The brutal effort in the Pyrenees mountains was all about strength and stamina. It was a painful experience offering no respite after 12 grueling stages of racing.

Tour de France riders have applauded for a minute before the 12th stage in memory of Samuele Privitera, the 19-year-old Italian who died after a crash while racing in Italy.

Norway’s Jonas Abrahamsen won an incident-packed stage 11 at the Tour de France on Wednesday, outsprinting Mauro Schmid in Toulouse. Behind them, race favorite Tadej Pogačar crashed in the final minutes, but did not lose any time to his general classification rivals after they sportingly waited until he rejoined them.

The Tour de France has reached Toulouse and the riders have definitely earned their first rest day with ferocious pace as we near the halfway point of the three-week race.