2012 Tour de France
The 2012 Tour de France was the 99th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started in the Belgian city of Liège on 30 June and finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 22 July. The Tour consisted of 21 stages, including an opening prologue, and covered a total distance of 3,496.9 km (2,173 mi). As well as the prologue, the first two stages took place in Belgium, and one stage finished in Switzerland. Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) won the overall general classification, and became the first British rider to win the Tour. Wiggins's teammate Chris Froome placed second, and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas–Cannondale) was third.


2012 Tour de France
The general classification leader's yellow jersey was worn for the first week by Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack–Nissan), who won the prologue. Wiggins, second in the prologue, took the leadership of the race on stage seven, the first mountainous stage, which was won by Froome, and maintained his lead for the remainder of the race, winning the two longest time trials, and not losing time to his main challengers for the overall title in the mountains.


2012 Tour de France
The points classification was won by Nibali's teammate Peter Sagan, who won three stages. André Greipel of Lotto–Belisol and Team Sky rider Mark Cavendish also won three stages. Team Europcar's Thomas Voeckler, winner of two mountain stages, won the mountains classification. BMC Racing Team's Tejay van Garderen, in fifth place overall, won the young rider classification. The team classification was won by RadioShack–Nissan, and Chris Anker Sørensen (Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank) was given the award for the most combative rider.


2012 Tour de France, Teams
The 2012 edition of the Tour de France consisted of 22 teams. The race was the 18th of the 29 events in the UCI World Tour, and all of its eighteen UCI ProTeams were entitled, and obliged, to enter the race. On 6 April 2012, the organiser of the Tour, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), announced the four second-tier UCI Professional Continental teams given wildcard invitations, of which three were French-based (Cofidis, Team Europcar and Saur–Sojasun) and one was Dutch (Argos–Shimano). The presentation of the teams – where the members of each team's roster are introduced in front of the media and local dignitaries – took place outside the Prince-Bishops' Palace in Liège, Belgium, on 28 June, two days before the opening stage held in the city.


2012 Tour de France, Teams
Each squad was allowed a maximum of nine riders, resulting in a start list total of 198 riders. Of these, 35 were riding the Tour de France for the first time. The riders came from 31 countries; France, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Germany and Australia all had 12 or more riders in the race. Riders from six countries won stages during the race; British riders won the largest number of stages, with seven. The average age of riders in the race was 30.17 years, ranging from the 22-year-old Thibaut Pinot (FDJ–BigMat) to the 40-year-old Jens Voigt (RadioShack–Nissan). The Saur–Sojasun cyclists had the youngest average age while RadioShack–Nissan cyclists had the oldest.


2012 Tour de France, Pre-race favourites
According to many observers before the race the favourite for the general classification was Bradley Wiggins. His closest rivals were thought to be Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas–Cannondale). Alberto Contador, the winner of both the 2007 Tour and 2009 Tour, was serving a doping suspension and did not race in the 2012 Tour. Andy Schleck, who finished second in the 2010 Tour (later promoted to the winner after Contador's result was annulled in February 2012) and 2011 Tour, was not able to recover from an injury suffered in the Critérium du Dauphiné. The other riders considered contenders for the general classification were Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin–Sharp), Fränk Schleck (RadioShack–Nissan), Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel–Euskadi), Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto–Belisol), Tony Martin (Omega Pharma–Quick-Step), Denis Menchov (Team Katusha), Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma–Quick-Step), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) and Robert Gesink (Rabobank).


2012 Tour de France, Pre-race favourites
Prior to the 2012 Tour, Wiggins's highest finishes in a Grand Tour were third in the 2011 Vuelta a España and fourth in the 2009 Tour (later promoted to third after Lance Armstrong's result was annulled in October 2012). Wiggins had shown his form in the lead-up to the Tour by winning the general classifications in three stage races in the 2012 season: the Paris–Nice, the Tour de Romandie and the Dauphiné. As a time trialist, Wiggins was thought to be the rider most suited to the race's course. The 2011 Tour winner Evans came back from an illness earlier in the season to win the two-day Critérium International and place third at the Dauphiné. The 2010 Vuelta a España winner Nibali had shown his form in the lead-up to the Tour by winning the Tirreno–Adriatico stage race.


2012 Tour de France, Pre-race favourites
The sprinters considered favourites for the points classification and wins in bunch sprint finishes were Mark Cavendish (Team Sky), André Greipel (Lotto–Belisol), Matthew Goss (Orica–GreenEDGE), Peter Sagan (Liquigas–Cannondale) and Marcel Kittel (Argos–Shimano). Cavendish, the world road race champion and defending points classification winner, did not have the full support of Team Sky as he did in the 2011 Tour with the HTC–Highroad team; Team Sky's focus was on Wiggins' general classification ambitions. He had won the four-stage race Ster ZLM Toer thirteen days before the start of the Tour.


2012 Tour de France, Pre-race favourites
Greipel, who had the full backing of his team, had shown his form in the season with thirteen victories up to the Tour. Goss was second to Cavendish at the world championships and was the new sprint leader of his team, although he had only one win in the year up to the Tour. Sagan was equal in wins with Greipel with thirteen, of which five came in the Tour of California and four in the Tour de Suisse. Kittel won two stages in both the Tour of Oman and Ster ZLM Toer.


2012 Tour de France, Route and stages
On 29 October 2010, the ASO announced that Liège would host the 2012 edition's opening stages (known as the Grand Départ). Further details of the first three stages held in Belgium were released at an event at the city's Prince-Bishops' Palace on 18 November. Liège, which had also hosted the 2004 Grand Départ, became the first city outside France to host the Grand Départ twice. The entire route of the race was accidentally published on the ASO website on 10 October 2011, eight days before the official presentation at the Palais des Congrès in Paris.


2012 Tour de France, Route and stages
At the event, the race director, Christian Prudhomme, said, "It's a Tour designed to widen the possibilities". The route was noted as being innovative when compared to recent years, with fewer high altitude stage finishes, and more of a focus on medium mountain stages and individual time trials. Due to a clash with the start of the Olympics at the end of July, the Tour began a week earlier than usual.


2012 Tour de France, Route and stages
After the opening prologue in Liège, stage one left the city with the finish in Seraing. The second stage took place between Visé to Tournai. The race then moved into north-west France, with the third stage ending in the coastal city of Boulogne-sur-Mer, before the fourth ended in Rouen, and the fifth in Saint-Quentin. Stage six took the race east, with the seventh ending in the Vosges Mountains. Stage eight then entered the Jura Mountains, with the finish in Porrentruy, Switzerland. A return to France saw the next stage take place between Arc-et-Senans to Besançon.


2012 Tour de France, Route and stages
The next stages, ten and eleven, went into the Alps, and stages twelve and thirteen took the Tour down to the Mediterranean coast at Cap d'Agde. Stage fourteen moved the race into the east of Pyrenees, before a transitional stage taking it to the western side of the mountains for the next two stages. Stage eighteen was held between Blagnac to Brive-la-Gaillarde in the south of the country, before a long transfer took the race back to the north-east for two further stages, with the finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.


2012 Tour de France, Route and stages
There were 21 stages in the race, covering a total distance of 3,496.9 km (2,173 mi), 133.1 km (82.7 mi) shorter than the 2011 Tour. The longest mass-start stage was the twelfth at 226 km (140 mi), and stage 21 was the shortest at 120 km (75 mi). The race featured twice the time trialling distance of the previous Tour, a total of 101.1 km (63 mi), with the prologue, stage nine and stage nineteen. Of the remaining stages, nine were officially classified as flat, four as medium mountain and five as high mountain.


2012 Tour de France, Route and stages
There were three summit finishes: stage 7, to La Planche des Belles Filles; stage 11, to La Toussuire-Les Sybelles; and stage 17, to Peyragudes. The Col du Grand Colombier, in the Alps, was included for the first time, and was among six hors catégorie (English: beyond category) rated climbs in the race. The highest point of elevation in the race was the 2,115 m (6,939 ft)-high Col du Tourmalet mountain pass on stage sixteen. There were nine new stage start or finish locations. The rest days were after stage nine, in Mâcon, and fifteen, in Pau.


2012 Tour de France, Race overview, Opening week
The opening 6.4 km (4 mi) prologue stage in Liège was won by RadioShack–Nissan's Fabian Cancellara. Bradley Wiggins and Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma–Quick-Step) placed second and third respectively, both seven seconds in arrears, with Wiggins fractionally faster. Cancellara claimed the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification and the green jersey as leader of the points classification. In stage one, a large group of riders reached the final climb, the Côte de Seraing.


2012 Tour de France, Race overview, Opening week
Cancellara attacked 1.5 km (0.9 mi) from the finish, followed by Peter Sagan and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky), before Sagan won the three-man sprint finish at the summit. Michael Mørkøv of Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank took the first polka dot jersey as leader of the mountains classification. The next stage was won by Mark Cavendish from a bunch sprint finish in Tournai, Belgium, with Sagan taking the green jersey. Stage three, the first in France, saw Sagan win again, crossing the finish line with a comfortable margin on the short steep climb in Boulogne-sur-Mer.


2012 Tour de France, Race overview, Opening week
The fourth stage ended with a bunch sprint which was won by André Greipel. A crash with 3 km (1.9 mi) remaining took Cavendish out of contention for the stage win. Another bunch finish occurred on the next stage, with Greipel victorious again. The sixth stage was won by Sagan in another bunch sprint.


2012 Tour de France, Race overview, Vosges, Jura and Alps
In stage seven, the first at altitude, the last of the day's breakaway riders were caught with 1.5 km (0.9 mi) remaining, on the final climb to La Planche des Belles Filles. A select group of five – Wiggins and his compatriot and teammate Chris Froome, Cadel Evans, Vincenzo Nibali and Rein Taaramäe (Cofidis) – then pulled clear in the final kilometre. Evans attacked before Froome countered and went on to win the stage and take the polka dot jersey.


2012 Tour de France, Race overview, Vosges, Jura and Alps
Cancellara lost almost two minutes on the day and surrendered the yellow jersey to Wiggins, who became the fifth British rider to wear the jersey. The eighth stage saw breakaway rider Thibaut Pinot attack a reduced break on the final climb, the Col de la Croix, and solo to the finish in Porrentruy, Switzerland, taking the victory by margin of 26 seconds. Breakaway rider Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) took the polka dot jersey. Stage nine's 41.5 km (25.8 mi) individual time trial was won by Wiggins, with Froome 35 seconds down in second and Cancellara a further 22 seconds behind in third. Froome moved up to third overall. The next day was the first rest day of the Tour.


2012 Tour de France, Race overview, Vosges, Jura and Alps
The tenth stage was the first classified as mountainous. The Col du Grand Colombier broke apart a 25-rider breakaway, leaving a small group to contest the finish at Bellegarde-sur-Valserine; Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar) claimed the stage win and the polka dot jersey. Another mountain stage followed the next day, which again saw a large breakaway. The break crossed the two hors catégorie climbs – the Col de la Madeleine and the Col de la Croix de Fer – before being caught by the chasing group, which contained the overall contenders.


2012 Tour de France, Race overview, Vosges, Jura and Alps
A number of attacks followed, until Team Europcar's Pierre Rolland escaped with 10 km (6.2 mi) to go and took the win at the Les Sybelles ski resort. The group of overall contenders followed 55 seconds later. Evans was not in the leading contenders group and, due to the time lost, he dropped from second to fourth overall, over three minutes in arrears. Kessiakoff took back the lead of the mountains classification. In stage twelve, a large breakaway formed 20 km (12.4 mi) in, before later reducing to five riders across the Col du Granier. They stayed together until the finish, where, with a kilometer remaining, David Millar (Garmin–Sharp) escaped to take victory, closely followed by Jean-Christophe Péraud (Ag2r–La Mondiale). The next stage finished with a bunch sprint won by Greipel, with Sagan second.


2012 Tour de France, Race overview, Pyrenees
In the first stage in the Pyrenees, the fourteenth stage overall, a large breakaway escaped 50 km (31.1 mi) in, and at one point amassed a lead of fifteen minutes. Of the five remaining riders from the final climb of Mur de Péguère, Luis León Sánchez of Rabobank attacked on an ascent with 11.5 km (7.1 mi) remaining and soloed to the finish in Foix. As the peloton (the main group) passed the Mur de Péguère, a large number of riders suffered tyre punctures; it was later discovered that the race course had been sabotaged with carpet tacks.


2012 Tour de France, Race overview, Pyrenees
Evans waited over a minute to get a replacement wheel, then had a further two punctures on the descent. As an act of sportsmanship Wiggins then forced the peloton to wait for Evans to return to the group. The next stage ran through the foothills of the Pyrenees. A five-rider breakaway made it to the finish in Pau, where with 6 km (3.7 mi) to go, Christian Vande Velde (Garmin–Sharp) and Pierrick Fédrigo (FDJ–BigMat) escaped with Fédrigo winning the sprint finish between the two cyclists. The following day was the Tour's second rest day.


2012 Tour de France, Race overview, Pyrenees
In the sixteenth stage, the race entered the high mountains with the queen stage crossing two hors catégorie climbs – the Col d'Aubisque and the Col du Tourmalet – followed by the first-category climbs of the Col d'Aspin and the Col de Peyresourde, completing the so-called "Circle of Death". A 38-rider breakaway crossed the Aubisque, before fracturing on the Tourmalet. Voeckler attacked on the Peyresourde and took the stage win with a margin of one minute and forty seconds. Voeckler's stage victory and maximum points over all summits put him in the lead of the mountains classification.


2012 Tour de France, Race overview, Pyrenees
Wiggins, Froome and Nibali came in seven minutes after Voeckler, while Evans lost almost five minutes to the trio, falling from fourth to seventh in the general classification. In the final stage in the Pyrenees, the seventeenth, after a number of attacks on the leading group containing the overall contenders, Alejandro Valverde moved clear over the hors categorie Port de Balès. He held his lead to the summit finish at the Peyragudes ski resort. In the group behind, Wiggins and Froome attacked their rivals to finish nineteen seconds later. Nibali came in seventh, a further eighteen seconds down. In the following stage, six riders from a breakaway were caught on the finishing straight in Brive-la-Gaillarde by the head of the chasing peloton, with Cavendish taking the victory ahead of Matthew Goss and Sagan respectively.


2012 Tour de France, Race overview, Finale
Wiggins secured the general classification in the penultimate stage's 53.5 km (33.2 mi) individual time trial. Froome placed second, one minute and sixteen seconds in arrears, with Sánchez a further 34 seconds behind in third. In the final stage, Cavendish won his fourth consecutive Champs-Élysées stage, to record his third stage win of the race. Wiggins finished the race to become the first British rider to win the Tour de France. Wiggins finished 3 min 21 s clear of compatriot and teammate Froome. Nibali placed third at 6 min 19 s behind Wiggins.


2012 Tour de France, Race overview, Finale
Sagan won the points classification with a total of 421, 141 ahead of Greipel in second. Voeckler won the mountains classification with 135 points, 12 ahead of second-placed Kessiakoff. The best young rider was BMC Racing Team rider Tejay van Garderen, who was followed by Pinot and Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) in second and third respectively. RadioShack–Nissan finished as the winners of the team classification, over 5 min 46 s ahead of second-placed Team Sky. Of the 198 starters, 153 reached the finish of the last stage in Paris.


2012 Tour de France, Race overview, Doping
During the race's first rest day, the team hotel of the Cofidis squad, in Bourg-en-Bresse, was searched by French police and gendarmerie. One of the team's riders in the Tour, Rémy Di Gregorio, was arrested in relation to an ongoing anti-doping case, and was immediately suspended by the French team, although the case had been open since 2011, when Di Gregorio was a member of the Astana team.


2012 Tour de France, Race overview, Doping
The second rest day was marked by a positive drugs test by Fränk Schleck, the third-placed rider from the 2011 Tour. Schleck was withdrawn from the race by his team after traces of xipamide, a banned sulfonamide diuretic drug, were found in the A-sample of his urine; the presence of xipamide was later confirmed by the B-sample. Subsequently, in January 2013, he was given a one-year ban by the Luxembourg Anti- Doping Agency. In July 2014, Denis Menchov was retroactively disqualified from the race by cycling's governing body, Union Cycliste Internationale, for "abnormalities in his biological passport".


2012 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
There were four main individual classifications contested in the 2012 Tour de France, as well as a team competition. The most important was the general classification, which was calculated by adding each rider's finishing times on each stage. There were no time bonuses given at the end of stages for this edition of the Tour. If a crash had happened within the final 3 km (1.9 mi) of a stage, not including time trials and summit finishes, the riders involved would have received the same time as the group they were in when the crash occurred. The rider with the lowest cumulative time was the winner of the general classification and was considered the overall winner of the Tour. The rider leading the classification wore a yellow jersey.


2012 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
The second classification was the points classification. Riders received points for finishing in the top fifteen positions in a stage finish, or in intermediate sprints during the stage. The points available for each stage finish were determined by the stage's type. The flat stage finishes awarded a maximum of 45 points, the medium mountain stages awarded a maximum of 30 points, and the high mountain stages, time trials and intermediate sprints awarded a maximum of 20 points. The leader was identified by a green jersey.


2012 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
The third classification was the mountains classification. Most stages of the race included one or more categorised climbs, in which points were awarded to the riders that reached the summit first. The climbs were categorised as fourth-, third-, second- or first-category and hors catégorie, with the more difficult climbs rated lower. Fourth-category awarded 1 rider with 1 point; third-category awarded 2 riders, the first with 2 points; second-category awarded 4 riders, the first with 5 points; and first-category awarded 6 riders, the first with 10 points; and hors catégorie awarded ten riders, the first with 25 points. Double points were awarded on the summit finishes on stages 1, 11 and 20. The leader wore a white jersey with red polka dots.


2012 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
The final individual classification was the young rider classification. This was calculated the same way as the general classification, but the classification was restricted to riders who were born on or after 1 January 1987. The leader wore a white jersey.


2012 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
The final classification was a team classification. This was calculated using the finishing times of the best three riders per team on each stage; the leading team was the team with the lowest cumulative time. The number of stage victories and placings per team determined the outcome of a tie. The riders in the team that lead this classification were identified with yellow number bibs on the back of their jerseys and, for first the time in the Tour's history, wore yellow helmets.


2012 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
In addition, there was a combativity award given after each stage to the rider considered, by a jury, to have "made the greatest effort and who has demonstrated the best qualities of sportsmanship". No combativity awards were given for the prologue, the time trials and the final stage. The winner wore a red number bib the following stage. At the conclusion of the Tour, Chris Anker Sørensen (Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank) won the overall super-combativity award, again, decided by a jury.


2012 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
A total of €2,414,246 was awarded in cash prizes in the race. The overall winner of the general classification received €450,000, with the second and third placed riders getting €200,000 and €100,000 respectively. All finishers of the race were awarded money. The holders of the classifications benefited on each stage they led; the final winners of the points and mountains classifications were given €25,000, while the best young rider and most combative rider got €20,000. The team classification winners were given €50,000.


2012 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
There were also two special awards each with a prize of €5,000, the Souvenir Henri Desgrange, given to the first rider to pass the summit of the Col de la Croix de Fer in stage eleven, and the Souvenir Jacques Goddet, given to the first rider to pass Goddet's memorial at the summit of the Col du Tourmalet in stage sixteen. Pierre Rolland won the Henri Desgrange and Thomas Voeckler won the Jacques Goddet.


2012 Tour de France, UCI World Tour rankings
Riders from the ProTeams competing individually, as well as for their teams and nations, for points that contributed towards the World Tour rankings. Points were awarded to the top twenty finishers in the general classification and to the top five finishers in each stage. Wiggins moved into the lead of the individual ranking, with Joaquim Rodríguez dropping to second. The points accrued by Chris Froome moved him from 52nd to 6th. Team Sky retained their lead in the team ranking, ahead of second-place Liquigas–Cannondale. Spain remained as the leaders of the nation ranking, with Italy second.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10
The 2012 Tour de France began on 30 June, and stage 10 occurred on 11 July. The 2012 edition began with a prologue – a short individual time trial stage – where each member of the starting peloton of 198 riders competed against the clock – in Liège, Belgium with two more stages held in the country before moving back into France. The race resumed in Orchies for the start of the third stage; also during the first half of the race, the peloton visited Switzerland for the finish to the eighth stage in Porrentruy, and contested another individual time trial stage – having returned to France – the following day.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10
Fabian Cancellara held the lead of the race throughout its opening Belgian leg; having won the race-commencing prologue, Cancellara defended it on the following two stages before the race returned to France. Cancellara maintained his overall lead for the rest of the race's first week, before eventually losing time on the first true mountain stage of the race – stage seven – as he was dropped on the closing climb to La Planche des Belles Filles. As a result, Bradley Wiggins assumed the maillot jaune, becoming the first British rider to wear the jersey since 2000.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10
Wiggins maintained the lead for the following three stages, including his first victory at the Tour during the ninth stage individual time trial in Besançon. Wiggins held a lead of almost two minutes in the overall standings with the more mountainous second half of the Tour still to race. Two riders won multiple stages during the first half of the race; Peter Sagan, in his first Tour de France, won three stages and also held the lead of the points classification, while André Greipel took back-to-back stage victories on the fourth and fifth stages. World champion Mark Cavendish achieved one stage victory, while French riders Thibaut Pinot and Thomas Voeckler each took breakaway victories.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10
The race was also marked by several large crashes, most notably on the sixth stage, when the majority of the field crashed with around 25 km (15.5 mi) remaining. In total, twelve riders had to abandon the race due to injuries suffered during the crash. During the race's first rest day – held after the ninth stage individual time trial – the team hotel of the Cofidis squad, in Bourg-en-Bresse, was searched by French police and gendarmerie. One of team's riders in the Tour, Rémy Di Gregorio, was arrested in relation to an ongoing anti-doping case, and was immediately suspended by the French team; although the case had been open since 2011, when Di Gregorio was a member of the Astana team.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Prologue
30 June 2012 — Liège (Belgium), 6.4 km (4.0 mi), (ITT)


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Prologue
The prologue was a short and fairly flat circuit around Liège, with expected stage times to be about eight minutes. The start ramp was located at Avenue Rogier next to the Parc d'Avroy; the riders then headed north by the Boulevard d'Avroy and Boulevard de la Sauvenière. They then followed the Quai Roosevelt, along the Meuse, until the midway point when they returned on the opposite carriageway, before turning right towards Place Saint-Lambert, in front of the Palais des Princes-Évêques. From there, the riders rejoined the original route on the opposite carriageway of Boulevard de la Sauvenière before the finish line located on Boulevard d'Avroy on the opposite side of the Parc d'Avroy from the start.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Prologue
With several tight corners, the prologue was expected to favour riders with good bike handling skills. The first rider to leave the start house in Liège was Argos–Shimano's Tom Veelers, with most of the general classification contenders going towards the end of the starting order, as rain was not scheduled to disrupt the race.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Prologue
Veelers set a time of 7' 47" for the course – which was near-identical to the 2004 prologue held in the city, won by then-Fassa Bortolo rider Fabian Cancellara, over a 6.1 km (3.8 mi) parcours – but this was immediately beaten by Orica–GreenEDGE rider Simon Gerrans, who went five seconds quicker around the course. Gerrans' lead was also not to last for long, as Ukrainian national champion Andriy Hryvko (Astana) bettered his mark by 14 seconds; the time was ultimately good enough for tenth place in the stage results. Hryvko held the lead for over an hour, as no other rider could get within three seconds of his time at that point.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Prologue
It was not until Gerrans' teammate Brett Lancaster, a former prologue winner at the Giro d'Italia, that Hryvko's time was beaten; Lancaster recorded a time four seconds quicker, crossing the line at 7' 24". Team Sky rider Edvald Boasson Hagen marginally bettered Lancaster's time to assume the lead for a time, but French champion Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma–Quick-Step) set a mark of 7' 20" for the course.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Prologue
His time held until the final ten riders to take to the course; Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) trailed Chavanel by six seconds at the intermediate time-check – coming around halfway through the test – but paced the second half better to negate the deficit, and beat the time of Chavanel by around half a second. Cancellara, the pre-stage favourite, recorded the fastest time of 3' 35" to the intermediate point, and extended his eventual stage-winning margin to seven seconds by the finish; in the process, Cancellara won his fifth Tour prologue stage, a record.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Prologue
Of other overall contenders, defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team), Liquigas–Cannondale's Vincenzo Nibali and Garmin–Sharp rider Ryder Hesjedal, the winner of May's Giro d'Italia, all placing solidly inside the top twenty riders. Nibali's teammate Peter Sagan and world time trial champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma–Quick-Step), who both had been tipped as favourites to win the stage, both encountered difficulties on the course during their respective runs. Sagan lost time after he overshot one of the 180-degree hairpin bends and had to clip out of the pedals, while Martin – who had set a similar time to teammate Chavanel at the intermediate time-check – suffered a puncture, and ultimately finished 23 seconds down on Cancellara's time.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 1
1 July 2012 — Liège (Belgium) to Seraing (Belgium), 198 km (123.0 mi)


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 1
The Tour remained in Belgium for the first full day's racing with a stage through the rolling countryside of the Ardennes. After four Category 4 climbs en route, the race finished at Seraing, a municipality just outside Liège.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 1
The finish was at the top of a long and fairly steep drag – the Côte de Seraing – rising for 2.4 km (1.5 mi) at an average of 4.7%, which was expected to suit the race's puncheurs such as BMC Racing Team rider Philippe Gilbert, who won a similar finish in the opening stage of the 2011 Tour at Mont des Alouettes.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 1
Six riders – Yohann Gène (Team Europcar), Euskaltel–Euskadi rider Pablo Urtasun, Ag2r–La Mondiale's Maxime Bouet, Nicolas Edet of Cofidis, Anthony Delaplace (Saur–Sojasun) and Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank rider Michael Mørkøv – advanced clear of the main field in the early running of the stage; the sextet managed to extend their advantage to a maximum of almost five minutes around a quarter of the way through the stage. By this point, Mørkøv and Urtasun had both scored a point towards the mountains classification, having led over the Côte de Cokaifagne and the Côte de Francorchamps respectively.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 1
Overall leader Fabian Cancellara was being paced by his RadioShack–Nissan teammates, and help to stabilise the gap to the leaders at around three minutes. Mørkøv then proceeded to win the two remaining climbs on the day, to take the race's first polka-dot jersey, becoming only the third Danish rider to have held the lead of that classification.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 1
The breakaway also scored the major points at the stage's intermediate sprint point in Érezée, where Gène took the honours ahead of Urtasun and Edet, while in the main field, Orica–GreenEDGE's Matthew Goss out-sprinted his former teammates Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) and André Greipel (Lotto–Belisol) for seventh place. RadioShack–Nissan were joined by Gilbert's BMC Racing Team squad in order to reduce the lead advantage; it was cut to around a minute with 30 km (18.6 mi) to go, and the break was eventually caught inside of 10 km (6.2 mi) remaining.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 1
The field remained together onto the Côte de Seraing, but halfway up the climb, Cancellara attacked and only Peter Sagan (Liquigas–Cannondale) could hold pace with him. Team Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen later bridged up to the duo, and it was left to the three riders to fight it out for the stage win, with the reduced peloton chasing behind. Cancellara attacked first, but Sagan came around the outside and freewheeled to his fourteenth victory of 2012, ahead of Cancellara – who maintained his overall lead – and Boasson Hagen. Gilbert led home the peloton in fourth, as 22-year-old Sagan became the youngest rider to win a Tour stage since Lance Armstrong in 1993.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 2
2 July 2012 — Visé (Belgium) to Tournai (Belgium), 207.5 km (128.9 mi)


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 2
The race remained in Belgium for one more day with a flat course heading almost due west from Visé. There was one fourth-category climb of the Côte de la Citadelle de Namur during the stage, but it was expected to ultimately result in a sprint finish in Tournai.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 2
Three riders – French pairing Anthony Roux of FDJ–BigMat and Team Europcar rider Christophe Kern, along with Michael Mørkøv (Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank), wearing the polka-dot jersey as mountains classification leader following his part in the breakaway on the first stage – went clear around 25 km (15.5 mi) after the start of the stage, making the early breakaway from the field, and the trio managed to extend their advantage over the main field to around eight minutes, around 20 km (12.4 mi) later.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 2
RadioShack–Nissan took up duties at the front of the peloton in order to reduce the gap that the leaders had held; although by the time that Mørkøv scored the point for crossing the summit of the Côte de la Citadelle de Namur first, around 40 km (24.9 mi) later, the lead had only been reduced to around six-and-a-half minutes. Again, the breakaway took top points on offer at the intermediate sprint point in Soignies, with Kern taking maximum points for Team Europcar for the second successive day.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 2
None of the trio elected to contest the sprint, while back in the main field, Matthew Goss (Orica–GreenEDGE) again won the sprint contest for fourth place ahead of Rabobank rider Mark Renshaw, Mark Cavendish of Team Sky and the previous day's stage winner, Liquigas–Cannondale's Peter Sagan. With around 30 km (18.6 mi) remaining of the stage, Roux attacked his two fellow breakaway companions, going off on his own as Mørkøv and Kern allowed themselves to fall back into the confines of the main field.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 2
Roux managed to gain an advantage of almost a minute, but he too was brought back by the main field inside the final 15 km (9.3 mi) of the stage. Orica–GreenEDGE, Omega Pharma–Quick-Step and Lotto–Belisol held the front with Argos–Shimano sprinter Marcel Kittel falling off the back of the field, as he was suffering from stomach problems; instead their focus would be left with his lead-out man Tom Veelers. The field remained together for the sprint finish in Tournai; Lotto–Belisol led it out for Greipel, with Sagan just behind.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 2
Cavendish moved up the order, behind two other riders – Orica–GreenEDGE's Daryl Impey and Team Katusha rider Óscar Freire – and slid in behind Greipel with around 300 m (980 ft) to go. Cavendish launched his sprint off Greipel's wheel with 200 m (660 ft) left, and got the better of him by half a wheel to take his 21st Tour stage victory, moving out of a tie with Luxembourg's Nicolas Frantz for sixth place on the all-time Tour stage wins list. Greipel, Goss, Veelers and Lampre–ISD's Alessandro Petacchi completed the top five on the stage, with Sagan taking the points classification lead, and the green jersey, from RadioShack–Nissan's Fabian Cancellara with sixth place. Cancellara maintained his seven-second overall lead over Cavendish's teammate Bradley Wiggins.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 3
3 July 2012 — Orchies to Boulogne-sur-Mer, 197 km (122.4 mi)


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 3
Following its three-day opening salvo in Belgium, the Tour moved back to France, starting in Orchies – where the fifth stage team time trial of the 1982 race was abandoned in progress due to industrial action – before heading west towards Boulogne-sur-Mer. There were six climbs within the closing 65 km (40.4 mi) of the parcours – all 1.7 km (1.1 mi) long or shorter – including the final 700 m (2,300 ft) long climb up to the finish, with an average gradient of 7.4%. Like the first stage, the course was ideally favoured towards the puncheurs.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 3
There was a fast-paced start to the stage with several short and punchy attacks, but were closed down immediately. However, a five-rider move was allowed to be initiated after 8 km (5.0 mi), with Ag2r–La Mondiale's Sébastien Minard, Rubén Pérez of Euskaltel–Euskadi, Andriy Hryvko representing the Astana team, Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank rider Michael Mørkøv – continuing his run of being in the breakaway in each of the road stages so far – and Giovanni Bernaudeau of Team Europcar all breaking free, quickly gaining a lead of around two minutes.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 3
Their lead eventually reached a maximum of over five-and-a-half minutes before RadioShack–Nissan and Liquigas–Cannondale made their presence at the front of the peloton, for their respective classification leaders Fabian Cancellara (overall) and Peter Sagan (points). The breakaway again scored the major points at the intermediate sprint point in Senlecques; Team Sky rider Mark Cavendish won the bunch sprint for sixth place, despite being boxed in by Vacansoleil–DCM's Kenny van Hummel, with the two riders later exchanging words.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 3
Mørkøv extended his mountains lead by crossing each of the first two climbs ahead of his rivals, while behind, several large crashes in the peloton took down a number of riders. Two riders suffered fractures and had to abandon on the route: Team Sky's Kanstantsin Sivtsov (tibia) and Movistar Team's José Joaquín Rojas (collarbone). Mørkøv and Hryvko dropped their breakaway companions, and managed to hold off until 10 km (6.2 mi) to go when Mørkøv cracked on the Côte du Mont Lambert. Hryvko held off until the top of the climb, where he was then caught himself.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 3
Omega Pharma–Quick-Step's Sylvain Chavanel attacked with 5.5 km (3.4 mi) to go, and at one point, put fifteen seconds between himself and the field, but he was caught 450 m (1,480 ft) before the finish by the BMC Racing Team-led field. Sagan comfortably took the sprint for the line, holding enough of a lead to free-wheel the closing metres and performing a "running man" salute akin to Tom Hanks's character in 1994 film Forrest Gump.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 3
A one-second time difference between Sagan and the field – led home by Team Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen, Peter Velits (Omega Pharma–Quick-Step) and Cancellara – was announced by the organisers, with all riders that were delayed in a crash in the closing metres, given the same time as Boasson Hagen et al.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 4
4 July 2012 — Abbeville to Rouen, 214.5 km (133.3 mi)


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 4
The first half of the stage followed the coast of Picardy and Normandy along the English Channel through Dieppe to the intermediate sprint point of Fécamp, before turning inland towards the finish at Rouen, with four fourth-category climbs during the 214.5 km (133.3 mi) parcours. The wind on the coast was expected to have an influence on the race, while the two tight turns to get over the Guillaume le Conquérant Bridge with 1 km (0.6 mi) to go, were potentially disruptive for the lead-outs ahead of an expected sprint finish along the quayside in Rouen.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 4
A three-rider breakaway was formed in the early kilometres of the stage, with the riders all representing French-licensed Professional Continental teams. Home riders David Moncoutié (Cofidis) and Anthony Delaplace (Saur–Sojasun) were joined by Japan's Yukiya Arashiro representing Team Europcar, as they set about gaining an advantage of over eight-and-a-half minutes from the main field. On the day, Moncoutié and Delaplace would ultimately share the four categorised climbs between them, each scoring two points towards the mountains classification; while Arashiro, the best sprinter among the trio, took maximum points at Fécamp.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 4
The now-customary bunch sprint for the minor points was again taken by Team Sky's Mark Cavendish, after launching his sprint off the rear wheel of Orica–GreenEDGE's Matthew Goss. Rabobank's Mark Renshaw just edged out points leader Peter Sagan of Liquigas–Cannondale for sixth place points. A light rain shower hit the race with around 50 km (31.1 mi) remaining, before the first crash of the day with Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank's Jonathan Cantwell and Sagan's teammate Vincenzo Nibali among those delayed, but both would later rejoin the main field.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 4
The lead gap continued to dwindle as the race wore on, with Delaplace eventually leaving his breakaway companions behind with 10 km (6.2 mi) to go. Six more riders looked to join the leading trio but all riders were eventually brought back 3.5 km (2.2 mi) ahead of the finish. Inside the final 3 km (1.9 mi), another crash took down a number of riders including Cavendish and lead-out man Bernhard Eisel, as well as the Garmin–Sharp duo Robert Hunter and Tyler Farrar.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 4
The final sprint was between the sprint trains of Lotto–Belisol, Argos–Shimano and Orica–GreenEDGE; Jürgen Roelandts, Marcel Sieberg and Greg Henderson set the tempo for André Greipel to lead it out from the front, and Greipel achieved a stage victory at the Tour for the second consecutive year, the first such occurrence for a German rider since Erik Zabel. Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre–ISD) beat Argos–Shimano's Tom Veelers to the line for second, with Goss and Sagan – the latter despite being delayed by the late-stage crash – rounding out the top five.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 5
5 July 2012 — Rouen to Saint-Quentin, 196.5 km (122.1 mi)


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 5
This was a very flat day's racing heading in a north-easterly direction with no rated climbs, with a wide straight finish in the Champs-Élysées Park. As a result, the stage was expected to favour the sprinters. Almost immediately after the peloton rolled out of the start in Rouen, FDJ–BigMat's Mathieu Ladagnous, was the first rider to break the confines of the main field and was allowed to go clear without resistance. He was joined by three more riders over the next few kilometres, as Pablo Urtasun of Euskaltel–Euskadi, Saur–Sojasun's Julien Simon and Cofidis rider Jan Ghyselinck provided assistance, and soon the quartet held an advantage of 5' 30" after 40 km (24.9 mi) of the stage.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 5
It was at that point that Marcel Kittel, Argos–Shimano's main sprinter, abandoned the race due to his ongoing gastroenteritis. The leaders held an advantage of around three minutes as they approached the intermediate sprint point in Breteuil, coming after 107.5 km (66.8 mi) of the parcours. Ladagnous took the maximum points on offer, as the four leaders rolled through the line without competition. As it was the previous day, Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) led the main field across the line, ahead of Orica–GreenEDGE's Matthew Goss and Rabobank rider Mark Renshaw.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 5
The gap remained around the three-minute mark until 40 km (24.9 mi) to go, when it was gradually brought back by the peloton. At 3 km (1.9 mi), the lead quartet held a lead of 20 seconds, while in the peloton, another big crash occurred; among those hitting the tarmac were points leader Peter Sagan (Liquigas–Cannondale) and Garmin–Sharp's Tyler Farrar.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 5
Farrar, suffering his fourth crash of the race, fell after a clash of elbows with Argos–Shimano rider Tom Veelers; after the stage, an angered Farrar tried to board the Argos–Shimano team bus to voice his feelings towards Veelers, but was escorted away by Garmin–Sharp staff, including general manager Jonathan Vaughters. Ghyselinck attacked with just 1.1 km (0.7 mi) remaining, gaining some space from his three breakaway companions. He faded on the finishing incline, as Urtasun and Ladagnous both passed him; Urtasun was ultimately passed by the sprinters with 200 m (660 ft) to go.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 5
Goss launched his sprint first, with Ghyselinck's teammate Samuel Dumoulin on his wheel; but for the second stage running, it was André Greipel (Lotto–Belisol) who took victory ahead of Goss, Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank's Juan José Haedo, Dumoulin and Cavendish. RadioShack–Nissan's Fabian Cancellara maintained the yellow jersey – earning the 27th of his career – which set a record for a rider not to have won the Tour, surpassing France's René Vietto.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 6
6 July 2012 — Épernay to Metz, 205 km (127.4 mi)


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 6
This was the last flat stage before the race entered the mountains; during the 205 km (127.4 mi) parcours, there was one fourth-category climb of the Côte de Buxières, around 10 km (6.2 mi) after the intermediate sprint point, coming at 135.5 km (84.2 mi) in the commune of Saint-Mihiel. The race finished near the Centre Pompidou where another bunch sprint was expected. Once again, it was a four-rider breakaway that was allowed to be instigated in the early kilometres.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 6
David Zabriskie (Garmin–Sharp) was the first rider to go off the front, and he was later bolstered by Team Europcar's Davide Malacarne, Cofidis rider Romain Zingle and Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank's Karsten Kroon, who joined him after around 10 km (6.2 mi) of racing. They later established a maximum lead of around six-and-a-half minutes early in the stage.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 6
Around 35 km (21.7 mi) into the stage, there was a minor crash involving the winner of the previous two stages, André Greipel (Lotto–Belisol), and overall contenders Robert Gesink (Rabobank) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) amongst others.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 6
Greipel suffered a dislocated shoulder in the crash, although all riders would later rejoin the main field; Greipel did not contest the intermediate sprint for points, where Kroon led over the line in the breakaway, while behind, it was Orica–GreenEDGE's Matthew Goss that took the most available points from the main field – eleven for fifth – ahead of Team Sky's Mark Cavendish and points leader Peter Sagan of Liquigas–Cannondale.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 6
Zabriskie crossed the summit of the Côte de Buxières first to claim the point on offer for the mountains classification, while in the peloton, there was another minor crash; Greipel was involved again, as were his teammate Jelle Vanendert and Rabobank's Bauke Mollema. Again, the peloton splintered due to the crashes, but due to a reduction in pace, those delayed were able to rejoin the main field.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 6
With 25 km (15.5 mi) of the day's stage remaining, a much larger crash delayed the majority of the field. According to Lampre–ISD's Danilo Hondo, the crash was caused by his teammate Davide Viganò while adjusting his jersey and fell into a ditch, causing other riders to stack up behind. Amongst the riders that were delayed by the crash were Fränk Schleck (RadioShack–Nissan), Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank), Gesink, Mollema, Valverde, Vanendert, Lampre–ISD's Michele Scarponi, Team Europcar's Pierre Rolland and the entire Garmin–Sharp team with the exception of Zabriskie.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 6
Cavendish was also delayed, but although he was able to avoid the crash, he picked up a puncture in the process.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 6
Four riders abandoned the race on the route due to injuries suffered; Garmin–Sharp's Tom Danielson – who had already been racing with a separated shoulder – suffered trauma to his other shoulder, hip and arm, and was sent to hospital; he was joined there by Viganò (damaged shoulder), Euskaltel–Euskadi's Mikel Astarloza (dislocated elbow), and Vacansoleil–DCM's Wout Poels, who tried to ride on for 10 km (6.2 mi) but eventually had to abandon; he was later diagnosed with a ruptured spleen and kidney, as well as three broken ribs and bruised lungs. After completing the stage, Team Katusha's Óscar Freire (broken rib and punctured lung), Imanol Erviti of the Movistar Team ("loss of muscle mass"), and Maarten Wynants of Rabobank (broken ribs and punctured lung) had to withdraw as well.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 6
After the crash, the race had split into many distinct groups; the breakaway still held a minute's lead over a reduced peloton of around sixty riders, with those delayed in several more groups a few minutes and more behind. With nearly all of their riders able to get through the chaos, Orica–GreenEDGE took up pace-making on the front of the peloton, in the hopes of getting Goss the stage victory.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 6
The breakaway held a 15-second lead with 10 km (6.2 mi) to go, but it took until the final 2.5 km (1.6 mi) to catch them, with Zabriskie holding off to 1.3 km (0.8 mi) remaining.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 6
This set up the sprint, with Goss going first, while Sagan was nearly boxed in by Vacansoleil–DCM's Kris Boeckmans as he suffered a snapped chain with 400 m (1,300 ft) to go; he made it round him and soon passed Greipel, who faded in the closing stages, and he picked up his third stage victory of his début Tour, becoming the fifteenth rider to do so. With Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) and Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin–Sharp) among those delayed, Sagan moved into the top ten overall along with Maxime Monfort (RadioShack–Nissan), as Monfort's teammate Fabian Cancellara maintained the overall lead once again.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 7
7 July 2012 — Tomblaine to La Planche des Belles Filles, 199 km (123.7 mi)


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 7
The race entered the high mountains with a first-time finish at 1,035 m (3,396 ft) at the ski resort of La Planche des Belles Filles in the Vosges. After two third-category climbs, the final climb was 5.9 km (3.7 mi) long and averaged 8.5% with places of the climbs reaching 14–20% in the closing stages.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 7
Following on from the crash the previous day, five more riders abandoned the race prior to the stage; Giro d'Italia winner Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin–Sharp (hip and leg), was joined on the sidelines by teammate Robert Hunter (vertebrae), Ag2r–La Mondiale's Hubert Dupont (sprained ankle, fractures to vertebrae and radius), Movistar Team's Iván Gutiérrez (knee), and Euskaltel–Euskadi's Amets Txurruka, who fractured his collarbone.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 7
An initial breakaway of nineteen riders went clear after 11 km (6.8 mi), but it was eventually reduced to seven riders, representing seven different teams, by the time the race reached the 20 km (12.4 mi) mark.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 7
They eventually established a lead of nearly six minutes around a third of the way through the stage; by the intermediate sprint point in Gérardmer, it had been reduced by a minute, as Cyril Gautier (Team Europcar) took the twenty points for first over the line, and Peter Sagan (Liquigas–Cannondale) extended his points lead by one, as he beat Matthew Goss (Orica–GreenEDGE) in the main field sprint, for eighth place. Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank's Chris Anker Sørensen crossed both of the third-category climbs first ahead of Rabobank's Luis León Sánchez, but the peloton started reducing their advantage by each passing kilometre. Astana's Dmitry Fofonov launched an attack at the front, which dislodged Gautier from the lead group; the peloton remained a minute in arrears, with Team Sky holding station and setting the tempo, protecting Bradley Wiggins from any danger.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 7
Jurgen Van den Broeck of Lotto–Belisol, Movistar Team rider Alejandro Valverde, and Rabobank's Robert Gesink encountered difficulties at this point, and would lose over a minute by the end of the day. Sørensen and Orica–GreenEDGE's Michael Albasini were the last of the leaders to be caught, with just over 5 km (3.1 mi) remaining.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 7
Team Sky continued to break the peloton apart, and by the time the leaders had reached the flamme rouge, only five riders remained at the front – Wiggins and his teammate Chris Froome, BMC Racing Team's Cadel Evans, Liquigas–Cannondale rider Vincenzo Nibali and Rein Taaramäe of Cofidis – for the closing kilometre. Evans hit the final corner first, but Froome looked strongest on the steepest part of the climb, and he eventually went past him and Wiggins, accelerating away to a two-second time gap over his rivals.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 7
With RadioShack–Nissan's Fabian Cancellara losing almost two minutes on the day, he surrendered the yellow jersey to Wiggins, who became the fifth British rider to wear the jersey, and first since David Millar in 2000. Froome assumed the polka-dot jersey thanks to the stage victory, while Taaramäe took the white jersey from Evans' teammate Tejay van Garderen.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 8
8 July 2012 — Belfort to Porrentruy (Switzerland), 157.5 km (97.9 mi)


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 8
The race entered Switzerland after 65 km (40.4 mi) of the parcours, going through the Jura Mountains with a total of seven rated climbs including the first-category Col de la Croix – the summit of which was at 789 m (2,589 ft) after a 3.7 km (2.3 mi), 9.2% average gradient climb – 16 km (9.9 mi) before the finish in Porrentruy. Ten riders made the immediate breakaway from the peloton, but the gap that they had achieved was closed down by the Astana team ahead of the day's first climb, the Côte de Bondeval. Jens Voigt of RadioShack–Nissan attacked off the front of the lead group to take the point on offer for the mountains classification, and was joined by several more riders on the descent; however, the group only held a gap of twenty seconds at the 50 km (31.1 mi) mark.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 8
Jérémy Roy attacked from the peloton for FDJ–BigMat, and soon caught and passed Voigt on the road; while in the peloton, Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel–Euskadi) had to abandon the race, after crashing with teammate Jorge Azanza and Movistar Team's Alejandro Valverde, and suffered a fractured metacarpal in his left hand. Roy was joined by Astana rider Fredrik Kessiakoff on the day's fourth climb, the Côte de Saignelégier, while a 22-rider chase group formed behind the duo.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 8
Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) and Omega Pharma–Quick-Step's Kevin De Weert left that group, and soon joined up with the two leaders on the Côte de Saulcy, before Kessiakoff left them behind, after attacking once again. He held a lead of 1' 45" over the dwindling chase group on the penultimate climb, the Côte de la Caquerelle, and eventually the group had reduced to just French pairing Tony Gallopin (RadioShack–Nissan) and Roy's teammate Thibaut Pinot, the youngest rider in the Tour.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 8
Gallopin lost ground to Pinot on the final climb, and soon Pinot was chasing after Kessiakoff on the climb itself; he ultimately caught him towards the summit of the climb. Kessiakoff could not stick with Pinot on the climb, with Pinot crossing the summit with a 12-second advantage over Kessiakoff. The group of overall contenders had also been reduced, with Lotto–Belisol's Jelle Vanendert setting the tempo for teammate Jurgen Van den Broeck, around a minute-and-a-half behind Pinot.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 8
With boisterous support from his team manager Marc Madiot, Pinot maintained an advantage of a minute into the final 5 km (3.1 mi), as Kessiakoff was swept up by the small chasing group. Van Den Broeck and Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) looked to go clear in the closing stages, but they were brought back; while at the front, Pinot soloed to a 26-second margin of victory, ahead of Evans, Gallopin and the rest of the group. Kessiakoff took the polka-dot jersey from Chris Froome (Team Sky), as Froome's teammate Bradley Wiggins maintained the overall lead into the following day's individual time trial.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 9
9 July 2012 — Arc-et-Senans to Besançon, 41.5 km (25.8 mi), (ITT)


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 9
The first of two lengthy individual time trial stages was fairly flat with rolling hills in the early kilometres before the parcours entered the valley of the River Doubs at Boussières. It was expected that the main contenders for the general classification were to emerge after this stage. As was customary of time trial stages, the riders set off in reverse order from where they were ranked in the general classification at the end of the previous stage.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 9
Thus, Brice Feillu of Saur–Sojasun, who, in 178th place, trailed overall leader Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) by one hour, eleven minutes and thirty-nine seconds, was the first rider to set off on the stage. Feillu ultimately recorded a time of 57' 33" for the course, which was not bettered until the thirteenth rider to complete the course, Vacansoleil–DCM rider Gustav Larsson, who recorded a time over three minutes quicker than Feillu.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 9
He completed the course in a time of 54' 19", and his time held for around an hour before his teammate Lieuwe Westra assumed top spot; despite being ten seconds down on Larsson at the second intermediate time point, Westra completed the final portion of the course some twenty seconds quicker, and recorded a time of 54' 09".


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 9
Omega Pharma–Quick-Step's Tony Martin, the world champion, was the next rider to assume the top spot, setting the first time underneath 54 minutes; he set a time of 53' 40", despite riding with a fractured scaphoid bone in his left wrist and suffering a flat tyre in the opening 5 km (3.1 mi) of the stage.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 9
Fabian Cancellara of RadioShack–Nissan improved the quickest time benchmark; he set the fastest time at each of the two intermediate time points on the stage, and having passed the rider who started three minutes before him on the road, Rabobank's Bauke Mollema, Cancellara established a time for the course of 52' 21", beating Martin's time by 1' 19".


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 9
His time was threatened by BMC Racing Team rider Tejay van Garderen, as he went beneath the time of Cancellara at each of the intermediate time checks, but faded towards the end and fell nine seconds outside of his target. Ultimately, only two riders beat Cancellara's time, both riding for Team Sky. Chris Froome improved upon van Garderen's times at the splits, but maintained his pace until the end, setting a time half a second inside 52 minutes, beating Cancellara's time by 22 seconds.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 9
Wiggins went even quicker and by the time he had finished, he had put 35 seconds into his teammate with a time of 51' 24", winning his first Tour stage. Wiggins also put substantial time into his major general classification rivals, as the margin on the day ranged between 1' 43" for Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) who finished sixth on the stage, and 3' 29" for Cofidis rider Rein Taaramäe, who was 28th and lost the white jersey as leader of the young rider classification to van Garderen.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 10
11 July 2012 — Mâcon to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, 194.5 km (120.9 mi)


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 10
After a rest day, the Tour remained in the Jura Mountains, with much of the day's route the same as that followed on stage five of the 2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, including the Tour's first passage over the hors catégorie climb of the Col du Grand Colombier; a 17.4 km (10.8 mi) long climb, reaching an altitude of 1,501 m (4,925 ft) at an average gradient of 7.1%, but with sections in excess of 12%. The Tour then passed over the 1,051 m (3,448 ft) Col de Richemond, 20.5 km (12.7 mi) before the finish; the race descended towards Billiat before a gradual uphill finish in Bellegarde-sur-Valserine.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 10
Several small attacks occurred in the early kilometres of the stage, and the peloton allowed the riders to establish an advantage off the front of the main field. It eventually amounted to some twenty-five riders in the breakaway, including Lampre–ISD rider Michele Scarponi – the highest-placed rider in the group, some ten minutes in arrears of race leader Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) – and the top two riders in the points classification, Liquigas–Cannondale's Peter Sagan and Matthew Goss of Orica–GreenEDGE.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 10
After Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank's Michael Mørkøv took maximum points over the first climb of the day, the Côte de Corlier, the next focus was on the intermediate sprint point at Béon; Sagan launched his sprint first but was beaten to the line by both Goss and FDJ–BigMat's Yauheni Hutarovich, with Goss reducing Sagan's lead in the standings to 27 points. The breakaway group split apart on the Col du Grand Colombier; only Scarponi, Team Europcar's Thomas Voeckler, Rabobank rider Luis León Sánchez and Dries Devenyns of Omega Pharma–Quick-Step remained at the front.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 10
Voeckler crossed the summit of the climb first, taking the 25 points on offer for the hors catégorie climb. The peloton crossed five-and-a-half minutes later. Voeckler also took maximum points at the Col de Richemond, and as a result, took the polka-dot jersey for the mountains classification lead from Astana rider Fredrik Kessiakoff. Sagan had dropped back to aid his teammate Vincenzo Nibali, who had attacked on the descent of the Col du Grand Colombier, but both riders were not to stay in front ahead of the Team Sky-led peloton.


2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10, Stage 10
RadioShack–Nissan's Jens Voigt made up a minute on the lead quartet to join them, with around 10 km (6.2 mi) remaining; Devenyns looked to go clear in the closing stages, but Voeckler had kept most in hand to take his third career Tour stage victory, three seconds ahead of Scarponi and seven ahead of Voigt. Wiggins remained on the wheel of his closest rival, Cadel Evans of the BMC Racing Team, to maintain his 1' 53" lead in the general classification into the Alps.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20
Stage 11 of the 2012 Tour de France was contested on 12 July and the race concluded with Stage 20 on 22 July. The second half of the race was situated entirely within France; starting with a mountain stage from Albertville to La Toussuire-Les Sybelles – incorporating two hors catégorie climbs during the stage – before the customary race-concluding stage finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20
Following his victory in the ninth stage individual time trial, Team Sky rider Bradley Wiggins held the lead into the second half of the race. He maintained his race lead throughout the second half of the race, holding a lead of 2 minutes and 5 seconds – transpiring from stage 9 – until the race's final individual time trial, held on the penultimate day of the race.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20
Wiggins won the stage by 1 minute and 16 seconds ahead of his team-mate Chris Froome, and Wiggins ultimately held his lead into Paris the following day to win the race overall by 3 minutes and 21 seconds, to become the first rider from Great Britain to win a Grand Tour race. Froome finished second, while the final podium was completed by former Vuelta a España winner Vincenzo Nibali, riding for the Liquigas–Cannondale team, who was the only other rider to finish within 10 minutes of Wiggins' final overall time.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20
Only Wiggins' team-mate Mark Cavendish was able to win more than one stage during the second half of the race, winning two of the final three stages including a fourth consecutive final stage victory in Paris. This victory allowed him to become the most prolific sprinter at the Tour de France with 23 stage victories, surpassing the record of 22 which had been held for 48 years by France's André Darrigade.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20
Three French riders – Pierre Rolland, Pierrick Fédrigo and Thomas Voeckler – each took a stage victory during the second half of the race, with Voeckler's victory in the queen stage helping in part for him to become the eventual winner of the mountains classification. Other stage victories were taken by David Millar, André Greipel, Luis León Sánchez and Alejandro Valverde.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20
During the fourteenth stage of the race, Wiggins neutralised the peloton on the descent from the Mur de Péguère climb, after carpet tacks were found to be responsible for around thirty punctures on the climb itself. Among those delayed was the defending champion Cadel Evans, who suffered three punctures on the climb and had lost around two minutes before Wiggins called a truce in the main field, allowing the breakaway to finish the stage over eighteen minutes clear of the pack.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20
Following the raid of the Cofidis team hotel during the first rest day, the second rest day was marked by a positive drugs test by RadioShack–Nissan rider Fränk Schleck, the third-placed rider from the 2011 race. Schleck quit the race after traces of xipamide, a banned sulfonamide diuretic drug, were found in the A-sample of his urine, and was later confirmed by the B-sample.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 11
12 July 2012 — Albertville to La Toussuire-Les Sybelles, 148 km (92.0 mi)


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 11
The stage was spent entirely in the Alps with two hors catégorie climbs – the Col de la Madeleine after 40 km (24.9 mi) and the Col de la Croix de Fer after 93 km (57.8 mi); both of which had summits at 2,000 m (6,562 ft) or higher – before the finish at La Toussuire-Les Sybelles. The Col de la Croix de Fer was the highest point reached in the Alps in the 2012 Tour, so the leader across the summit would win the Souvenir Henri Desgrange.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 11
The finish was a first-category climb of 18 km (11.2 mi) at an average gradient of 6.1%. Much like the previous day, a large breakaway was formed after several different groups advanced clear of the main field as they approached the first climb of the day, at the Col de la Madeleine.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 11
In total, there were 28 riders in the group at one point; at the top of the climb, the pace picked up and the group splintered into several mini-groups as Omega Pharma–Quick-Step's Peter Velits scored the maximum points on offer for the climb, followed closely by Astana rider Fredrik Kessiakoff. Velits and Kessiakoff pulled out a 45-second advantage on the descent, but eight riders eventually bridged the gap and rejoined the duo before the Col de la Croix de Fer.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 11
Team Europcar had two riders in the group, with Christophe Kern setting the pace for team-mate Pierre Rolland, and the tempo was again splitting the group up. Back in the peloton, young rider classification leader Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) attacked on the climb, as the benchmark for a later move by his team-mate Cadel Evans. They acquired a 30-second lead at one point before Team Sky brought Bradley Wiggins back up to them. Kessiakoff just bettered Rolland for the mountains points atop the Col de la Croix de Fer, with the peloton around two minutes behind.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 11
The group containing Wiggins and other overall contenders dropped a minute further back on the early parts of the Col du Mollard, where the breakaway consisted of Velits, Rolland, Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank's Chris Anker Sørensen and Robert Kišerlovski of Astana, with Movistar Team's Vasil Kiryienka later joining up. Rolland crashed on the descent from the climb, having taken first place points over the summit, while Sørensen was in difficulty to stay with the lead.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 11
Liquigas–Cannondale rider Vincenzo Nibali tried to breach the peloton on two occasions on the final climb,  catching up with Lotto–Belisol's Jurgen Van den Broeck who had escaped with eighth stage winner, FDJ–BigMat's Thibaut Pinot. Evans cracked on the climb, losing time to Wiggins, team-mate Chris Froome and other contenders. Froome put Wiggins into difficulty at one point, but backed the pace down via his team radio. Up front, Rolland was the last remaining rider of the breakaway, and soloed to his second Tour stage win, and his team's second stage win in a row. Pinot led the yellow jersey group across the line almost a minute down, while Evans lost almost 90 seconds on Wiggins, Froome and Nibali, who filled the top three places overall at the conclusion of the stage.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 12
13 July 2012 — Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Annonay-Davézieux, 226 km (140.4 mi)


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 12
With a parcours of 226 km (140.4 mi), the twelfth stage was the longest of the Tour; the race left the Alps but only after a pair of first-category climbs – the 1,188 m (3,898 ft) Col du Grand Cucheron and the 1,134 m (3,720 ft) Col du Granier – in the first 80 km (49.7 mi), although there was also a third-category climb of the Côte d'Ardoix within the final 20 km (12.4 mi), before the finish in Annonay-Davézieux.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 12
As had been the case in the previous two stages, there was another large breakaway group that set the tempo outside of the peloton in the early running. At its maximum, the group contained nineteen riders, but it had been reduced to eleven by the time the group reached the foot of the opening climb, the Col du Grand Cucheron.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 12
Robert Kišerlovski of Astana took the maximum points on offer for the climb, to help protect the lead of the classification, held by team-mate Fredrik Kessiakoff. Cofidis rider David Moncoutié tried to bridge the gap to reach the lead group, but crashed heavily on the descent from the climb. He had to abandon the race with abrasions. Kišerlovski also took maximum points on the Col du Granier, which made Kessiakoff's lead safe for another day.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 12
After reaching the mid-stage feeding zone in Saint-Joseph-de-Rivière, the lead group split and five riders – David Millar of Garmin–Sharp, Ag2r–La Mondiale rider Jean-Christophe Péraud, Euskaltel–Euskadi's Egoi Martínez, Kišerlovski and Cyril Gautier, looking to give Team Europcar a third win in a row – accelerated away to a near 13-minute lead at its maximum. With none of the riders being in overall contention, the peloton let the group go and decided not to chase them down before the finish.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 12
None of the quintet attacked each other, and they remained as one into the final 5 km (3.1 mi) of the stage. Kišerlovski played his hand first, launching an attack with 3.5 km (2.2 mi) remaining, but Péraud closed down the move almost immediately; a secondary move took Martínez and Gautier out of the equation for the stage victory. Péraud accelerated again and Millar latched onto his wheel with Kišerlovski unable to follow the pair.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 12
Millar took the front inside the final 1 km (0.6 mi), but Péraud remained on his wheel until just before 200 m (660 ft) to go; he launched his attack, but Millar beat him to the line for his fourth individual stage victory at the Tour – his first since 2003 – and the fourth different British rider to take a stage win at the 2012 Tour. The peloton was led across the line almost eight minutes down by the top two in the points classification, Orica–GreenEDGE's Matthew Goss and Liquigas–Cannondale's Peter Sagan.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 12
Sagan protested the sprint finish of Goss, feeling that he had impeded him in the closing metres. Race officials agreed with Sagan and demoted Goss to seventh – helped in part by a one-second time gap between them and the rest of the field – and penalised him 30 points in the classification, and 30 seconds overall.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 13
14 July 2012 — Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Cap d'Agde, 217 km (134.8 mi)


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 13
This transitional stage took the Tour to the Mediterranean Sea. The day's only categorised climb over Mont-Saint-Clair at Sète and the wind off the sea were two potential disruptions to the race in the final 28 km (17.4 mi) of the stage. For the celebration of Bastille Day, the breakaway had extensive French representation, with five of the eight-rider move – Cofidis rider Samuel Dumoulin, FDJ–BigMat's Mathieu Ladagnous, Jimmy Engoulvent of Saur–Sojasun, Maxime Bouet (Ag2r–La Mondiale) and Jérôme Pineau, representing the Omega Pharma–Quick-Step team – from the country. The group was rounded out by Pablo Urtasun of Euskaltel–Euskadi, Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank's Michael Mørkøv and Argos–Shimano rider Roy Curvers.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 13
The octet made their escape in the opening 20 km (12.4 mi) of the stage, and their advantage eventually stemmed to a maximum of almost 10 minutes at the 35 km (21.7 mi) mark, before Orica–GreenEDGE sent riders forward to the front of the peloton in order to bring the gap down.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 13
Urtasun led the group across the line at the stage's intermediate sprint point in Mas-de-Londres, but behind, points classification leader Peter Sagan (Liquigas–Cannondale) was able to launch his sprint for the line before Orica–GreenEDGE's sprinter Matthew Goss did so, and extended his lead in the standings as a result. Pineau looked to go clear with 65 km (40.4 mi) to go, but his move was anticipated by Mørkøv, before he attacked of his own accord. Mørkøv held a one-minute advantage over his former breakaway companions all the way to the foot of the Mont-Saint-Clair, but the peloton were able to close the advantage to them all before the summit of the climb.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 13
BMC Racing Team's Cadel Evans and Lotto–Belisol rider Jurgen Van den Broeck both attacked on the Mont-Saint-Clair, and their accelerated pace ripped the peloton apart, with many riders falling off the back of the peloton. Around 25 riders remained in the lead group, with only Sagan and Van Den Broeck's team-mate André Greipel out of the sprinters making the group. Further moves came from Astana rider Alexander Vinokourov, Michael Albasini of Orica–GreenEDGE, and Rabobank's Luis León Sánchez, but they were closed down by Lotto–Belisol – looking after Greipel for the finish – and Team Sky for race leader Bradley Wiggins.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 13
Wiggins led out team-mate Edvald Boasson Hagen for the sprint, but Greipel launched his own off his wheel and managed to fend off a quick-finishing Sagan to take his third stage win of the Tour by half a wheel, the first such feat by a German rider since Erik Zabel in 2001.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 14
15 July 2012 — Limoux to Foix, 191 km (118.7 mi)


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 14
The race entered the lower Pyrenees with two first-category climbs; the 1,517 m (4,977 ft) Port de Lers and the Mur de Péguère, reaching an elevation of 1,375 m (4,511 ft). The Mur de Péguère was featuring for the first time in the Tour de France; with sections of the climb in excess of 16%. Small attacks set the course of the early running of the stage, with the field remaining as a whole for the first hour of racing after the attacks were closed down shortly after.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 14
It was not until a quarter of the way through the stage – some 50 km (31.1 mi) in – that a move was allowed to be established on the road, when eleven riders went clear including the points classification leader Peter Sagan of Liquigas–Cannondale, who was looking to extend his points advantage over his rivals André Greipel (Lotto–Belisol) and Orica–GreenEDGE rider Matthew Goss.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 14
By the time that Sagan had crossed over the intermediate sprint line first, at Tarascon-sur-Ariège, the leaders' advantage was already over thirteen minutes, and was increasing by the kilometre due to the wet conditions on the roads. At the Port de Lers, the eleven riders were fifteen minutes clear when Cyril Gautier (Team Europcar) developed a problem with his bike and had to stop for a change of equipment, losing around 40 seconds to his ten companions. He would not bridge back to them, and ultimately lost fourteen minutes to them by the stage finish. Rabobank's Luis León Sánchez attacked on the Mur de Péguère, with only Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team), Euskaltel–Euskadi rider Gorka Izagirre and Sandy Casar of FDJ–BigMat able to follow originally. Sagan later brought himself back up to the group, before Casar pulled a few seconds clear over the summit.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 14
At the summit of the climb, carpet tacks were thrown onto the road causing as many as thirty riders to puncture, including Gilbert's team-mates Cadel Evans and Steve Cummings, while race leader Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) changed his bike as a precaution. As a result, Wiggins called a temporary halt to the racing on the descent.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 14
At this time, Pierre Rolland (Team Europcar) attacked and gained a two-minute margin over the peloton, but a combination of the tempo set by Lotto–Belisol and Liquigas–Cannondale, and Rolland realising the situation behind – later apologising for his actions – meant that he was brought back to the field, and they continued to slowly roll towards the finish in Foix. At the front, Sánchez attacked with around 11.5 km (7.1 mi) remaining, and eventually soloed his way to a fourth career stage victory at the Tour. Sagan led home a group of four riders almost a minute behind, while the peloton eventually crossed the line over eighteen minutes behind Sánchez.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 15
16 July 2012 — Samatan to Pau, 158.5 km (98.5 mi)


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 15
The stage ran through the foothills of the Pyrenees, in the Gers and Pyrénées-Atlantiques departments. There were three minor climbs in the final third of the stage, which was expected to suit the remaining sprinters. Like the previous day, small attacks set the course of the early running of the stage, with the field remaining as a whole for the first hour of racing after the attacks were unsuccessful.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 15
The most prominent of these was a five-rider move, involving Omega Pharma–Quick-Step's Bert Grabsch, Garmin–Sharp rider David Millar, Andriy Hryvko of Astana, Rui Costa (Movistar Team) and Yukiya Arashiro, representing Team Europcar. The peloton did not allow them to gain an advantage of more than 30 seconds, and they were eventually brought back to the main field at the 60 km (37.3 mi) mark.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 15
Another five-rider group formed immediately thereafter, consisting of Christian Vande Velde (Garmin–Sharp), Arashiro's team-mate Thomas Voeckler, FDJ–BigMat's Pierrick Fédrigo, Cofidis rider Samuel Dumoulin and Dries Devenyns of Omega Pharma–Quick-Step. Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank rider Nicki Sørensen chased the quintet down for around 20 km (12.4 mi), and eventually made the group a sextet, after his team set the tempo in the main field for a while. The peloton had reduced the gap to the leaders to around five minutes at one point, but eventually decided to allow the breakaway to battle it out for stage honours.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 15
Voeckler took maximum points on all three categorised climbs prior to the closing 10 km (6.2 mi), before Sørensen launched the first sustained attacks prior to the finish. However, Fédrigo and Vande Velde gained some ground with their attack at 6.5 km (4.0 mi) to go, and they contested the sprint in Pau; Vande Velde tried to launch his sprint first, but Fédrigo saw the move and remained in front, to take his second stage win in Pau – after a previous victory in 2010 – and fourth of his career. The remaining members of the breakaway came in before the main field, with Lotto–Belisol's André Greipel leading them home 11' 50" down on Fédrigo.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 16
18 July 2012 — Pau to Bagnères-de-Luchon, 197 km (122.4 mi)


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 16
After the second and final rest day, the race entered the high mountains with the queen stage crossing two hors catégorie climbs – the Col d'Aubisque and the Col du Tourmalet – followed by the first-category climbs of the Col d'Aspin and the Col de Peyresourde, completing the so-called "Circle of Death", before dropping down to the finish in Bagnères-de-Luchon. The first rider over the Tourmalet – the highest point reached in both the Pyrenees and the 2012 Tour as a whole at 2,115 m (6,939 ft) – received the Souvenir Jacques Goddet.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 16
Almost forty riders – around a quarter of the race's peloton at the start of the stage – made it into the early breakaway after around 25 km (15.5 mi), including three riders in the lower reaches of the top twenty placings overall, mountains classification leader Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) and stage-winners Thomas Voeckler of Team Europcar and FDJ–BigMat rider Pierrick Fédrigo. Voeckler and Kessiakoff led the group over the top of the Col d'Aubisque, with the group remaining together until the foot of the Col du Tourmalet.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 16
Here, the group started to fragment after Garmin–Sharp's Dan Martin accelerated with Kessiakoff and Rabobank's Laurens ten Dam in tow. BMC Racing Team rider George Hincapie, Chris Anker Sørensen of Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank and Saur–Sojasun's Brice Feillu later joined the group up front, but only Voeckler and Feillu remained together at the top of the climb, where Voeckler further cut into Kessiakoff's polka-dot jersey lead. The peloton crossed the summit around ten minutes later.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 16
Voeckler and Feillu had an advantage of almost two minutes at the bottom of the Col d'Aspin, while Martin – on his own after being the last to be dropped by the French pairing out front – was joined by Hincapie and six other riders. With added pressure from Sørensen and RadioShack–Nissan rider Jens Voigt, Kessiakoff was dropped by the group, and aided the efforts for Voeckler to take the lead in the mountains classification.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 16
Back in the peloton, the tempo set by Liquigas–Cannondale and Team Sky was reducing the numbers in the group, and eventually, BMC Racing Team's Cadel Evans lost contact on the climb. However, with team-mates around him, he was able to rejoin the group before the final climb of the Col de Peyresourde. A third of the way up the climb, Voeckler left his companion Feillu behind, and set off on a solo attack. Evans again fell off the back of the group, as Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas–Cannondale) decided to make a preliminary attack on his rivals, Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 16
Wiggins and Froome were able to make their way back up to Nibali, sandwiching him with Froome on the front and Wiggins at the back of the trio. Voeckler cemented his mountains classification lead by reaching the summit of the Col de Peyresourde first, with the remaining riders of the breakaway spread out between him and the group of Wiggins, Froome and Nibali. Sørensen trailed Voeckler by a minute-and-a-half. Nibali attacked twice more on the steepest part of the climb, but Wiggins shadowed the move and kept himself up with Nibali.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 16
At the front, Voeckler descended towards the finish in Bagnères-de-Luchon with a 1' 40" lead over Sørensen, and held the lead to the end for his second stage win of the race, and repeated his 2010 stage victory in the town. Sørensen remained 1' 40" behind in second, while Euskaltel–Euskadi rider Gorka Izagirre bested Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) for third place.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 16
Nibali, Wiggins and Froome came in seven minutes after Voeckler, while Evans lost almost five minutes to the trio, falling from fourth to seventh in the general classification behind Lotto–Belisol rider Jurgen Van den Broeck, RadioShack–Nissan's Haimar Zubeldia and his own team-mate Tejay van Garderen. Cofidis rider Jan Ghyselinck finished four seconds outside the stage's cutoff time, but he was given a reprieve by the comissaires to continue in the Tour, making him the new lanterne rouge.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 17
19 July 2012 — Bagnères-de-Luchon to Peyragudes, 143.5 km (89.2 mi)


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 17
The final day in the mountains saw the race cross the first-category Col de Menté and the second-category Col des Ares before reaching the last hors catégorie climb of the Tour, the Port de Balès. The race then dropped down, before returning over the  uncategorised Col de Peyresourde – crossing the summit for the second consecutive day – followed by a summit finish at the Peyragudes ski resort. With a scheduled parcours of 143.5 km (89.2 mi), the stage was the shortest of the mountain stages of the 2012 Tour.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 17
Small attacks set the course of the early running of the stage, with the field remaining as a whole for the first half-hour of racing after several attacks were closed down before a gap could be established. It was not until the Col de Menté that the early foundations of a breakaway were laid with the two mountains classification combatants, Team Europcar's Thomas Voeckler and Fredrik Kessiakoff of Astana again battling it out for points; Voeckler prevailed ahead of Kessiakoff. The two riders were also a part of a seven-rider breakaway that formed on the descent from the climb.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 17
The group was also bolstered for a time by Liquigas–Cannondale rider Vincenzo Nibali, third place in the general classification behind Team Sky duo Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, but he eventually sat up from the group as the breakaway was not likely to be given an advantage if Nibali was in the group.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 17
A ten-rider chase group formed behind the leaders, and eventually joined up with them around halfway through the stage. Voeckler bettered Kessiakoff at the Côte de Burs, to extend his lead in the classification; the peloton were around three minutes behind, but closing gradually. Following a move by a pair of Euskaltel–Euskadi riders, Rui Costa (Movistar Team) attacked out of the group as a set-up for his team leader Alejandro Valverde, who followed his move several kilometres later.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 17
Costa paced him for a time before Valverde went clear on his own, and built up a 35-second lead at the summit of the Port de Balès, while the peloton had closed by half a minute to trail him by around two-and-a-half minutes. The peloton caught the group of chasers including Voeckler, Omega Pharma–Quick-Step rider Levi Leipheimer and Blel Kadri of Ag2r–La Mondiale, on the descent with only Valverde remaining ahead as they hit the Col de Peyresourde.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 17
For the second ascent of the Col de Peyresourde during the race, the riders would take the climb in the opposite direction from what they had done on the previous day, before a slight descent and then the final climb to Peyragudes. Valverde held a lead of 1' 20" at the top of the uncategorised pass, with only a handful of riders remaining with the group of the maillot jaune, including the top four in the general classification.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 17
Valverde was holding his own off the front, and the gap was fluctuating between 1' 20" and 1' 30" for several kilometres as they neared the summit, which came at the flamme rouge point. Lotto–Belisol's Jurgen Van den Broeck tried to attack, but was pulled back by the Froome and Wiggins tandem, which then accelerated away from their rivals and set off after Valverde. Ultimately, they came up short due to Froome having to wait three times for Wiggins as the race leader was several metres behind his domestique on certain parts of the climb. Valverde achieved his fourth career stage victory at the Tour, nineteen seconds ahead of Froome and Wiggins, who in turn extended their advantage over the rest of the field.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 18
20 July 2012 — Blagnac to Brive-la-Gaillarde, 222.5 km (138.3 mi)


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 18
Despite being ranked a "flat stage", there were four ranked climbs during the day which had the potential to produce a successful break from the peloton. In the early kilometres of the stage, a group of six riders instigated the first breakaway of the day, but after the peloton allowed them to create an advantage on the roads, they were brought back to the confines of the peloton not long later. There was then an uneventful period in the action, with no major attacks going off the front, until the first categorised climb of the day, at the Côte de Saint-Georges.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 18
On the climb itself, Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank rider Nick Nuyens and Team Europcar's Yukiya Arashiro attacked up the hill, before they were joined by fourteen other riders to create the second major breakaway of the day's stage. The best-placed rider amongst the group was Rui Costa of the Movistar Team – just under half an hour behind the race leader Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky – who was fresh from his set-up work for team-mate Alejandro Valverde the previous day.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 18
Around halfway through the stage, the advantage between the sixteen leaders and the main field reached its highest point of the day, at the 3' 30" mark, before BMC Racing Team and Ag2r–La Mondiale set the tempo to start bringing the leaders back to the peloton. In the peloton, several riders fell to the ground after a dog ran into their path, slowing the pace as a whole. Among those involved was BMC Racing Team's Philippe Gilbert, who had to be restrained when back on his feet. Liquigas–Cannondale sent their riders forward to set the pace on the front of the group in the hopes of setting Peter Sagan up for a fourth stage victory of the race, and the gap reduced under two minutes inside of 50 km (31.1 mi) remaining.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 18
At the head of the race, Garmin–Sharp's David Millar attacked on the Côte de Souillac, where moves from Arashiro and Wiggins' team-mate Edvald Boasson Hagen followed not long later. Five riders – Lotto–Belisol rider Adam Hansen, Alexander Vinokourov of Astana, Nuyens, Luca Paolini (Team Katusha) and FDJ–BigMat's Jérémy Roy – came together at the bottom of the Côte de Lissac-sur-Couze, before Nuyens and Roy were dropped on the climb.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 18
They were replaced in the group by Ag2r–La Mondiale's Nicolas Roche, RadioShack–Nissan rider Andreas Klöden and Luis León Sánchez of Rabobank, with the six riders remaining together off the front into the finishing straight in Brive-la-Gaillarde. Roche and Sánchez attacked for the line, but both riders were usurped by the finish of Team Sky sprinter Mark Cavendish following a lead-out from Boasson Hagen.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 18
Cavendish went around the outside of the pairing and took his 22nd Tour stage victory on the line, matching the tallies of Lance Armstrong, and André Darrigade for fourth place in the all-time Tour stage wins list, and tying Darrigade's record for victories by a sprinter. Orica–GreenEDGE's Matthew Goss and Sagan also managed to get ahead of Sánchez and Roche in the closing stages, for second and third places respectively, but were around ten lengths behind Cavendish at the finish.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 19
21 July 2012 — Bonneval to Chartres, 53.5 km (33.2 mi), (ITT)


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 19
The penultimate stage of the Tour was the final individual time trial with good roads into the centre of the city of Chartres. With other noted specialists within the time trial discipline having already abandoned the race, the top two riders in the general classification – Team Sky pairing Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome – were expected to be the favourites for the stage, having finished first and second in the ninth stage time trial.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 19
As was customary of time trial stages, the riders set off in reverse order from where they were ranked in the general classification at the end of the previous stage. Thus, Jimmy Engoulvent of Saur–Sojasun, who, in 153rd place, trailed overall leader Wiggins by 3 hours, 49 minutes and 9 seconds, was the first rider to set off on the stage.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 19
Engoulvent recorded a time of 1 hour, 12 minutes and 49 seconds for the course as he was first to reach the line; but his lead was short-lived as several minutes later, Cofidis rider Julien Fouchard went round the course over two minutes quicker than the time of Engoulvent.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 19
Garmin–Sharp's Johan Vansummeren was the first rider to record a time below 1 hour and 10 minutes with a time of 1 hour, 9 minutes and 24 seconds, before Argos–Shimano rider Patrick Gretsch recorded a time almost three minutes quicker, having passed the two riders that started directly before him – at one-minute intervals – on the course, and another on the finish line. Gretsch's time held for a considerable amount of time – around 2 hours – and was ultimately good enough for him to place sixth in the final stage results.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 19
It was not until the 88th rider to start the course that his time was beaten. Luis León Sánchez of Rabobank set the best time at each of the three intermediate time-checks along the 53.5 km (33.2 mi) parcours and eventually crossed the finish line in a time of 1 hour, 6 minutes and 3 seconds, to surpass Gretsch's time by thirty-eight seconds.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 19
The Spanish national champion's time held right into the final riders to take to the course, now at three-minute intervals for the last 14 riders. BMC Racing Team's Tejay van Garderen, the holder of the white jersey for the young rider classification leader, went beneath Sánchez's time at the first split, but faded on the rest of the course and eventually finished 44 seconds outside of his time in third place.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 19
He had already passed his team-mate Cadel Evans, who had started three minutes ahead, on course, and the Boulder, Colorado native later dedicated his performance to the victims of the shooting in nearby Aurora. Only Froome and Wiggins beat the time of van Garderen at the first time-point, with Wiggins beating Froome by a dozen seconds; Wiggins continued to extend his lead on course, holding a 54-second buffer at the second time-check, and 1' 15" at the third.


2012 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20, Stage 19
Froome crossed the line in a time of 1 hour, 5 minutes and 29 seconds to beat Sánchez's time by 34 seconds, but Wiggins achieved his second stage win of the race, adding one second to his advantage between the third time-check and the finish; punching the air as he crossed the finish line. The only change in positions for the general classification inside the top ten was Evans being passed for sixth place by RadioShack–Nissan's Haimar Zubeldia – despite nearly hitting a barrier during his pass through the course – by a margin of eight seconds.