Perhaps the number of riders warming up on turbo trainers at the start in Agen should have been the first sign. It was a sprint stage on paper, but there was a sense of tension in the air as the skies kept changing from dark to light and the wind began to blow as riders lined up. The grey clouds loomed up ahead ominously as they spat droplets of rain. Two fourth category climbs might not have looked like much on the profile, but these days, the Tour de France doesn’t always go to script.
Victor Campenaerts of Lotto-Dstny was the first rider to go as soon as the riders left the neutralised zone. In his trademark, aero position the Belgian rider opened up a small gap but there were responses from every direction behind. When the world champion, Mathieu van der Poel got involved, it was clear that things were about to get very serious indeed. Oier Lazkano of Movistar moved next, then Jasper Stuyven for Lidl-Trek, then Christophe Laporte for Visma-Lease a Bike. The types of riders who we see come to the fore in the Classics earlier in the season were licking their lips at the carnage which ensued. This was pure, unfiltered, crazy bike racing.
“It was a stage like we had in 2021 and 2022 when we only had these kinds of days, it was a proper day of racing,” Stuyven said after the finish. “I am getting old so I needed to warm up this morning for a hard start. I thought the break was going to stay away but it looked like there was always someone to chase it down.”
Groups established themselves and came back to the peloton so quickly that it was hard to even keep track of the race scenario. Every team had their own ambitions: there were general classification riders who were unhappy with the composition of the breakaway and sprint teams who wanted to keep things together for their fast men. For three and a half hours the riders threw blows at each other. They averaged almost 50 kilometres per hour for the 165 kilometre stage.
“It was stressful, crazy stressful. It’s better to not be a GC rider today as you’re always afraid of losing the race,” Tobias Halland Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility said afterwards. “For us we have nothing to lose and it was a fun day for us. We could be on the attack and go crazy so it was a good day for us.”
There are plenty of riders in the Tour de France peloton, however, who do not participate in the early season Classics for a reason. The chaotic, wild composition of those days don’t suit the lightweight climbers who will come into their own when the mountains finally arrive. As entertaining as it is for people watching at home, for those riders, the race panning out like it did on stage 12 means trouble.
“It was a classic fight. Hilly terrain, some wind, and flat-out racing from the gun,” Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike said after the stage. The Belgian rider had spent the day trying to control the breakaway alongside his teammates to protect Jonas Vingegaard’s position on the general classification.
“It was a crazy day, we expected this. Adam [Yates] did well, slipping in the first big move. For us, it was not the ideal situation, but we didn't panic. There were a lot of teams that wanted to chase, and we helped by using Bart Lemmen,” Visma-Lease a Bike sports director Grischa Niermann added.
One rider who seemed to revel in the disorder was yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogačar. He could even be seen sprinting for a top-10 finish on the stage from the reduced bunch that remained after the carnage of the day, something that the UAE Team Emirates rider seemed to find almost amusing in his press conference at the end of the stage.
“I sprinted because I had good legs and I was in great position and it’s nice to have a top-10 in the sprint stage,” Pogačar said. “But don’t worry guys,” he joked. “I was always keeping calm in the final and the team did a super good job. It was no stress, I was in my safe zone in my own bubble and avoiding the hectic things ahead. I saw I could push for a top-10 without stress so it was nice.”
Stage 12 was another reminder that there is no opportunity for concentration to lapse in a race like the Tour de France. Even the quietest days can end up being crucial for general classification riders. In the current generation of superstars –including the likes of Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel – the usual structure of a Grand Tour stage isn’t always followed. These are riders who don’t adhere to tradition when it comes to how things are usually done. The result of it can often leave a peloton in pandemonium.
“They’re not afraid to race full gas everyday,” eventual stage winner Jasper Philipsen stated. “They don’t wait for the mountains.”
