Another brilliant finish for Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty) in the green jersey gave him a third stage victory at the 2024 Tour de France as he outsprinted his rivals to the line in Villeneuve-sur-Lot. Girmay accelerated superbly on the final straight of Stage 12, beating second placed Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and third placed Arnaud Demare (Arkea-B&B Hotels) to the finish. Demare was subsequently disqualified, moving Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech) up to third. A crash towards the end of the stage for Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) saw him lose time in the GC, whilst Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) retained the yellow jersey. Pogacar continues to lead by 1’06” from second placed Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step), whilst Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) is third at +1’14”. Roglic has dropped to sixth overall, now +4’42” off the leader Pogacar.
A picturesque route ahead
Stage 12 commenced with 167 riders on the start line, after Michael Morkov tested positive for Covid-19 and the Astana Qazaqstan team’s medical staff took the decision to withdraw him from the Tour. With an afternoon in the beautiful landscapes of the Cantal and Lot regions ahead on the hilly 203.6 km route from Aurillac to Villeneuve-sur-Lot, the early running saw several breakaway attempts failing in the first few kilometres.
Four men in the breakaway
Eventually it was Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) who initiated a successful movement at km 19 and he was quickly followed by his teammate Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), as well as Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) and Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies). This quartet did not encounter any opposition at first, especially as the peloton’s progress was disrupted by a crash at km 23. The incident was of no consequence, however, the day quickly turned into an ordeal for (Fabio Jakobsen Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) and then later Pello Bilbao (Bahrain – Victorious) who both abandoned the race due to illness.
Abrahamsen and Turgis
Still wearing the polka dot jersey despite having lost the lead in the Mountain classification to Yellow Jersey Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) yesterday, Abrahamsen was the first to reach the summits of both the Côte d'Autoire (Cat. 4, km 62.8) and the Côte de Rocamadour (Cat. 4, km 84.3), where the breakaway foursome maintained a lead of 2'10” over the peloton. Turgis then led the breakaway through the intermediate sprint point at Gourdon (km 110), where they still had a 1’25” lead over their pursuers in the main group. The top of the Côte de Montcléra (Cat. 4, km 135.5) climb was also reached first by Abrahamsen and by that time the peloton had reduced their deficit to 1'10”.
An exciting finale in Villeneuve-sur-Lot
That Côte de Montcléra climb had seen Turgis lose contact with the other three riders in the breakaway and within 30 km the peloton caught up with the remaining trio of escapees (at km 162). With 12.5 kilometres to go a crash for Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) brought several other riders to the ground, including Roglic, costing him crucial time in the GC. After a flat final sector it was another fantastic, frantic bunch sprint in Villeneuve-sur-Lot, with Girmay producing a brutal acceleration to beat his rivals to the finish line for his third win at this year’s Tour.
