Today was the day that we as spectators had been waiting for and certain riders had been dreading – the mountains are here!
The first true mountains of this year’s Tour would really test the peloton today.
After a hectic start with the likes of Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) & Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) amongst the early unsuccessful attackers the actual break of the day got away 20km into the stage and what a break it was – 52 riders! These 52 riders were motoring and the first hour saw 51.9 kilometers covered.
52 riders out front @52kph!
Despite the fast pace from the breakaway the gap was only 2 minutes to the peloton as the likes of Uno-X & EF weren’t happy with Ineos’ GC man, Carlos Rodriguez being in the break. Rodriguez had a host of teammates with him including Thymen Arensman, Geraint Thomas and Axel Laurence who drove the group trying to increase the gap. Ineos were joined by Jayco who were working for the stage victory through Ben O’Connor and a particularly impressive Bahrain-Victorious who had the numbers in the break along with their two best climbers in polka dot wearing Lenny Martinez and Santiago Buitrago.
Bahrain’s Robert Stannard driving the break hard on its way to the 4th category climb, Côte de Labtmale
It was Stannard’s teammate, Fred Wright who took the one point on offer at the top of the Côte de Labtmale and then it was time for the intermediate sprint. With both Milan and Girmay missing the break, Matthieu Van der Poel thought he could get maximum points for the green jersey but it was Girmay’s teammate Rex who just beat him to the line. Soon after the sprint it was time for the first ‘real’ mountain of Le Tour ’25, the 1st category, Col du Soulor.
The big break hit the climb with a 2 minute lead and completely exploded and it was quickly whittled down to just a handful of riders, Michael Woods (Israel), Michael Storer (Tudor), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon), Einer Rubio (Movistar) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek). Woods attacked solo near the top and took the maximum points on offer but the real fireworks were behind in the peloton.
The Col du Soulor would prove to be a nightmare for many GC favorites with the peloton cracking under the pressure of Visma Lease A Bike and there were soon only 15 riders left. Amongst the early riders to be dropped were Remco Evenpoel & 2 minutes later the yellow jersey himself, Ben Healy. Both riders seemed to have overheated with their teammates constantly pouring water over them but the damage was done. Healy dropped completely out of the running but Evenpoel wasn’t finished and he kept going at his own pace and would eventually catch back up to the peloton many kilometers later.
Evenpoel’s plight was helped by Visma’s Jorgenson having a bad day and Visma slowed down the pace to try and keep the American in play for the final climb up to Hautacam.
Meanwhile up front in the break Bruno Armirail attacked the descent and quickly built a gap. The local Frenchman was flying and taking time from his former breakaway companions and even the peloton but there was no way he could hold them off all the way to the summit on Hautacam.
Bruno’s efforts would win him today’s combativity award
Bruno was hoping that there would be no early battle for the GC on the 13.5 brutal kilometers long HC climb but that proved to be the complete opposite.
After submitting to Jumbo’s incessant pace most of the day, UAE came to the front themselves and increased the pace until there was almost nobody left in the front group.
Evenpoel was quickly dropped, the Visma trio of Jorgenson, Kuss and S. Yates also and soon there was only Pogacar, Vingegaard, Onley, Lipowitz, Roglic and Johannessen left with Jonathan Narvaez driving the pace. With just under 12km remaining of the climb Narvaez started sprinting and only Pogacar and Vingegaard could follow.
There was still 11.5km to go when Narvaez pulled off and Pogacar rode away solo.
Showing no signs of discomfort from yesterday’s crash, Pogacar quickly got into his zone but for a while it looked like perhaps Vingegaard could come back as the gap hovered at around 15-20seconds.
It wasn’t to be though as Pogacar continued to pile on the pressure and the gap would soon blow out to a minute and then even more as the climb went on. Pogi was simply a class above all the others as they struggled up the climb, he stayed smooth and continued to increase his lead.
At the summit he would beat Vingegaard home by a massive 2m10s with 3rd place taken by a very impressive Florian Lipowitz who has moved up the standings significantly.
Impressively Remco Evenepoel kept his 3rd place on GC after a day where it looked certain that he would lose 10 minutes but his tactic of just going his own pace worked well.
Big losers today were obviously Visma who saw their leader suffer a demoralizing blow but they also lost their 2nd leader with Jorgensen suffering all day and dropping to 10th overall at a massive 12m12s behind Pogacar.
The mountain time trial tomorrow. Can Pogi do it again?
Tomorrow’s mountain time trial. Brutal!
Results Stage 12:
1 Pogačar Tadej UAE Team Emirates – XRG 4:21:19
2 Vingegaard Jonas Team Visma | Lease a Bike @ 2:10
3 Lipowitz Florian Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 2:23
4 Johannessen Tobias Halland Uno-X Mobility @ 3:00
5 Onley Oscar Team Picnic PostNL
6 Vauquelin Kévin Arkéa – B&B Hotels @ 3:33
7 Evenepoel Remco Soudal Quick-Step @ 3:35
8 Gall Felix Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team @ 4:02
9 Roglič Primož Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 4:08
10 Rodríguez Cristián Arkéa – B&B Hotels @ 7:26
GC After Stage 12:
1 Pogačar Tadej UAE Team Emirates – XRG 45:22:51
2 Vingegaard Jonas Team Visma | Lease a Bike @ 3:31
3 Evenepoel Remco Soudal Quick-Step @ 4:45
4 Lipowitz Florian Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 5:34
5 Vauquelin Kévin Arkéa – B&B Hotels @ 5:40
6 Onley Oscar Team Picnic PostNL @ 6:05
7 Roglič Primož Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 7:30
8 Johannessen Tobias Halland Uno-X Mobility @ 7:44
9 Gall Felix Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team @ 9:21
10 Jorgenson Matteo Team Visma | Lease a Bike @ 12:12
11 Healy Ben EF Education – EasyPost @ 13:19
12 Rodríguez Carlos INEOS Grenadiers @ 17:56
13 Jegat Jordan Team TotalEnergies @ 18:00
14 Martin Guillaume Groupama – FDJ @ 19:30
15 Mas Enric Movistar Team @ 21:37
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