9 + 3' 25" 10 + 3' 31"General classification after stage 18 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 15" 3 + 1' 08" 4 + 1' 12" 5 + 3' 46" 6 + 3' 46" 7 + 5' 20" 8 + 7' 08" 9 + 9' 27" 10 + 9' 36"
Stage 19 22 July 2011 — Modane to Alpe d'Huez,