Transport yourself back to the summer of 1999. Napster has just been created and The Matrix has just landed in cinemas and has everyone questioning their own reality.
Viewers of the Tour de France that year should also probably have been pondering what they were seeing, as stage 4 from Laval to Blois saw the fastest stage ever at an average speed of 50.356 km/h over 194.5 km, courtesy of a pan-flat course and a ripping tailwind.
Fast forward 27 years to stage 11 in 2026 and we have a new record, as Uno-X Mobility's Søren Wærenskjold led the bunch home in 3 hours and 10 minutes at a rattling 50.91 km/h.
"I felt it was fast, it was not super hard stage but when we stopped for pee pee to come back was crazy," the yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar said in his post-race press conference. "Then we were like, 'Today will be fast at the finish line.' It’s good to be part of it. The fastest stage.
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