Stage 12 report: The Basque rider Ion Izagirre, riding for Cofidis, won stage 12 from Roanne to Belleville-en-Beaujolais in the Rhone, after a solo attack in the final 30km. It was his team’s second success in this year’s Tour, following the French rider Victor Lafay’s win in San Sebastián, on stage two.
After another frantic opening to the stage, in which multiple riders fought to escape the peloton, the race eventually settled down, but only after close to 80km of attacking, with two main groups battling for control of the situation.
Jeremy Whittle reports from Belleville-en-Baujolais
The top five on General Classification after stage 12
Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) 50hr 30min 23sec
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) +17sec
Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) +2min 40sec
Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) +4min 22sec
Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) +4min 34sec
Sepp Cuss drops out of the top 10 and is replaced by Thibaut Pinot, who is 6min 33sec off the pace.
The top five in stage 12
1. Ion Izagirre 3hr 51min 42sec
2. Mathieu Burgaudeau +58sec
3. Matteo Jorgenson +58sec
4. Tiesj Benoot +1min 06sec
5. Tobias Halland Johannessen +1min 11sec
Ion Izagirre makes it 2 @LeTour stage wins for himself, and 2 stage wins for @TeamCofidis and for 🇪🇸Spain in #TDF2023
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 13, 2023
He covered the last 30km on his own at an average of 49.5km/h#TDFdata #TDF2023 https://t.co/kMMWk3IvUe
The battle for second and third: Burgaudeau rolls over the line in second place ahead of Matteo Jorgenson.
Ion Izagirre wins stage 12!!!
It’s been a wonderful, chaotic afternoon’s racing and it’s won by the Basque rider, who takes a second stage for Cofidis, who hadn’t won one in the 15 previous years. Izagirre pumps his right fist as he milks the applause of the crowd in the final 500 metres. Approaching the finish line, he blows kisses to the crowds and raises his arms above his head. Chapeau, Ion.
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4km to go: With his teeth gritted, Izagirre ploughs on with those behind him duking it out for the other two podium places. Jorgenson and Martin go clear of the other four.
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5km to go: Apologies, there are six riders in the group behind Ion Izagirre, but one of them is a teammate of the Spaniard’s and has been trying to sabotage the hunt. Wout Poels is towing the yellow jersey group, who are 4min 20sec behind the stage leader.
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7km to go: It’s been a wild ride, with today’s stage being one of the most chaotic I can ever recall. The five riders behind Izagirre have completely given up their chase. His lead goes out to a minute.
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10km to go: Izagirre’s Cofidis teammate Guillaume Martin is in the group of riders chasing the leader and is doing his best to disrupt what is currently passing for their rhythm. His pal has a lead of 48 seconds and will win his second ever Tour de France stage barring an accident.
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Caleb Ewan watch: He’s 30 minutes off the pace and still has to negotiate the final climb. He might make it but it will be tight.
12km to go: Izagirre leads by 43 seconds from the small group of riders chasing him. They no longer seem to be working together, which is good news for the Spaniard.
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14km to go: The final descent finished, it’s fairly flat from now until the finish with a couple of little kicks. Izagirre is stretching his lead and it’s now at 55 seconds. The yellow jersey group are 3min 07sec further back.
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15km to go: Seven years since his most recent Tour de France stage, Izagirre has a commanding lead of 49 seconds over the chasing Benoot, Pinot, Martin, Jorgenson , Johannessen and Burgaudeau. He’ll take some beating.
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20km to go: Ion Izagirre is 36 seconds clear with six riders giving chase. Mathieu van der Poel is over a minute behind our leader and his goose looks well and truly cooked.
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27km to go: Out on the course for Eurosport, Jens Voigt reports that the occupants of an AG2R-Citreon car have been given an almighty rollocking by a race official for allowing two of their riders to draft behind the car. They’ll probably get fined for that.
28km to go: Izagirre goes over the top, collecting eight bonus seconds that are of absolutely no use to him.
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29km to go: Matteo Jorgenson and Thibaut Pinaut attack off the front of the six riders in the group chasing Izagirre with less than a kilometre of the final climb to go.
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30km to go: With two kilometres to go, Cofidis rider Ion Izagirre pulls clear of the lead group and opens a gap of 27 seconds. Mathieu van der Poel is struggling to stay in touch with the rest of the leaders, while Ineos Grenadiers have taken up position at the front of the yellow jersey group.
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32km to go: Our lead trio are joined by another five riders, including Izagirre, Benoot, Martin and Johannesson. It’s bad news for Mathieu van der Poel, who is the fastest rider of them all in a finish. The rest of those in his group will be doing their damnedest to drop him.
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32km to go: At the head of the race, Mathieu van der Poel is joined by Thibaut Pinot and Matteo Jorgenson on the final climb of the day.
33km to go: “What rider number is Jai Hindley and where is he in todays race,” asks Anna. The correct answer is (a) No71 and (b) in the yellow jersey group.
35km to go: Mathieu van der Poel is approaching the final climb of the day and it’s a category two bruiser. The Col de la Croix Rosier is 717m high and 5.3km in length with an average of gradient of 7.6 per cent to pile the pain on already tormented legs.
The yellow jersey group is 3min 35sec behind Alpecin-Deceuninck rider Van Der Poel. He has a lead of 20 seconds over Thibaut Pinot and Matteo Jorgenson, who are 11 seconds clear of another trio.
37km to go: In 12th place on GC, the South African rider Louis Meintjes has done exceptionally well to bridge the gap from the polka-dot jersey group to the yellow jersey group.
41km to go: There is a very, very tricky and clearly signposted u-turn on this descent and Mathiu van der Poel almost comes a cropper and goes into some sandbags as he negotiates it. It could claim a few victims in a couple of minutes time.
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⛰️ @mathieuvdpoel takes the 5 points at the summit of the Col de la Croix Montmain!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 13, 2023
⛰️@mathieuvdpoel prend les 5 points au sommet du Col de la Croix Montmain ! #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/ALkQl9TuV4
44km to go: Mathieu van der Poel goes over the top with a lead of 17 seconds from his closest poursuivants. Will the breakaway regroup by the bottom of this descent?
44km to go: Jumbo-Visma have four riders including Jonas Vingegaard in the yellow jersey group, compared to the six UAE Emirates representative, including Tadej Pogacar.
45km to go: Mathieu van der Poel has a lead of 30 seconds over the chasing posse of 10 riders. The yellow jersey group is two minutes further back and dropping bodies like John Wick in a particularly bad mood.
47km to go: Having been ill for the past two days, Mathieu van der Poel drops Andrey Amador is now out in front on his own on the climb. Dylan Teuns is the latest to struggle as the day’s breakaway group thins out.
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48km to go: Mads Pedersen and Julian Alaphilippe are dropped by the lead group, while Jasper Stuyven is also struggling. Matteo Jorgenson, by contrast, is trying to bridge the gap to the two leaders, Van Der Poel and Amador.
50km to go: Amador and Van Der Poel open a gap of 15 seconds on the rest of the breakaway on the foot of the nexct climb, the Col de la Croix Montmain. It’s 737m high and 5.5km in length with an average gradient of 6.1%.
53km to go: “If that explosive lunchtime concoction of food doesn’t propel you up the Col de la Casse Froide then nothing will,” writes Ger McCarthy.
55km to go: In the lead group, Mathieu van der Poel puts his foot down on the descent, with Andrey Amador hot on his heels.
58km to go: Giuliu Ciccone is one of five riders who hit the asphalt in a collision as various riders collect musettes in a feed zone. He looks fit to continue, although he did briefly clutch his shoulder Cavendish-style. He remounts and pedals away.
61km to go: AG2R-Citreon are doing the hard work at the front of the yellow jersey group and have chipped 30 seconds off the lead group’s advantage, which is now down to 3min 10sec. It’s a mightily strong lead group of 15 riders and it’s nigh on impossible to pick a winner.
In an interview with Eurosport’s Jens Voigt, their team boss explains that they’re trying to minimise the gap and try to move their riders closer to the top 10 on GC. Their highest placed representative is Felix Gall in 16th place. Ben O’Connor is in 17th place but has missed out on today’s yellow jersey group. I’m far from an expert but it seems a lot of effort for very little return, in my humble opinion.
62km to go: The riders are on their way up the third categorised climb of the day, the Col de la Casse Froide. It’s 740m high and 5.3km in length with an average gradient of 6%. The road is narrow and pleasantly dappled by the sun shining through the thick canopy of trees lining each side of the road.
63km to go: “Come on Baz!” writes Joe Pearson. “Make like Sarah Rendell and regale us with the mouth-watering details of your snacks!”
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess my colleague Sarah Rendell eats far more healthily, but having finally got to inspect the contents of my musette, I can reveal it contains a ham, cheese and salad sandwich with salad cream between two slices of wholemeal bread; two Activia yoghurts (one apricot, one strawberry), a bag of cheese and onion crisps and a handful of wine gums. I’ve also been handed a bidon of lemon Fanta. That’ll do.
64km to go: There are 39 riders in the yellow jersey group, with pretty much everyone from the top 10 on GC present and correct as far as I can tell. Louis Meintjes (12th) and Mikel Landa (14th) have definitely missed that particular bus. Interestingly, Thibaut Pinot, who is 15th on GC, 9min 36sec behind race leader Jonas Vingegaard, is in today’s breakaway. The gap is 3min 32sec.
69km to go: The gap from the 15-man breakaway to the yellow jersey group stretches to 3min 28sec, while the polka-dot jersey group is another three minutes further back.
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Caleb Ewan watch: The Aussie sprinter is now being accompanied by a teammate but is already 18 minutes behind the leaders. With most of the day’s climbing still to come, his chances of making the cut-off already look extremely slim.
At a guesstimate, he’d probably need to finish within around 40 minutes of today’s stage winner to avoid being thrown off the race and his team won’t want to lose two riders so he may have to do the lion’s share of today’s climbing on his own.
78km to go: Ladies and gentlemen, after 90 kilometres of racing we have ourselves a breakaway: Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Andrey Amador (EF Education-EasyPost), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Guillaume Martin, Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Ruben Guerreiro and Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), Dylan Teuns (Israel-PremierTech), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny), Tobias Halland Johanessen (Uno-X) and Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies).
They are 1min 35sec clear of the yellow jersey group and are about to be joined by Julian Alaphilippe and Jasper Stuyven.
Elsewhere on the course: the polka-dot jersey group of 60 riders is six minutes down on the leaders, while the green jersey group of 20 or so pedalling enthusiasts is a further four minutes behind. As for Caleb Ewan, well … more news as I get it.
82km to go: Our lead group of 13 riders (more of which anon) have a lead of a minute over the yellow jersey group and are being chased by Julian Alaphilipe and Jasper Stuyven, who are 32 seconds behind them.
On the race radio, Bora-Hansgrohe’s riders are told in the strongest possible terms not to mount any attacks and focus solely on protecting Jai Hindley, who is in third place on GC. Several of those riders potentially threatening his position on GC are in the group that is over five minutes behind the yellow jersey group, so this could be a great day for the Aussie in terms of cementing a podium place in Paris.
84km to go: In terms of pure chaos, this has been one of the most insane stages of the Tour I’ve ever seen; a total free-for-all but it finally seems to be settling down at the halfway mark.
87km to go: The breakaway group is now 13 riders strong, with Julian Alaphilippe trying to crash the party. The gap back to the considerably smaller (for now) yellow jersey group is 43 seconds.
87km to go: On the eve of Bastille Day, Thibaut Pinot attacks off the front of the yellow jersey group and is followed about a minute later by Julian Alaphilippe.
89km to go: On the Eurosport commentary team, there is general bafflement at the tactics (or apparent lack of them) being employed by race leader Jonas Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma team today. They’ve sent man after man after man on the attack. The yellow jersey group currently numbers about 10 riders, if that!
“I’m getting the impression I’m watching the junior Tour de France the way they’re all jumping around the place,” says Robbie McEwen.
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91km to go: Andrey Amador, Ion Izaguirre and Matteo Jorgensen are about to join the lead trio, as more and more riders counter-attack off the front of the yellow jersey group.
94km to go: Benoot, Teuns and Pedersen are 29 seconds clear of the yellow jersey group, with a trio of riders on the road between them trying to double the escape party in numbers.
Just as it looks like things might be settling down, Bahrain Victorious attack off the front of the yellow jersey group as they’re hoping to get Fred Wright into any breakaway. This is carnage!
95km to go: I hope none of the riders have fallen into the same trap as me and got so caught up in the excitement that they have either forgotten to, or not had time to eat and drink. If these dispatches dry up, you’ll know I’ve succumbed to the dreaded hunger “knock” but I am assured sustenance is on its way so we should be good for the second half of the stage.
100km to go: Still on their descent, Teuns and Benoot are joined by Mads Pedersen because … well, of course they are. We’re almost 70 kilometres into a stage that has been super-aggressive from the gun and the only thing we can predict with any sort of certainty is that Caleb Ewan won’t be winning it.
106km to go: Dylan Teuns (Israel-Premier Tech) and Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma) go for broke and open a gap of 14 seconds on the yellow jersey group as they reach the top of an uncategorised climb. They begin their descent.
107km to go: The latest breakaway is neutralised and we’re still no closer to see this stage settling down. At the back of the field, poor Caleb Ewan is already 11 minutes off the pace and has been left to his own devices by his team. They haven’t tasked anyone with helping him and he’ll do exceptionally well to finish inside the time limit.
110km to go: Marc Soler (UAE Emirates) joins Kelderman and Skjelmose. The top two on GC now have teammates in the current breakaway. British Bahrain Victorious rider Fred Wright is trying to join them.
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111km to go: Kelderman and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) have opened a gap of seven seconds on the yellow jersey group, which is now about 12 riders strong. They’ve opened a tiny gap on the rest of what’s left of the bunch.
112km to go: Wout van Aert has been caught on an aggressive stage that resembles one of the spring Classics. The polka-dot jersey is 1min 49sec behind the yellow jersaey group. “The animals have taken over the zoo,” says Robbie McEwen on Eurosport. Jumbo–Visma rider Wilco Kelderman is the latest rider to try to attack, a weird state of affairs when you could be forgiven for presuming he’d be tasked with protecting Jonas Vingegaard. Back in the bunch, neither vingegaard nor Pogacar have any teammates around them, but the latter is tracking the former’s every move.
118km to go: Wout van Aert is next to go and on a speedy downhill, opens a gap of 18 seconds. What passes for the peloton is about – and this is a very rough estimate from an aerial view – about 60 riders strong. Van Aert will presumably be hoping some riders can bridge the gap from the bunch to join him.
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126km to go: There’s not a moment of respite as Soudal Quick-Step rider Dries Devenyns tries to attack but sees his effort foiled. The start to this stage has been little short of bonkers and the GC leaders won’t be enjoying it one bit. Nobody is in control of what appears to be a lawless wild west of a bunch.
127km to go: We’re still waiting for a breakaway but we do have the makings of a GC battle on our hands. Simon Yates is in a group alongside current King of the Mountains Neilson Powless, that is a minute down on the yellow jersey group.
131km to go: The three escapees are reeled in as another four riders including Pidcock and Wout van Aert try their luck with an attack. They crest the top of the mountain and have a short downhill before a series of uncategorised climbs.
133km to go: Alaphilippe, Omar Fraile and Matteo Jorgensen open a gap of 10 seconds on the bunch as the continue their climb to the top of Col des Éscorban. Back in the bunch, Tom Pidcock tries to leap across.
135km to go: Well into the second climb of the day, up the category three Col des Écorbans, Julian Alaphilippe mounts another attack, taking several riders with him. They’ve opened a tiny gap on the yellow jersey group.
136km to go: It’s been a frantic, helter-skelter start to today’s stage, reminsicent of the early stages of stage 10. We’re still waiting for a breakaway to form.
138km to go: The peloton has split into two distinct group following that crash on a fast downhill. David De La Cruz’s race is over and he is now in an ambulance. Fingers crossed he’ll be OK.
140km to go: Astana rider David De La Cruz hits the deck with another rider from Groupama FDJ and looks quite badly hurt, lying flat on his back in a ditch. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious. His counterpart from the French team remounts and continues.
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142km to go: Wout van Aert and three others, try to escape. There are two Lotto Dstny riders in the quartet.
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144km to go: A group of 16 riders have been dropped by the green jersey group, who are around 20 seconds clear of the stragglers
145km to go: Dani Martinez is first over the top of the climb, followed by Giulio Ciccone.
147km to go: The peloton has opened a gap of around 37 seconds on a group containing the sprinters, who are in for another torrid afternoon.
150km to go: The peloton remains largely intact as they make their way up the climb with Mattias Skjelmose and Dylan van Baarle at the front. They pull away from the bunch along with another rider whose identity I will reveal as soon as I figure out who it is.
151km to go: Peter Sagan and Caleb Ewan have been dropped on the first climb. It’s sad to see a legend like Sagan struggling like this in his final Tour but fair play to him for raging against the dying of the light.
152km to go: Today’s first climb is the category three Côte de Thizy-les-Bourgs, which is 633m high and 4.3km in length with an average gradient of 5.6 per cent.
157 to go: The riders are approaching the first official climb of the day with the Slovenian Bahrain Victorious rider Matej Mohoric trying to put some distance between himself and the bunch. He’s unable to snap the elastic.
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160km to go: The peloton remains intact but is quite strung out. Julian Alaphilippe is at the front, baring his teeth in both a literal and metaphorical sense.
161km to go: The early leaders are reeled in by the bunch. Thwarted in his lengthy breakaway attempt two days ago, Krists Neilands is next to try his luck with an attack.
162km to go: Fred Wright and Alberto Bettiol were first to leap across to join Pedersen and were followed by Mathieu van der Poel.
They're racing on stage 12
168km to go: Gogl gets a new wheel and a push back to the peloton from a Tour motorbike pillion passenger, Christian Prudhomme waves his flag, his car accelerates up the road and the riders begin racing. The road starts going upwards immediately and Mads Pedersen is the first to launch an attack.
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The roll-out continues: Alpecin–Deceuninck rider Michael Gogl punctures his back wheel moments before the signal to begin racing is given, so there’ll be a delay until he gets his spoons, bucket of water and puncture repair kit out.
Mathieu van der Poel: Rated as the best lead-out man in gthe business, the Dutch Alpecin–Deceuninck rider was nowhere to be seen as his teammate Jasper Philipsen sprinted to his fourth bunch sprint win in this Tour yesterday. He has revealed he has been suffering from an illness over the past two days and simply didn’t have the energy to help his teammate yesterday.
“It’s not going worse so I hope I can improve from today on,” he said this morning. “I will see how the legs feel but I have already got my voice back. It’s not that I’m really sick but I’ve had some sort of infection. My sleep is OK but I’m not feeling 100 per cent. We’ll see how it goes today.”
Rolling, rolling, rolling … The roll-out continues and with over half the race concluded, it seems remarkable that Jakobsen is only the eighth rider to leave this year’s Tour. I’m happy to stand corrected but going on memory alone, the rate of attrition usually seems to be a lot higher.
Today's roll-out has begun
Stage 12: The riders are meandering through the neutral zone and will be given the signal to begin racing in approximately 10 kilometres time.
Fabio Jakobsen has abandoned
The Soudal-Quick Step rider and European champion has withdrawn from the Tour, stating that his knee is not recovering from the injuries he sustained in a crash towards the end of stage four. He says he has no chance of making it to Paris and has decided to abandon.
“Due to my stage four crash, and after discussions with the team, we decided it’s better for me to stop my Tour de France journey here,” he said. “At this point it seems impossible for me to get to Paris, as I am not recovering, and my body is not healing from the crash.
“I’m very sad to leave the Grande Boucle, because I had big goals for this race and wanted to be at my best with the team. I will now take some time to recover and clear my head, and hopefully be back at my best later this season.”
Unfortunately, @FabioJakobsen will not start stage 12 of the #TDF2023.
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) July 13, 2023
Read more about it here and join us in wishing Fabio a speedy recovery: https://t.co/gprrpP3a1M
Photo: @GettySport pic.twitter.com/qHLxT2rZOP
Roanne, today’s starting town: “The town is renowned for its extraordinary number of starred chefs, inspired primarily by the Troisgros family,” explains the Tour handbook. “But Roanne has also made waves on the basketball court, its Chorale team winning the French championship twice, in 1959 and 2007.
“The following year, Roanne hosted a Tour start for the first time and in doing so provided Sylvain Chavanel with an instinct for victory, the Frenchman claiming his first Tour stage success in Montluçon at the end of one of his trademark breakaways. Since then, Roanne was the setting for a Wout van Aert time trial success in the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné.”
Christian Prudhomme on stage 12: “The formation of the breakaway will be one of the critical moments on this hilly stage,” writes the race director in the Tour handbook. “As the race passes through the vineyards that produce the Beaujolais vintages, there could well be a lot of action before the climbs of the Croix Montmain and Croix Rosier. The uphill finale may well produce an excellent sprint contest between a small group of riders.”
Who's in what jersey?
Yellow: Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma)
Green: Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
Polka-dot: Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost)
White: Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates)
Philipsen powers to fourth sprint win
Stage 11 report: Jasper Philipsen took his fourth win of this Tour de France, claiming stage 11 from Clermont-Ferrand to Moulins by sprinting clear of his closest rival Dylan Groenewegen, of Team Jayco AlUla, in the final 100 metres. Jeremy Whittle reports from Moulins …
The top five on General Classification
Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) 46hr 34min 44sec
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) +17sec
Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) +2min 40sec
Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) +4min 22sec
Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) +4min 34sec
Stage 12: Roanne to Belleville-en-Beaujolais (168.8km)
William Fotheringham on stage 12: This is the sort of stage the Tour organiser, Christian Prudhomme, loves, peppered with medium-difficulty climbs where anything can happen. Stage hunters such as Julian Alaphilippe, Magnus Cort and company will love it, and overall contenders who have flopped thus far will see a chance for redemption. But for a team trying to control the race, it will be a nightmare in the Beaujolais vineyards. For fans, it could be grand cru.
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