July 14/22 21:11 pm - Pidcock Wins Stage 12 of Tour de France

Posted by Editoress on 07/14/22
 

Mountain bike Olympic champion Tom Pidcock took his first Tour de France victory becoming the second Briton to win at L'Alpe d'Huez, four years after Geraint Thomas on the last visit of the race to the ski resort of the Oisans. He arrived solo to the top 48seconds ahead of South African Louis Meintjes with Chris Froome rounding out the podium on his big return to the front scene of the Tour de France. At 22, Pidcock becomes the youngest winner at L'Alpe d'Huez breaking the record of Lucho Herrera who was 23 when he scored the first ever Tour de France stage victory for Colombia. Jonas Vingegaard retained the Maillot Jaune despite two strong attacks by Tadej Pogacar.

Perez First Over col du Galibier
159 riders started stage 12 in Briançon. Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) was the first to attack. He was joined by Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Kobe Goossens (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert), Matîs Louvel (Arkéa-Samsic) and Sebastian Schönberger (B&B Hotels-KTM) at km 6. Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert) and Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) came across as Perez rode away solo 5km before the summit of the Galibier. The Frenchman crested in first position, two minutes before the peloton from which Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech) had gone clear.

Chris Froome in the Break
On the descent, Perez was joined by Ciccone, Meintjes and Powless after 40km of racing. Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadier) joined Froome on the downhill in the pursuit of the escapees. The British duo caught up with the seven leaders, Louvel having dropped down, at km 60. The nine escapees were timed 6m55s ahead when the peloton led by five Jumbo-Visma riders started climbing to col de la Croix-de-Fer at half way into the 165km long stage. 5.5km before the summit, Pidcock shook up the front group, then reduced to five: Froome, Powless, Pidcock, Meintjes and Ciccone. The latter passed the line of the hors-category KOM in first position and 4m15s before the peloton.

Pidcock Alone for Final 7.5 KM
Pidcock's accelerations in the descent gave the leading five an advantage of 6m05s at the bottom of the 13.8-km long final ascent to L'Alpe d'Huez. Powless was the first rider to lose contact ater 2km of climbing. Pidcock attacked with 10.5km to go. He accelerated again 7.5km from the top to drop Meintjes. It was the definitative move to claim the stage victory even though his advantage only grew slowly to 48 seconds. Froome's perseverence was rewarded with his first top 3 in a Tour de France stage since 2018. Caught by the GC favourites at the very end, Ciccone missed out on the polka dot jersey that remained on the shoulders of Simon Geschke.

Pogacar Attacks in Vain
4.5km before the finish, Pogacar attacked from the yellow jersey group which had been reduced to just five riders. When Vingegaard managed to follow him, the Slovenian stopped pacing. He went on the attack a second time with just over 2km remaining but it was the same outcome. Pogacar showed on the finish line that he's the best sprinter of the two but Vingegaard defended himself in style, proving on his first day in the yellow jersey that he's a well-deserved leader of the Tour de France.

Top Canadian was Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech) finishing 50th at 19:40 back. Houle remains top Canadian in the overall, 43rd at 1:11:58 back.

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