12:54 PM
110km to go
Absolutely stunning part of the world the riders are heading through today as it passes through the magical Gorges de l’Ardèche, look at it:
The breakaway’s advantage has increased to a shade under nine minutes as it inches up yet another uncategorised climb.
12:47 PM
115km to go
The breakaway has pulled out a further 30sec on the peloton, while a few minutes ago Mark Cavendish stopped at the roadside for a conflab with a team mechanic. It appeared that he wanted to twiddle with the cleats on one of his shoes. For those that care about these things, Cavendish today is dressed in traditional black shorts as opposed to the green skinsuit he wore during Tuesday’s stage win.
12:40 PM
120km to go
The breakaway has increased its lead on the peloton, where Mark Cavendish is currently nestled, to over seven minutes. Good news for those in the 13-man group up the road, but less good news for Cavendish who may have to wait another day to challenge for a 34th stage win. That is some gap and with the sort of horsepower the breakaway has it would take a huge and concerted effort from Deceuninck-Quick Step to close it down.
12:32 PM
Thumbs up from Cavendish
Mark Cavendish appeared happy enough with life at the start of the stage, but will he be smiling at the finish in Nîmes where he won a stage back in 2008 after finishing ahead of Robbie McEwen. Erik Zabel was also racing that day which feels like a very long time ago.
12:26 PM
130km to go
Rafal Majka is sat near the front of the peloton with race leader and UAE Team Emirates team-mate Tadej Pogacar sat tucked in behind looking very relaxed. The breakaway leads by almost five minutes now, but the maillot jaune does not appear too concerned, and why should he because the highest placed rider in general classification up the road is Sergio Henao who trails by 50min 57sec. Richie Porte is sat beside the army of UAE Team Emirates rider who are protecting their leader and he, too, is looking relaxed, chatting away to Davide Formolo near the front.
12:10 PM
140km to go
All change on the front of the race with a 13-man group now leading the way. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-Nippo), Edvald Boasson Hagen (TotalÉnergies), Imanol Erviti (Movistar), André Greipel (ISN), Sergio Henao (Qhubeka-NextHash), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Luka Mezgec (BikeExchange), Brent Van Moer (Lotto-Soudal), Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Harry Sweeny (Lotto-Soudal), Connor Swift (Arkéa-Samsic) and Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) have formed an early breakaway. As it stands they lead the maillot jaune by 21sec, while two other groups trail by 33sec and 58sec respectively – Geraint Thomas is in the fourth group on the road.
12:01 PM
148km to go
Buoyed by a tailwind, Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo) clips off the front before the pint-sized grimpeur is joined by Benoît Cosnefroy (Ag2r-Citroën) and a handful of others. The direction of the road changes soon and so that tailwind may change to a crosswind so that leading group is probably the ideal size – too small and there are not enough riders able to take the wind, too many and one or two may be lost after being put into the gutter.
11:59 AM
150km to go | Thomas in third group
I was not 100 per cent right about Ineos Grenadiers. Geraint Thomas missed the split and is in the third group on the road. That’s not great from the Welshman who is ordinarily decent in these conditions.
11:54 AM
Rapid start to the day | Echelons have formed
Straight from the off the race crosses bridge, exposing the riders to an early taste of the wind that is blowing. Some aggressive riding on the front from Bora-Hansgrohe and Deceuninck-Quick Step puts the whole peloton on alert, while stretching it all out in a long line. Already some are struggling and have been spat out the back of the bunch as small echelons start to form. Ineos Grenadiers and Tadej Pogacar are in the leading group so, as it stands, the general classification riders all appear to be riding together.
11:50 AM
And they’re off!
Having tapped their way through the neutralised section that took the peloton out from Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, race director Christian Prudhomme poked his head out of the shiny red Skoda that sits at the head of each stage and dropped the flag to signify that this stage is very much on. All of the classification leaders were sat on Prudhomme’s bumper, as was Tao Geoghegan Hart and Ineos Grenadiers team-mate Michal Kwiatkowski and a posse of potential escapees. But will anybody have the nerve, and legs, to attempt to form a breakaway the day after that monster Ventoux stage? This should a be a fascinating day of racing. Hold on to your casquettes.
11:07 AM
Sagan abandons the Tour
News has just come through from Bora-Hansgrohe confirming that Peter Sagan has been forced to abandon the Tour for the first time in his career. In a message sent out by his team, Bora-Hansgrohe doctor Christopher Edler explained Sagan had been suffering with a knee injury since taking a knock during stage three – when the three-time world champion was involved in a crash with Caleb Ewan.
“Peter suffered already an injury during stage three when he hit his hip and his knee.” The doctor goes on to explain how a chainring took some skin off his patella and although concerned over it getting infected, Sagan pushed on before taking another knock on the same knee during Tuesday’s stage 10.
10:38 AM
Stage start delayed | High winds expected
The start of today’s stage has been delayed by 10 minutes due to a strong tailwind. Race organisers will not want the stage finishing earlier than planned for various reasons, many of which will have commercial ramifications, hence the delayed start. From a sporting perspective, though, the very mention of wind has led to talk of echelons forming in today’s stage. In reality tomorrow is better suited to echelons given the nature of the route and its closeness to the coastline, however teams and riders will be on high alert today.
If there is one team in the peloton that can ride well and ride hard in the wind, that team is Deceuninck-Quick Step. The Belgian squad may use the conditions to their advantage by riding hard on the front in an effort to shell the likes of Nacer Bouhanni (Arkéa-Samsic) and any other sprinters whose teams may show any signs of weakness should any crosswinds be strong enough to cause splits. Likewise, the general classification teams may use crosswinds to their advantage as they atteplt to pile the pressure onto Tadej Pogacar. The loss of Luke Rowe who missed the time cut yesterday may prove to be costly for Ineos Grenadiers who historically have coped well in these conditions. Anyway, enough idle speculation, I’ll be back at 12.50pm (GMT) to talk you through the stage, from beginning to end.
10:10 AM
Bonjour!
Hello and welcome to our live rolling blog from stage 12 at the Tour, the 159.4-kilometre run from Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Nîmes.
A day after race leader Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) ‘cracked’ yet extended his lead in the general classification by three minutes and 17 seconds, and a rider who has won sprint stages and threatened to win time trial stages triumphed after twice going over Mont Ventoux ahead of the natural grimpeurs – Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) – who knows what today’s racing will throw up? Will it be another victory for Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quick Step) who can equal Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 stage wins at the Tour, or is the breakaway going to go all the way? Will the wind blow and can teams combine and form alliances on the road and try and put the pressure on Pogacar and his team-mates should crosswinds liven the day up?
We do not know the answers to these questions, but we do know who will be wearing what as respective leader in each of the four main classifications – in other words those that have jerseys.
No change at the top of the points classification and so Cavendish will, once again, be dressed in the maillot vert, or the green jersey.
Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic) failed to earn a single point in the mountains classification yesterday, but the Colombian will again be dressed in the maillot à pois, or polka dot jersey, as leader in that competition. With just one category three climb in today’s stage and a category four on Friday, if Quintana completes both stages within the time cut he is assured to keep hold of the jersey until Saturday.
As overall leader of the race, Pogacar also tops the best young rider classification, although Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) will wear the Slovenian’s maillot blanc, the white jersey, as second best.
And for anybody that missed Van Aert’s masterful display on and over Mont Ventoux on Wednesday, relive the highlights here . . .
So, what’s on today’s menu?
Here’s a look at the all-important numbers from that one climb . . .
But what about those who only have eyes for the green jersey?