Having gotten up the road on stage 9, Nicolas Roche was again to the fore as the Tour de France today climbed the first big mounts of this year’s edition.
The Irish rider was one of the aggressors on stage 12 but in the end he narrowly missed going clear of the large main breakaway with the three-man move that eventually won the day.
Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) was among that three-man
group and he won the stage from Pello Bilbao (Astana) and Gregor Mühlberger
(Bora-hansgrohe).
They sprinted in at the end of the 209.5km stage from
Toulouse to Bagnères-de-Bigorre to fight it out for stage honours.
That trio was 1:28 ahead of the next group of riders;
some 14 men who had also all been in the original breakaway numbering more than
40.
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Roche was in that second group and the Team Sunweb rider placed 15th on the stage after earlier putting all his effort into going clear with Yates, Bilbao and Mühlberger on the second of two big climbs.
Half of Roche's Team Sunweb squad were also in the breakaway and they worked for him on the front in a bid to keep the group together so the Irish rider could have a go on the final climb.
However, when Yates attacked he went very hard and only two riders could live with him.
Today the stage included the cat 1 ascents of the 13km Col
de Peyresourde and the 9.9km Horquette d'Ancizan.
While 42 riders would pull clear before the first climb it was clear the breakaway would be whittled down once the road began to kick up.
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The eventual top three on the stage went clear on the
second climb of the day, after Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton Scott) and Simon
Clarke (EF Education First) had attacked first.
While Roche attempted to the join the successful trio on
the second climb as they attacked it hard, he just fell short and then took his
place in chase group.
While it gave chase down the descent of the Horquette
d'Ancizan and into Bagnères-de-Bigorre for the finish, the leading trio was
strong and unified in sharing the workload.
The gap between the peloton and the breakaway was a large one and even at the finish, though much of the advantage had been shaved back, the leaders were still 9:35 clear of the reduced bunch.
All of the general classification favourites were in that Team Ineos-led reduced peloton, with the top men opting to keep their powder dry ahead of tomorrow’s stage 13 TT, some 27.2km starting and finishing in Pau.
There is no change in the overall with Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) holding yellow by 1:12 from Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos).
Egan Bernal is in 3rd place, the Team Ineos rider just
four seconds down on his team mate. However, that gap could be a lot bigger
after tomorrow’s test and Thomas may well be in yellow.
Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) remains in 9th overall, some 2:09 down on Alaphilippe and 57 seconds down on Thomas.
For Martin, tomorrow is about limiting his losses in the TT. Once the race against the clock is over he is into the big mountains and has his best chance ever of making the final podium in Paris.
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