Following defending Tour de France Champion Jonas Vingegaard’s remarkable victory over current Tour de France leader Tadej Pogacar in yesterday’s remarkable stage 11 of Tour de France 2024, the race continued with stage 12 from Aurillac in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region.

The stage route had been designed by Tour race organizer A.S.O. as a 203.6-kilometer ride, which would take the Tour peloton down from the mountains and finish in Villeneuve-sur-Lot. The route featured three Category 4 climbs and the hilly terrain was expected to offer plenty of opportunities for a viable breakaway group to be established. 

Tactics would play an important role in today’s stage and some sprinters would have an interest in a mass sprint finish in which they could secure maximum points, while others would rather have an interest in a breakaway group fighting for a stage victory, so the points for the points competitions would not be won by other sprinters.

General classification favorites such as Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), Primoz Roglic (Red Bull – Bora – Hansgrohe), Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma – Lease a Bike), and UAE Team Emirates’ Tadej Pogacar were expected to opt for a relaxing day in the saddle, following their exhausting battle in yesterday’s mountain stage.

Multiple attacks were launched from the very beginning of the stage and the speed was intense, which made it difficult for riders to build a viable gap over the other riders in the Tour de France peloton.

Like yesterday, riders such as Richard Carapaz (Team EF Education-EasyPost) and Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) were once again active in multiple breakaway efforts.

A crash occurred with 180 kilometers remaining of the stage. The crash brought down approximately fifteen riders including Tadej Pogacar, Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadiers), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and Team EF-Education-EasyPost’s Americans Neilson Powless and Sean Quinn.

Fabio Jacobsen (Team DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) meanwhile abandoned the race because of Covid-19 illness. Mark Cavendish’s loyal lieutenant and friend Michael Mørkøv (Astana) abandoned the race before today’s stage. It was Denmark’s Mørkøv’s final Tour de France following a long and successful career on road and track. He has yet to compete in the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Three Frenchmen and one Norwegian eventually formed the long breakaway of the day. The riders were Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), and Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies). Fortunately, Turgis still had his own bike, though eleven Enve road bikes had been stolen from the TotalEnergies team van during the night.

With 138 kilometers remaining the breakaway quartet had an advantage of more than two minutes. The main peloton was spearheaded by riders from UAE Team Emirates. Later, they were joined by riders from Team Movistar and Alpecin-Deceuninck.

Bahrain-Victorious rider Pello Bilbao had been dropped from the main peloton as he was suffering from Covid-19. He was fighting the best he could to bridge the gap to the rear part of the peloton, but alas he had to abandon the Tour de France with 116 kilometers left of today’s stage. Only the EF Education-EasyPost team was acting sufficiently wisely and had instructed its riders to wear protective masks when not riding their bikes.

85 kilometers from the stage finale in Villeneuve-sur-Lot, the front group had a time advantage of 01:30 minutes over the chasing peloton, which was keeping the breakaway optimists on a tight leash. 

Turgis was dropped from the front quintet on the Cote de Montclera – the final categorized climb of the day. The main peloton welcomed the Frenchman back from the frontlines and the Alpecin-Deceuninck-led peloton charged on in pursuit of the front trio.

The breakaway optimists were reeled in by the chasing peloton when approximately forty kilometers of the stage remained. Ineos-Grenadiers and Soudal-QuickStep riders had joined the front.

The teams in the peloton cooperated well and a reasonable cruising speed was set as the riders closed in on Villeneuve-sur-Lot where the stage finale would be contested.

A crash occurred in the peloton with twelve kilometers left. The crash brought down several riders, including Astana’s Alexey Lutsenko and Harold Tejada, and Primoz Roglic of Team Red Bull – Bora – Hansgrohe.

Several teammates were standing around Slovenian GC favorite Roglic. Roglic returned to his bike and initiated a chase together with his teammates. However, riders from Arkea – B&B Hotels and Lotto-Dstny were still being treated on the warm French tarmac.

Riders from UAE Team Emirates were leading the peloton with their team captain and Tour de France leader Primoz Roglic with four kilometers remaining. They were then replaced by riders from the main sprinter teams who were now looking to take control and deliver their sprinters optimally for the expected mass sprint. Roglic had not yet caught up with the main peloton and would likely suffer a time loss today.

The sprint was launched with five hundred meters left. Arnaud Demare (Arkea – B&B Hotels) accelerated, Wout van Aert countered (Team Visma – Lease a Bike), but it was Biniam Girmay who remarkably took his third stage victory in this year’s Tour de France for his Intermache-Wanty team. Van Aert finished second, while Demare completed the stage podium.

Supported by five teammates Roglic crossed the finish line with a time loss of approximately one minute.

Pogacar leads the general classification 01:06 minutes ahead of Evenepoel and 01:14 minutes ahead of Vingegaard. 

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete coverage from Tour de France 2024.

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