Stage 12 Win Makes it a Hat-Trick

Stage 12 of the Tour de France 2024 ended in a bunch sprint, and Biniam Girmay made it a hat-trick of wins in this edition of the race.

Girmay got a great lead-out from Mike Teunissen that put him near the front.

Wout van Aert sprinted by the barriers on the right hand side of the road, but was blocked by Arnaud Démare, deviating from his line. Van Aert was second and Démare was relegated.

Ackermann was third.

Cavendish was well-placed, but had to go round Démare’s lead-out man Dan McLay, who had stopped pedalling and was therefore an obstacle. Cavendish was fifth across the line, but was somewhat controversially relegated.

Mathieu van der Poel was held up by a crash at 11km to go, so Philipsen did not have his lead-out man and was sixth across the line, but fourth once Démare and Cavendish had been taken out of the frame.

Video Highlights

These are video highlights of Stage 12.

Primoz Roglic

Road furniture caused Alexey Lutsenko to crash with 11km to go, and Primoz Roglic came down in the pile-up.

Roglic was led over the line by his team, but lost time. He has slipped from fourth to sixth in the GC rankings, at 4 minutes 42 seconds behind the leader.

The Breakaway

There was an early breakaway featuring Jonas Abrahamsen, Anthony Turgis, Quentin Pacher and Valentin Madouas. At one point their lead was 3 minutes 30 seconds.

They were caught with 40km of the parcours still to ride.

Abandons

Fred Wright wasn’t well yesterday, and missed the time cut.

Astana’s Michael Morkov abandoned before the stage with Covid.

Pello Bilbao and Fabio Jakobsen both abandoned during the stage.