And with that, I’m done. It’s been a spectacular day. I’ll be back for more tomorrow. See you then!
Geraint Thomas: 'With 50m to go I thought, no way is this actually happening'
Some boos as Thomas climbs the podium, with Team Sky controversial in France. He then has another chat:
I did not think that was going to happen, even on the climb. The plan was for Froome to have a go, and for me to follow. I knew round that last corner we had to be first, with Froome on my wheel. I thought, just go round. If anyone’s going to go round me, it’ll be him. With 50m to go, I thought, no way is this actually happening.
I think he got caught with a spectator or something. He crashed right in front of me. I managed to stay up. Not nice for him, for sure. That’s the only negative of the day. And Kruijswijk, that was some ride. I can’t believe I won the stage. Just unreal.
Updated
Here’s our first-take report on today’s action:
Daniel Martin has a quick chat:
At that point you’re not even racing, you’re just trying to get to the top. There’s nothing left in the legs. I felt really good on the first climb today but it was such a hard day, after such a hard week last week. I did my best today, so I’m happy. I’m just tired.
This is from the Wall Street Journal’s Joshua Robinson:
At least two people tried to take swings at Froome on the Alpe d'Huez today. French TV also reporting that police seized liquids from fans that were meant to be thrown on riders. https://t.co/k9D5LmdP8f
— Joshua Robinson (@JoshRobinson23) July 19, 2018
This is how it ended:
This was the moment @GeraintThomas86 became the first ever British rider to conquer Alpe d'Huez at @LeTour !👊🇬🇧
— Team Sky (@TeamSky) July 19, 2018
📹 > @itvcycling pic.twitter.com/zCE4MsdUpI
That was an enthralling stage from first to last, and it ends with Geraint Thomas extending his lead to 1min 39sec. And this is what he has to say about it:
Honestly I’m speechless. I don’t know what to say. Not a chance in hell I thought I was going to win today. I just followed Dumoulin and Bardet. Obviously a bit of bad luck for Nibali. I nearly went down myself. It’s just unbelievable. Can we just go to Paris now? I did say yesterday, this race is made for me now. Today, that’s it. I can be happy for sure now. Maybe I can keep the yellow jersey for the next few days, but this race is so hard. You never know how the body reacts. But I’m still riding for Froomey. He’s a legend, probably the best ever. I’m just going to enjoy this. It’s great. I can’t believe it. Alpe d’Huez, man. Speechless.
Here’s the top 10, with Kruijswijk in fact 10th:
Top-10 on Stage 12 #TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/rEHRFOBWiQ
— the Inner Ring (@inrng) July 19, 2018
Kruijswijk somehow clung on to the leaders and finished, I think, in a ludicrously commendable seventh.
Geraint Thomas wins the 12th stage at the Alpe d'Huez!
A fascinating, engrossing race ends with the yellow jersey crossing the line first!
Updated
180m to go: Thomas is in the lead and sprinting hard!
660m to go: Landa goes! And Thomas goes with him!
1km to go: Landa has caught up again! So it’s one of five for the stage win.
1.5km to go: So after 174km and a variety of enormous climbs, who’s got a sprint finish in reserve?
1.8km to go: Now the four are back together. This is anyone’s stage still!
2km to go: Thomas goes with Dumoulin, but Froome is left behind!
2.1km to go: Bardet attacks again! He gets away briefly, but Froome chases him down. And then Dumoulin goes!
2.7km to go: The race has turned tactical, with none of the leading four wanting to go for broke. This is giving others a chance to join them at the front, with Mikel Landa on the verge of doing so.
3km to go: There’s now a front four of Bardet, Dumoulin, Froome and Thomas.
3.3km to go: And Froome takes the lead! Tom Dumoulin is behind him, with Thomas on his wheel.
3.6km to go: Geraint Thomas puts on a blast at the front of the chasing pack, helping Froome up the hill. Kruijswijk’s lead really is vanishing now, with Froome approaching!
3.8km to go: Nibali is down! I’m not sure what happened, but there appeared to be a sudden throng of motorbikes blocking the way.
4km to go: The riders are, according to tradition, being occasionally accosted by lunatics in weird costumes. One such runs alongside Bardet for a while, before being tackled round the neck by a yellow-jacketed security guard. “Wondering if there’s some kind of summer circuit for the biggest halfwits in Europe that takes them from the Running Of The Bulls in Pamplona to Alpe d’Huez a week or so later,” writes Jutin Horton. “And where do they go next?”
4.5km to go: Bardet’s attack is strong, and he’s (apparently) less than a minute behind Kruijswijk now.
5km to go: We’re not seeing much of Kruijswijk, with cameras focused on the yellow jersey, and on Bardet. His lead, we’re told, is 1min 11sec.
5.5km to go: Quintana is already 30sec behind the yellow jersey group, and falling fast.
6km to go: The official timing is all over the place. Now Kruijswijk has a lead of 1min 51sec. And in between starting that sentence and finishing it it went down to 1min 38sec. It’s anyone’s guess, frankly.
Updated
6.4km to go: Quintana has been dropped by the group of favourites, and seems to be struggling!
6.7km to go: Romain Bardet attacks, and he gets away from Bernal! Kruijswijk’s lead is apparently down to 1min 33sec.
7km to go: “Well Egan Bernal will win a Grand Tour or two before he’s finished, won’t he?” wonders Gary Naylor. He’s extremely impressive, and at just 21 has plenty of time. Plus when he cycled into a car it hurt the car more than him.
Foi um dia duro para @Eganbernal. #Tournaespn pic.twitter.com/b0KXLzfXDI
— País do Ciclismo (@DoCiclismo) July 16, 2018
7.6km to go: Egan Bernal neutralises the Quintana attack as well, and remains at the front of the chasing group.
8km to go: Thomas has retaken the virtual yellow jersey, with an 8sec margin over Kruijswijk. The Dutchman’s lead is 2min 33sec.
8.5km to go: Nibali’s attack didn’t amount to much, but now Nairo Quintana has a go!
9km to go: Kruijswijk is precisely 1km ahead, his lead now at 2min 54sec. He retains the virtual yellow jersey, but is 14 seconds away from losing it.
9.3km to go: And Vincenzo Nibali attacks!
Updated
9.5km to go: So the gap isn’t closing as swiftly as it had appeared, but it is still closing. It’s at 3min 15sec, and falling gently.
10.4km to go: No it isn’t! It’s the TV timings that are bust, rather than Kruijswijk’s legs. The graphic on the top of the TV screen suddenly updates, and Kruijswijk’s lead, which had been down below 2min, is suddenly back up to 3min 28sec.
10.5km to go: Kruijswijk’s lead is evaporating!
11km to go: Domestiques are being used up and spat out as the favourites mount their chase. Egan Bernal is leading the group at the moment, and what a pace he’s setting: Kruijswijk’s lead is suddenly down to 2min 20sec!
11.7km to go: So 14 of the top 15 in the GC standings are in the 30-man group leading the chase. The other is 3min 45sec ahead.
13km to go: Geraint Thomas is 1.5km behind the leader, and girding his loins for the big climb. Kruijswijk still looks astonishingly fresh.
🏁 - 14 km
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 19, 2018
HERE IT IS! 🔥🔥🔥
ET C'EST PARTI ! 🔥🔥🔥#TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/GNhQLxD3hq
Updated
13.5km to go: Kruijswijk reaches the bottom of the Alpe d’Huez, and starts to climb.
Updated
14km to go: The three-man chasing pack of Barguil, Majka and Nieve has been caught by the peloton, which is 4min 20sec behind Kruijswijk.
Updated
16.5km to go: The leader goes through Bourg d’Oisans, home of the Museum of the Geology and Fauna of the Alps. Among the highlights is a “recreation of the landscape and life in the Mesozoic through four large frescoes”. The road here is astonishingly flat and phenomenally straight.
20km to go: Rob Betts has more on Kruijswijk: “While not amongst the main favourites, he clearly has pedigree and if it sticks this could be considered one of the great modern GT stage wins, and would definitely have Sky concerned for the overall,” he writes. “He’s a good at the chrono too.” Kruijswijk has never won a stage on a grand tour. His lead over the yellow jersey group is 4min 50sec.
23km to go: The lead is down to 5min 5sec. At this stage if Kruijswijk holds onto this lead it would be phenomenal, and if he’s chased down it would be brilliantly dramatic. There’ll be no losers in this race (well, not among those of us who are only watching it).
26km to go: That’s despite Robert Gesink, Kruijswijk’s team-mate, moving to the front of the Team Sky group to disrupt their chase for a while.
27km to go: The leaders are nibbling into Kruijswijk’s lead, which over the last few minutes has gone down 30sec to 5min 30sec
28km to go: “Great stuff from Kruijswijk but we’ve seen this before on L’Alpe d”Huez stages,” notes Gary Naylor. “The mountain flings riders all over its virages and two minutes can go in five. Watching EPO “flatten” the monster was one of the more disappointing elements of that unlamented era.”
Here’s the final 13km of today’s stage in profile:
🏁 - 29 km
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 19, 2018
🔜#TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/Xe7VcKtENJ
35km to go: “I can’t say whether Kruijswijk is a definite contender for this year’s GC but my word what a ride he’s putting in today. I really hope he has enough in the tank to stay away,” writes George Young. “He was leading the 2016 Giro d’Italia in the final week when he misjudged a bend on a descent and smashed into a wall of snow. Whilst he quickly remounted and finished the race, the injuries to his hip & arms knocked him out of contention for the maglia rosa in the closing stages.” Here’s that crash in full:
37km to go: There are five Sky riders at the front of the yellow jersey group, followed by three from Movistar.
38km to go: They’re still going downhill after the Col de la Croix de Fer, and will be for a while. When they reach Allemont in about 15km the terrain will level out for a bit, before the final climb up the Alpe d’Huez. Kruijswijk’s virtual race lead is currently at 3min 28sec.
Updated
43km to go: “Could you, or some of our more learned (than myself) followers, inform me of whether our friend Mr Kruijswijk is a definite threat to the eventual winner of the yellow jersey, or is this more of an impressive stage win type scenario?” wonders Richard Dennis. He was certainly aiming to have a tilt at the Tour for the first time this year, at the age of 31. “I’ve never targeted the Tour de France like I am now,” he told Cycling News earlier this year. “This will be the first time.” He is having an extraordinary day, and has a virtual lead of over three minutes.
51km to go: Barguil is second over the Col de la Croix de Fer, well behind Kruijswijk. He, Mikel Nieve and Majka are in a little three-man group trying to claw back time on the leader.
54km to go: There are just four Team Sky riders in the group trying to push the peloton forward: Froome, Thomas, Egan Bernal and Michal Kwiatkowski.
55km to go: “Why has Greipel abandoned?” screams Jake Schuster. “Two of his biggest rivals fell out yesterday he could have cleaned up the remaining sprinters this Tour!” No explanation yet, but it has definitely happened.
#TDF2018 Unfortunately @AndreGreipel had to abandon @LeTour on the way to Alpe d'Huez. pic.twitter.com/xWfcG1gnXi
— Lotto Soudal (@Lotto_Soudal) July 19, 2018
56km to go: The Gaviria reports have however been confirmed by his team.
Unfortunately, the brutal course and extreme heat took their toll on Tour de France debutant @FndoGaviria, who pulled out of the race.#TDF2018
— Quick-Step Cycling (@quickstepteam) July 19, 2018
57.5km to go: And as soon as I report that, it’s reported that Poljanski has not in fact abandoned. Much more of this and I am going to abandon reporting the abandonments.
58km to go: More abandonments I hadn’t reported: Pawel Poljanski of Bora Hansgrohe, Rick Zabel of Katusha-Alpecin and André Greipel of New Lotto Soudal have all fallen.
59km to go: Less than 5km to go on the Col de la Croix de Fer, and Kruijswijk is having an extraordinary day. His lead over the yellow jersey group is now at 6min 12sec, and nearly 3min ahead of anyone else.
60km to go: Another sprinting casualty: Fernando Gaviria is said to have abandoned.
62.5km to go: Steven Kruijswijk is still flying off on his own. He’s now 1min 30sec ahead of what was once the leading group, and 5min 40sec ahead of the yellow jersey group.
64km to go: The tour will soon pass through Saint-Sorlin-D’Arves. They don’t do things by, ahem, arves in this place: they even have a town mascot, AKA some bloke in a cow costume. Sorlinette, the mascot involved, has its own Facebook site and everything.
Updated
71km to go: Steven Kruijswijk has launched a solo bid for glory, and has a 25sec lead over the rest of the leading group. He has the virtual yellow jersey on his shoulders, but it doesn’t appear to be weighing him down.
72km to go: Howard Appleby has a solution to my cherry problem: “Put both bags of cherries into one bowl. Wait a few minutes and they’ll start separating and then the English cherries will jump out, unless the Belgians kick them out first!” I have concluded that I should just eat them all, and then repeat the test tomorrow with fewer stupid errors.
74km to go: So with Groenewegen, winner of two stages this year, joining Cavendish and Kittel on the sidelines, there is some savage sprinter-scaring going on at the moment.
Updated
75km to go: “The Lacets are no where as bad as they look,” writes Richard Parker. “Apart from a couple of short sections they are not too bad. They are fantastic to ride though.” The scenery is absolutely exhilarating, though I’ve mainly seen it courtesy of helicopter-based cameras.
Updated
78km to go: There’s news filtering through of another abandonment, with Dylan Groenewegen of LottoNL-Jumbo deciding that all these mountains aren’t really for him.
80km to go: “If you approach the town from the other direction does it bill itself as the capital of cycling descents,” writes Jonathan Miller of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, “or is it uphill both ways?” I think it’s the town’s proximity to lots of hills that they’re celebrating. It’s a bit like a tropical island celebrating the quality of the swimming available there even though, being an island, it’s the only place for miles around where you can’t actually swim.
82km to go: On today’s official timings the earliest anyone was expected to arrive in Saint-Jean was 3.05pm local time, which suggests the pace so far has been unexpectedly fast.
83km to go: The big news of the day is that when I went to the greengrocers this morning they had two batches of cherries, one from Belgium and one from England. So I did the only reasonable thing and bought a handful from each box. England and Belgium went head-to-head twice in the World Cup, but this, I imagined, would be the biggest bout of all.
Though obviously I put the two batches of cherries in identical paper bags, and now I have no idea which is which.
84km to go: Pierre Rolland is well ahead as he goes through Saint-Jean-de-Marienne. Team Sky and the rest of the peloton are more than four minutes behind.
87km to go: The results of the category two climb of the Lacets de Montvernier:
1. Pierre Rolland (5 points)
2. Julian Alaphilippe (3)
3. Serge Pauwels (2)
4. Robert Gesink (1)
Updated
88km to go: Next up is the day’s one sprint, to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. The town bills itself as the world capital of uphill cycling. It’s about 3km away.
90km to go: This picture is even scarier.
Lacets de Montvernier 😍 #TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/W8OBdMumJd
— Team Sky (@TeamSky) July 19, 2018
91km to go: Just look at the state of this. The fourth-toughest climb of the day, and it’s absolutely brutal.
😍🚵♀️🚵♂️🐍🐍🚵♀️🚵♀️😍#TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/Xqz0js8a4O
— Felix Lowe (@saddleblaze) July 19, 2018
92.5km to go: Pierre Rolland is out on his own, 25 seconds ahead of the rest of the breakaway group.
Updated
93km to go: News just in of another abandonment: Tony Gallopin has quit because of a combination of illness and injury.
LIVE - 12ème étape du #TDF2018 🇫🇷
— Fan AG2R-La Mondiale (@fanAG2RLM) July 19, 2018
Mauvaise nouvelle ....
Malade depuis quelques jours et souffrant toujours de sa cote fracturée , @tonygallopin a décidé d'abandonner le Tour de France 2018 .
Bravo Tony pour le courage et merci !
Plus que 5 coureurs dans l'équipe pic.twitter.com/xLmIuZoJWp
94km to go: Several people have been in touch with clarification about La Chambre, which appears to be no ordinary nightclub. So we’ll move quickly on, as indeed has the Tour itself: the second category Lacets de Montvernier is but 1.5km away.
@Simon_Burnton Bringing your La Chambre comment full circle, Le Tour actually passed it during the 2014 Tour on Stage 2. Careful with your promotion of the establishment though as it's a swingers club...
— Max McCall (@maxmccall) July 19, 2018
103km to go: The leaders go through the town of La Chambre. Also the name of a nightclub in Sheffield, Google tells me.
105km to go: Actually I’m told it’s Majka’s team-mate, Gregor Mühlberger, with Alaphilippe at the front, 30 seconds ahead of the rest of the breakaway group.
107km to go: The gap is being stretched further on the descent, with the peloton now 3min 5sec behind the leader. Rafal Majka, Alaphilippe and Barguil are at the front at the moment.
110km to go: The official results of the climb to the Col de la Madeleine:
1. Julian Alaphilippe (20 points)
2. Warren Barguil (15)
3. Serge Pauwels (12)
4. Pierre Rolland (10)
5. Rafal Majka (8)
6. Anthony Perez (6)
7. David Gaudu (4)
8. Gregor Mühlberger (2)
112km to go: The leading riders have just gone through Saint-François-Longchamp, a commune that declares on their website that it operates under the “core values” of “simplicity, generosity, family, sharing, sportsmanship and quality”.
118km to go: Alaphilippe’s explosive rush to the top of the Col de la Madeleine helped the leading group to extend their lead over the peloton to unexplored lengths: there are 2min 45sec between them now.
121km to go: Alaphilippe crosses the line in first place and with apparent ease, ahead of Warren Barguil!
122.5km to go: Riders are starting to position themselves for the sprint to the peak, which is about 1km away. Julian Alaphilippe, currently in the polka dot jersey, will be targeting a big points boost.
124km to go: The gap between the breakaway group and the peloton has started to shrink: having stretched beyond 2min it is now down to 1min 40sec. The peak of the Col de la Madeleine is about 2.5km away.
129km to go: Steven Kruijswijk, currently sixth in the GC, is the leading rider in a worryingly/encouragingly (delete according to allegiance) strong breakaway group.
131km to go: The leading group, of 30-odd with occasional splintered mini-groups, is now 1min 48sec ahead of the peloton, and still pushing.
132km to go: This has been a long climb already, but the summit of the Col de la Madeleine is another 10km away.
134km to go: There’s a very fluid situation at the front of the race, where six riders go ahead of the leading group for a while, before another handful catch them up. BORA-hansgrohe have three riders in this leading gang.
138km to go: A 28-man group has broken away, led by Barguil, Alejandro Valverde and Julian Alaphilippe. They have a 37-second lead over the peloton, with both Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome in the main pack.
Updated
139km to go: The “typical Savoyard commune” (according to their website) of Bonneval-Tarentaise is passed on the climb. Look out for stone houses with wooden cladding and a lot of hanging baskets, as well as rare black grouse running in the other direction away from all the cyclists and cars and motorbikes that have suddenly invaded.
The leading mini-group is packed with Movistar blue and Team Sky white. Wout Poels is not among them: we’ve already seen Team Sky’s 30-year-old Dutchman loitering at the back of the peloton.
143km to go: Barguil also failed to get away. There are a few Movistar riders near the front now, including Nairo Quintana. Though as I type this, Barguil goes again.
145km to go : Warren Barguil is at the front and looking to attack. He’s in a three-man group now just ahead of the rest, with his Fortuneo-Samsic team-mate Elie Gesbert.
Updated
Here’s Mark Cavendish on his lung-busting departure from the Tour: “Sometimes everything you give just isn’t enough. But the finish line will always be there & you’ll pass it eventually.”
Sometimes everything you give just isn’t enough. But the finish line will always be there & you’ll pass it eventually. Thanks to @TeamDiData. Thanks to @LeTour, the race that’s shaped my career & heart. Most importantly, thanks to the incredible fans over the last couple of weeks https://t.co/W5ho0J02wk
— Mark Cavendish (@MarkCavendish) July 19, 2018
I’m with Gary: the great climbs are particularly exhilarating when your ascent is powered by a motor.
On Monday, I rode my bike up to Beachy Head @Simon_Burnton. The sensation of climbing is wonderful, as views open up below and the sky expands. But it's hard work, even for a comparative hump like that. Oh - and I had 700cc of Honda power pushing me through the virages.
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) July 19, 2018
148km to go: Theuns didn’t get very far with his solo break, and the nobody else has had a go yet. The climbing starts in less than a kilometre.
151km to go: It’s all been downhill so far. Enjoy it while it lasts. It’s but a few kilometres to Notre-Dame-de-Briançon, which seems to be a train station rather than a town, and from there it gets tough.
And this here is a photographic history of the Alpe d’Huez:
Here is your good news story of the day:
Yesterday Edvald Boasson Hagen was stranded with a broken bike and no team car. Team Sky gave him a bike to finish the stage, for which he and Servais Knaven were fined. This morning Boasson Hagen came and found Knaven with €150 to cover the fine. pic.twitter.com/eZF65eRePh
— The Cycling Podcast (@cycling_podcast) July 19, 2018
The tour is about to pass through Moutiers, a town that may be familiar with skiers. In a bid to find out about Moutiers I have discovered that it about 800km from the Gorge du Moutiers (which is on the coast near Le Havre) and about 700km from Les Trois-Moutiers (which is not far from Poitiers).
163km to go: Edward Theuns of Sunweb has set off on his own, apparently intent on a monstrously tough and outlandishly unlikely solo breakaway.
Updated
Here’s an awesome interactive we produced in 2015, looking at what it takes to tackle the climb of Alpe d’Huez, and some of the Tour’s most memorable moments:
Hello world!
And so, it is today. The Alpe d’Huez, the most famous climb on the Tour, an ascent of myth and legend, returns to the schedule after a two-year absence. But that’s just the finale, the conclusion to a vicious day that will cover 175.5km and three hors categorie summits: the Col de la Madeleine (25.3km of climbing at an average gradient of 6.2%), the Col de la Croix de Fer (29km at 5.2%) and finally the Alpe d’Huez (13.8km at 8.1%), though organisers have kindly also squeezed in the category two Lacets de Montvernier by way of bonus. Tomorrow is slightly shorter and a great deal flatter: today is a day to leave everything out on the road.
The big news today is that last year’s runner-up, Rigoberto Uran, who crashed painfully on the cobbles on stage nine but two days ago insisted that “we are here until the final. We are not giving up”, has given up. “It’s difficult for me and also for my team,” he said today, after his abandonment was announced. “We prepared for this Tour, all season we were focused on the Tour. Sometimes this happens, and this time, I think it’s the best decision for me to recover and to recover well.”
Updated
