photo credits @ Le Tour
Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) further stamped his authority in the sprint classification of this year’s Tour de France, after the Eritrean rider scored his third victory in today’s stage 12, out-pacing Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) in Villeneuve-sur-Lot.
Meanwhile, today’s stage saw more drama among the Tour de France overall contenders with Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) getting caught up in a late crash and losing 2:27 on the race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). As a result, Roglič and several teammates were. forced to chase their way back, but lacked the speed to close the gap on the peloton that was being driven by Visma-Lease a Bike, while Pogačar finished safely in the peloton his grip on the maillot jaune.
Race Highlights
Stage 12 commenced with 167 riders on the start line, after Michael Morkov tested positive for Covid-19 and the Astana Qazaqstan team’s medical staff took the decision to withdraw him from the Tour. With an afternoon in the beautiful landscapes of the Cantal and Lot regions ahead on the hilly 203.6 km route from Aurillac to Villeneuve-sur-Lot, the early running saw several breakaway attempts failing in the first few kilometers.
Four men in the breakaway
Eventually, it was Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) who initiated a successful movement at km 19 and he was quickly followed by his teammate Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), as well as Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) and Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies). This quartet did not encounter any opposition at first, especially as the peloton’s progress was disrupted by a crash at km 23. The incident was of no consequence, however, the day quickly turned into an ordeal for (Fabio Jakobsen Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) and then later Pello Bilbao (Bahrain – Victorious) who both abandoned the race due to illness.
Abrahamsen and Turgis
Still wearing the polka dot jersey despite having lost the lead in the Mountain classification to Yellow Jersey Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) yesterday, Abrahamsen was the first to reach the summits of both the Côte d’Autoire (Cat. 4, km 62.8) and the Côte de Rocamadour (Cat. 4, km 84.3), where the breakaway foursome maintained a lead of 2’10” over the peloton. Turgis then led the breakaway through the intermediate sprint point at Gourdon (km 110), where they still had a 1’25” lead over their pursuers in the main group. The top of the Côte de Montcléra (Cat. 4, km 135.5) climb was also reached first by Abrahamsen and by that time the peloton had reduced their deficit to 1’10”.
An exciting finale in Villeneuve-sur-Lot
That Côte de Montcléra climb had seen Turgis lose contact with the other three riders in the breakaway and within 30 km the peloton caught up with the remaining trio of escapees (at km 162). With 12.5 kilometres to go a crash for Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) brought several other riders to the ground, including Roglic, costing him crucial time in the GC. After a flat final sector, it was another fantastic, frantic bunch sprint in Villeneuve-sur-Lot, with Girmay producing a brutal acceleration to beat his rivals to the finish line for his third win in this year’s Tour.
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