Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) claimed a hat-trick of stage victories in the Tour de France on stage 12, out-pacing Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) in Villeneuve-sur-Lot.
Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) was fifth in Girmay’s wheel, with Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) sixth.
However, race officials relegated both Démare and Cavendish after the finish to the back of the bunch sprint, into 67th and 68th places, respectively. This moved Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech) onto the podium in third and Philipsen into fourth.
The result and more points gained at the intermediate sprint gives Girmay a commanding lead in the green jersey competition which he leads over Philipsen.
The sprinters' stage saw more drama among the Tour de France overall contenders with Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) getting caught up in a late crash and losing 2:27 on the race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates).
He and several teammates chased but they lacked the speed to close the gap on the peloton driven along by Visma-Lease a Bike and the sprinters’ teams, while Pogačar finished safely in the peloton to retain the race lead.
Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was also caught behind the crash and that left Philipsen without his vital lead-out man.
Girmay scored 100 points for his stage victory, while Philipsen only scored 26 points. That allowed Girmay to extend his total to 328 points, a significant 111 points more than Philipsen.
All the big-name sprinters were up front in the final kilometre as Dan McLay led out the sprint for Démare. Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) tried to match Démare but was soon swamped. Van Aert was stuck along the barriers behind Démare and could only move inside him in the final hundred metres. That was too late and Girmay was able to celebrate as he won yet again.
“First of all I would like to say thanks to God for giving me a lot of strength and power. Without God we cannot do anything so I'm super happy,” Girmay said.
"Second, I want to say thanks to my teammates. Thank you everyone. Without them I cannot prove I am the fastest. I'm super happy.
“From the start of the Tour I’ve felt like I knew I can do good results if I have the right time and the right wheel. I proved in the last three sprints that if I'm in the right position I am able to win.
“Today we didn't have any stress. We thought the break would arrive, so we didn't take risks. But in the end when everyone came together I got on the radio and said I feel super good. I'm super happy I can deliver.
“Since I started to wear this green jersey, somehow I felt super fast, especially in my mind. I believe I can prove I’m the best. I’ve had a lot of ups and down with crashes. But this year I completely changed my training. I hope it continues like this.”
How it unfolded
Following the mano-a-mano clash between Pogačar and Vingegaard on Wednesday, stage 12 was expected to be a day for the breakaways and the sprinters, with a 203.6km ride south from Aurillac to Villeneuve-sur-Lot in the deep southwest of France.
Mark Cavendish's Astana Qazaqstan lead-out man Michael Mørkøv was the only non-starter, as the fear of COVID-19 contamination returned to the Tour.
Other teams wore masks, kept their distance and insisted their riders were negative in tests but first Fabio Jakobsen (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) and later Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) abandoned due to illness and fatigue. A total of 165 riders remained in the peloton once stage 12 began.
Of course, other riders raced on and the first serious attack formed after a fast opening 20km of the stage.
Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) surged away and was soon joined by Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) and Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ). Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) joined them despite riding on a spare bike after bicycle thieves stole 11 team bikes overnight.
The sprinters were happy to let the quartet go clear but Alpecin-Deceuninck, Intermarché-Wanty, and later Movistar, kept them under control, with the gap never rising over 3:30. Race leader Pogačar was caught in a minor crash in the peloton after 25km but got a quick bike change and rejoined the peloton.
Abrahamsen was the first to the top of the Côte d’Autoire with 119 km to go and so scored another point in his fight for the polka-dot jersey.
He also led the break over the Côte de Rocamadour soon after to score another point, while Turgis beat Abrahamsen at the intermediate sprint in Gourdon after a fast 90 km of racing. Behind, Girmay beat Philipsen to sweep up 11 points as they continued to fight for the green jersey.
With 68 km to go, Abrahamsen was the first over the Côte de Montcléra climb. That put him level with Pogačar on 36. Of course, with the Slovenian in yellow, Abrahamsen was able to race on in the polka-dot colours for another day.
Turgis was the first to sit up, accepting that the break would not stay away but Abrahamsen, Pacher, Madouas pushed on, their gap only 1:00. They covered 46.2 kilometres in the third hour of racing, a painful average of 47.2 kph for the stage.
The catch eventually came with 44 km to go, officialising that the sprinters would fight for the honours. Teams lined out on the front, keeping the speed above 45 km/h, despite the rolling country roads and summer temperatures up to 34C.
Everything was set for a sprint finish but a crash in the peloton with 12 km to go suddenly raised the tension.
A kerb in the middle of the road designed to divide the traffic was a danger and Alexey Lutsenko hit it and went down hard. Other riders crashed into him and a Lotto-Dstny rider went down on the left of the road too.
Roglič appeared to flip over his bike due to the crash and several teammates were caught behind him, as was Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who went into a bush.
By the time the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe riders came back together, they were 1:10 down on the peloton. They chased but with little conviction, with Roglič seemingly unable to go fast enough to close the gap, which grew to 2:27 at the finish line.
The peloton initially slowed in a show of fair play but Visma-Lease a Bike soon raised the pace and the sprinters’ teams then took over.
Bahrain Victorious led out the sprint for Phil Balhaus but their rivals were waiting for the long straight finish.
Girmay was stuck behind but then his teammate Mike Teunissen appeared and dragged him up to Kirstoff’s wheel. It was the perfect place to launch his winning sprint.
Results
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