Highlights Stage 12 of 2021 Tour de France: Saint Paul Trois Châteaux - Nîmes

Thank you for following our coverage of the twelfth stage of the 2021 Tour de France, contested between Saint Paul Trois Châteaux and Nîmes. Stay tuned to VAVEL.com for the best information from the world of sport.

Here comes another of the days over 200 kilometers long in this Tour de France, favorable for the sprinters.... Or perhaps for the breakaway as it happened today. Only one pass, the fourth-category Côte du Pic Saint-Loup, will be the most demanding of the stage, which ends in Carcassone.

This is how the teams ranking is going:

This is how the youth's ranking is going:

This is how the mountain classification is going:

Así marcha la clasificación general por puntos:

This how the general classification is going:

This is how the stage was today:

After 16 minutes, the riders of the main group arrive. Mark Cavendish crosses first in it. Nairo Quintana suffered a delay after a mechanical breakdown.

Triumph for the German rider, who gives joy to Bora - Hansgrohe after suffering the loss of its leader.

Last kilometer for Nils Politt!

Nils Politt continues with a great pace, he looks like a winner.

NILS POLITT ATTACKS! The Bora - Hansgrohe rider tries to attack in the leading group and go solo.

It's almost a minute's gap between the group of Ervitti, Politt, Küng and Sweeny and the other nine riders in the breakaway.

This is how the positions were at the intermediate sprint of the day:

1. Nils Politt (Bora Hansgrohe) - 20 pts
2. Harry Sweeny (Lotto Soudal) - 17 pts
3. Imanol Erviti (Movistar Team) - 15 pts
4. Stefan Küng (Groupama FDJ) - 13 pts
5. André Greipel (Israel Start-Up Nation) - 11 pts

Nils Politt (Bora - Hansgrohe) was first over the only mountain pass of the day and scored two points in the classification. Stefan Küng crossed second and took the other point.

The four escapees of the breakaway are 30 seconds ahead of the rest of the group. They are approaching the intermediate sprint point.

Apart from Peter Sagan's withdrawal, other riders were also absent from the start today. One of them is Luke Rowe (Ineos Grenadiers) for arriving outside the time limit; while during the stage they dropped out:

. Victor Campenaerts (Qhubeka NextHash)
- Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto Soudal)
- Miles Scotson (Groupama FDJ)
- Clément Russo (Arkéa Samsic)
- Daniel McLay (Arkéa Samsic)
- Tony Martin (Jumbo Visma)
- Tiesj Benoot (Team DSM)

There are attacks in the breakaway group. Imanol Ervitti, Nils Politt, Stefan Küng and Harry Sweeny have given a good acceleration.

Peter Sagan (Bora - Hansgrohe) did not take the start in stage 12. The reason was a pain in his knee that he had been carrying since the crash he suffered in the third stage on the way to the finish.

The 13 riders marching in the breakaway are:

André Greipel (Israel Start-Up Nation), Edward Theuns (Trek Segafredo), Julian Alaphilippe (Dceuninck - Quick Step), Imanol Erviti (Movistar Team), Nils Politt (Bora - Hansgrohe), Stefan Küng (Groupama FDJ), Stefan Bissegger (EF Education - Nippo), Connor Swift (Arkéa Samsic), Harry Sweeny, Brent van Moer (Lotto Soudal), Luka Mezgec (Team BikeExchange), Sergio Henao (Qhubeka NextHash) y Edvald Boasson Hagen (TotalEnergies).

There are 60 kilometers to go to the finish. There is a group of 13 riders that formed the breakaway of the day and takes a little more than 12 minutes from the peloton. The only mountain pass of the day has already been disputed.

We are now ready to bring you all the action from stage 12 of the Tour de France.

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After a very demanding day like the one just passed, a flat stage will follow, starting in Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux and crossing almost 160 kilometers, with a third category pass, the Côte du belvédère de Tharaux and the intermediate sprint in Uzès, before arriving in Nîmes after 160 kilometers.

This is how the jerseys distinguishing the different leaders of the classifications are distributed:

🟡 Leader: Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates).

🟢 Points: Mark Cavendish (Deceunink - Quick Step)

⭕ Mountain: Nairo Quintana (Arkea Samsic)

⚪ Youth's: Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) - Leader: Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)

This is how the teams ranking is going:

This is how the youth's ranking is going:

This is how the mountain classification is going:

Así marcha la clasificación general por puntos:

This how the general classification is going:

164 riders took the start of the eleventh stage of the Tour de France 2021. At kilometer 25, Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) and Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic) attempted the first attacks of the day. The Colombian succumbed on the climb to the Côte de Fontaine-de-Vaucluse (4th category), which the French rider topped. In addition, the world champion went first in the intermediate sprint and then was caught on the Côte de Gorde (4th category).

Before the Col de la Liguière (1st category), the Ineos Grenadiers took the lead in the peloton, although the advantage of the escapees, a group of 13 riders plus Alaphilippe, increased to 5'00" and that allowed Dan Martin to be the first to cross the pass.

The first climb to Mont Ventoux arrived and Alaphilippe picked up the pace to select the leading group. Only Wout Van Aert (Jumbo Visma), Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Julian Bernard (Trek Segafredo), Kenny Elissonde (Trek Segafredo), Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin Fenix) and Luke Durbridge (Team BikeExchange) followed suit. Pierre-Luc Périchon (Cofidis) and Bauke Mollema (Trek Segafredo) tried to come back, but only the Dutch rider could do so with one kilometer to go on the first pass, which was also won by the Deceunink rider.

On the second ascent of Mont Ventoux, this time categorized as out of category, the Trek Segafredo riders worked to wear down their rivals, with Elissonde attacking and Mollema neutralizing the rivals. However, Wout Van Aert was a climber's rider and took the lead to unhook everyone and go solo to the top of the pass and arrive calmly at the finish line to win the stage after descending the mountain.

In the group of favorites, after the devastating pace of Ineos, the most important movement in the general classification was with Ben O'Connor, who lost his second place to Colombian Rigoberto Urán, after not withstanding the punishment imposed by the mountains on the day and losing 4'03" to the Colombian, Tadej Pogacar and Richard Carapaz, who selected the group and reached the finish line together, behind a Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) who launched a furious attack while climbing Mont Ventoux for the second time with the other three in mention and had the luxury of being the only one so far to leave the reigning champion unhooked in this edition.

My name is Jhonatan Martinez and I will be your host for this stage. We'll be bringing you preview analysis, updates and live news here on VAVEL.