Back to 2013 Tour de France | Photos from stage 12 (posted below results and maps) |

Thursday, July 11:  Stage 12, Fougères - Tours, 218 km

Weather: At the finish in Tours at 12:45PM local time: 20C (70F) and partly cloudy, forecast to rise to 24C (75F) and sunny. Wind from the north-northeast at 21 kph (14 mph), gusting to 40 kph (25mph). Humidity 64%. No rain is forecast.

The Race: 182 riders started today. So far no stage wins by French, Spanish or Italian riders. A winless drought in the Tour by these countries hasn't happened since 1926 when Belgian and Luxembourg riders dominated. A group of five riders (Roman Sicard, Manuele Mori, Anthony Delaplace, Juan Antonio Flecha and Francesco Gavazzi) escaped early on and by km 42 had built a lead of nine minutes. From there the gap started to come down slowly and with about 140 km to go it was 8min 30sec.

With 45 km to go Sicard gave up and went back to the pack, which was a little more than two minutes behind the break. At 20 km to go the sprinters' teams (along with Sky and Saxo) gathered at the front

The other riders in the break gave up, except for Juan Antonio Flecha, who still had 21 seconds with 10.5 km remaining. That couldn't last and four km later Flecha was caught.

Inside 3 km to go a big crash took down riders.

Gert Steegmans gave a perfect leadout to Cavendish but Marcel Kittel was able to come off Cavendish's wheel and around him, something I've never seen before. That made Germany's fifth stage win this Tour.

Christopher Froome stayed up front and successfully defended his lead.

Results: 182 riders started and finished the stage

1. Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) 4hr 49min 49sec. 45.1 km/hr
2. Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) s.t.
3. Peter Sagen (Connondale) s.t.
4. Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) s.t.
5. Roberto Ferrari (Lampre-Merida) s.t.
6. Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) s.t.
7. José Joaquin Rojas ((Movistar) s.t.
8. Yohann Gene (Europcar) s.t.
9. Juan José Lobato (Euskaltel) s.t.
10. Samuel Dumoulin (Ag2r) s.t.
11. Sergey Lagutin (Vacansoleil) s.t.
12. Gert Steegmans (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) s.t.
13. Julien Simon (Sojasun) s.t.
14. Christopher Froome (Sky) s.t.
15. Egoitz Garcia (Cofidis) s.t.
16. Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) s.t.
17. Nairo Alexander Quintana (Movistar) s.t.
18. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) s.t.
19. Roman Kreuziger (Saxo-Tinkoff) s.t.
20. Cadel Evans (BMC) s.t.
21. Matteo Trentin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) s.t.
22. Nicolas Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff) s.t.
23. Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) s.t.
24. Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) s.t.
25. Koen De Kort (Argos-Shimano) s.t.
26. Tom Dumoulin (Argos-Shimasno) s.t.
27. Elia Favilli (Lampre-Merida) s.t.
28. Ian Stannard (Sky) s.t.
29. Fabio Sabatini (Cannodnale) s.t.
30. Roy Curvers (Argos-Shimano) s.t.
31. John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) s.t.
32. Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) s.t.
33. André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) s.t.
34. Alexandre Geniez (FDJ) s.t.
35. Arthur Vichot (FDJ) s.t.
36. Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) s.t.
37. Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol) s.t.
38. Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ) s.t.
39. Ruben Perez (Euskaltel) s.t.
40. Maciej Bodnar (Cannondale) s.t.
41. Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) s.t.
42. Daniele Bennati (Saxo-Tinkoff) s.t.
43. Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick step) s.t.
44. Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Katusha) s.t.
45. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) s.t.
46. Matteo Tosatto (Saxo-Tinkoff) s.t.
47. Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff) s.t.
48. Enrico Gasparotto (Astana) s.t.
49. Davide Malacarne (Europcar) s.t.
50. Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) s.t.
    

General Classification: 1961.5 km raced so far at an average speed of 41.45 km/hr

1. Christopher Froome (Sky) 47hr 19min 13sec
2. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) @ 3min 25sec
3. Bauke Mollema (Belkin) @ 3min 37sec
4. Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) @ 3min 54sec
5. Roman Kreuziger (Saxo-Tinkoff) @ 3min 57sec
6. Laurens Ten Dam (Belkin) @ 4min 10sec
7. Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) @ 4min 44sec
8. Nairo Alexander Quintana (Movistar) @ 5min 18sec
9. Rui Alberto Costa (Movistar) @ 5min 37sec
10. Jean-Christophe Péraud (Ag2r) @ 5min 39sec
11. Joaquin Rodriguez (Kastusha) @ 5min 48sec
12. Jaob Fuglsang (Astana) s.t.
13. Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp) @ 5min 52sec
14. Cadel Evans (BMC) @ 6min 54sec
15. Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel) @ 8min 4sec
16. Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff) @ 8min 28sec
17. Andy Schleck (Radio Shack) @ 8min 32sec
18. Daniel Fernandez (Katusha) s.t.
19. Maxime Monfort (Radio Shack) @ 10min 16sec
20. Igor Anton (Euskaltel) @ 10min 48sec
21. Romain Bardet (Ag2r) @ 11min 37sec
22. José Serpa (Lampre-Merida) @ 12min 16sec
23. Wouter Poels (Vacansoleil) @ 13min 9sec
24. Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) @ 13min 11sec
25. Daniel Navarro (Cofidis) @ 14min 50sec
26. Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) @ 16min 0sec
27. Pierre Rolland (Europcar) @ 16min 38sec
28. Davide Malacarne (Europcar) @ 17min 57sec
29. Jan Bakelants (Radio Shack) @ 19min 2sec
30. Steve Morabito (BMC) @ 19min 59sec
31. Richie Porte (Sky) @ 21min 19sec
32. Robert Gesink (Belkin) @ 21min 32sec
33. John Gadret (Ag2r) @ 23min 12sec
34. Eduard Vorganov (Katusha) @ 23min 46sec
35. Maxime Mederel (Sojasun) @ 24min 55sec
36. Praemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) @ 24min 58sec
37. Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel) @ 25min 21sec
38. Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Merida) @ 26min 9sec
39. Ruben Plaza (Movistar) @ 28min 22sec
40. Haimar Zubeldia (Radio Shack) @ 29min 57sec
41. Nicolas Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff) @ 34min 13sec
42. Andreas Klöden (Radio shack) @ 34min 13sec
43. Andrey Amador (Movistar) @ 34min 42sec
44. Cyril Guatier (Europcar) @ 35min 2sec
45. Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) @ 35min 53sec
46. Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ) @ 36min 5sec
47. Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) @ 36min 22sec
48. Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) @ 36min 27sec
49. Hubert Dupont (Ag2r) @ 36min 43sec
50. Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) @ 37min 40sec

Climber:

1. Pierre Rolland (Europcar): 49 points
2. Christopher Froome (Sky): 33
3. Richie Porte (Sky): 28
4. Nairo Alexander Quintana (Movistar): 26
5. Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel): 21

Points:

1. Peter Sagan (Cannondale): 307 points
2. Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step): 211
3. André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol): 195
4. Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano): 177
5. Alexander Kristoff (Katusha): 157

Young Rider:

1. Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) 47hr 23min 57sec
2. Nairo Alexander Quintana (Movistar) @ 34sec
3. Romain Bardet (Ag2r) @ 6min 53sec

Team Classification:

1. Movistar: 141hr 17min 14sec
2. Saxo-Tinkoff @ 4min 34sec
3. Belkin @ 6min 6sec
4. Ag2r @ 11min 53sec
5. Radio Shack @ 16min 3sec

Stage 12 map

Stage 12 profile

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Photos from Stage 12:

Jacky Durand, winner of the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Tours and twice professional Champion of France

Bernard Thévenet, winner of the 1975 and 1977 Tours de France

André Greipel and Andreas Klöden at the start

Tony Gallopin

Laurens Ten Dam

Tony Martin and Sylvain Chavanel

Simon Gerrans and Ryder Hesjedal

Laurent Didier and Andy Schleck

Here comes what's left of the pack with two km to go. It has been badly split by a crash almost a km earlier that took out most of the Lotto-Belisol riders.

Marcel Kittel has come off Mark Cavendish's wheel. Peter Sagan is drafting Cavendish. Cavendish's last leadout man, Gert Steemans has swung off on the right.

Kittle has pulled even but Sagan can just hang on for the ride.

Kittel has clawed his way ahead now.

Cavendish looks over and sees Kittel is pulling ahead.

Kittel wins by a half wheel.

Shame André Greipel was delayed by the crash.

Stage winner Marcel Kittel

Juan Antonio Flecha was given the combativity award for the day. He earned it.

With a lead of nearly 100 points, it will be hard to take the Green Jersey from Peter Sagan.

Pierre Rolland will have a fight on his hands keep the dots in the Alps.

And Michal Kwiatkowski is going to have to fend of Nairo Quintana in the Alps if he wants to keep the White Jersey. I'm betting on Quintana.

Chris Froome finished with the front group and remains the leader.