Rohan Dennis of BMC, the new leader in the Point d’Appui competition.

The fulcrum stage of the 2015 Tour de France, Stage 11, saw a new leader in the contention for the Point d’Appui after the previous holder crashed and had to abandon. Rohan Dennis of BMC moved several spots up in the general classification to land on fulcrum point of the fulcrum stage of a difficult mountain stage.

The hot, steep climbs over the Col d’Aspin and Col du Tourmalet put the placement of riders below the top 20 into the jackstraws.

Rafal Majka of Tinkoff-Saxo won the stage atop the hill of Cauterets, riding solo much of the afternoon and dedicating his win in part to his teammate Daniele Bennati, who had led in the Point d’Appui competition after the Stage 10. Bennati crashed hard relatively early in the stage and had to abandon.

Along with the loss of Bennati, the Tour saw five more abandons on the day: Dominik Nerz of Bora-Argon 18, Rui Costa of Lampre-Merida, Daniele Bennati of Tinkoff-Saxo, Johan Van Summeren of AG2R La Mondiale, Ben Gastauer of AG2R La Mondiale and Rein Taaramae of Astana Pro Team.

Chris Froome of Sky still leads the general classification and Michael Matthews of Orica GreenEdge still holds the Lanterne Rouge, but he has gained time on other riders in le autobus. He is less than a minute behind Alex Dowsett of Movistar Team.