Norway's reigning road race champion Kurt-Asle Arvesen won the 11th stage of the 2008 Tour de France on July 16. Arvesen, who rides for team CSC Saxo Bank, finished the 167.5km between Lannemezan and Foix first, only five centimetres ahead of Martin Elmiger, with Alessandro Ballan taking third spot.

"In the final I felt strong, attacked a couple of times and then got away with Elmiger. Ballan came up… I wasn’t really in a good position for the sprint but once I opened it up, I felt good so it was just enough. Lucky day for me!" he said, as quoted by the Tour's official website letour.com.

"It was close at the finish, sure. It was just about five centimeters but that’s enough when you’re in front. I’ve been that far behind in the past so today was my day."

The trio was part of a group of 12 riders who finished almost 15 minutes ahaid of the main pack. The group did not have any of the main race contenders and were allowed to break away over the last 130km of the stage. Russian Alexandre Botcharov from team Credit Agricole was the best placed of the bunch, but even he was more than 20 minutes down.

Australian Cadel Evans kept his leader's yellow jersey, finishing in the peloton, with no change at the top in the sprinters' or king of the mountains standings, where Oscar Freire and Riccardo Ricco kept their green and polka-dot jerseys, respectively.

The stage, which marred the Tour's return to the road after a rest day, was marred by the second doping suspension of this year's race. Organisers Amaury Sport Organisation said at the start of the stage that "Team Barloworld will start the 11th stage, this morning in Lannemezan, wtihout Moises Duenas Nevado, who has been withdrawn from the team after being tested positive [for blood-cell hormone EPO] at the end of the time trial fourth stage."

Manuel Beltran from team Liquigas was suspended before the start of the eighth stage, having tested positive for EPO at the end of the first stage.

Things would go from bad to worse for Barloworld, who lost two more riders on the day, with Felix Cardenas dropping out and Paolo Longo Borghini forced to abandon after breaking his collarbone in a crash. Barloworld is thus reduced to five men from nine who started the Tour, having lost team leader and last year's king of the mountains winner Mauricio Soler, who did not recover from a crash in the first stage, five days into the Tour.

Stage 12 of the 2008 Tour de France is flat and, at 168.5km between Lavelanet and Narbonne, will give the race favourites more time to recover after the Pyrenees and ahead of the Alps, while at the same time offering other riders a chance for glory on the break-away.