Tour de France: Simon Yates wins stage 12

It was Yates who launched the decisive attack, four kilometres from the summit of the climb, bridging across to teammate Matteo Trentin. Mühlberger followed, while Bilbao chased, making the catch on the descent.

The three leaders worked well on the run-in to ensure their lead was safe from the chase group, only starting to play games in the final kilometre. Bilbao led the way, before Mühlberger took the front with 500 metres to race. Yates launched the sprint first, outwitting and outpacing his companions around the final turn and holding on to take the win.

"So far I've been saving energy until we got here in the mountains," said Yates after the finish. "This was my first chance to try something. Normally I'd be back in the peloton helping Adam, but today I had my own change and I grabbed it with both hands.

"I wasn't very confident of beating either of them, but I just knew from the directors in the car that I needed to be in front coming around the last corner, so I made sure to do that and luckily I held on to win.

"My main priority here is to help Adam. Today was one of my chances to get up the road. We're having a fantastic Tour, and long may it continue."

The peloton crossed the line almost ten minutes down, with no action among the general classification contenders ahead of Friday's Pau time trial.

Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) retains the yellow jersey, while Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) both made the break of the day to extend their polka dot and green jersey leads.

How it unfolded

After 11 days of racing, the Tour de France finally hit the major mountains and the Pyrenees. The Cole de Peyresourde (13km at 6.9 per cent) and Hourquette d'Ancizan (9.9km at 7.7 per cent) lay in wait for the peloton before a downhill finish into Bagnères-de-Bigorre. A warm start in Toulouse was forecast to give way to rain and mist on top of the day's two first-category mountains.

Attacks flew in the early kilometres, with a huge fight to get into the break on the first Pyrenean test of the race. Green jersey Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) was among the more active riders, keen to be at the front of the race for the intermediate sprint at the base of the Peyresourde, 120 kilometres in to the stage.

The first hour was covered at a brutal pace of 50kph, which eventually resulted in a mammoth break of 42 riders getting away. Sagan was there, along with green jersey contenders Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) and Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb).

Other notable names in the break included winner at La Planche des Belles Filles, Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida), Max Schachmann, Gregor Mühlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), Pello Bilbao (Astana), Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Simon Clarke (EF Education First), Lilian Calmejane (Total Direct Énergie), Mathias Frank, (AG2R La Mondiale), Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb), Tiesj Benoot and polka dot jersey wearer Tim Wellens (both Lotto Soudal).

Team Ineos, Groupama-FDJ and Katusha-Alpecin were the only teams not represented in the break, though Mads Würtz Schmidt did attempt to do so for the Swiss team.

Wellens inevitably led the way over the first climb of the day, the fourth-category Côte de Montoulieu-Saint Bernard, 62.5 kilometres into the stage. Almost five minutes further back, Ineos and Deceuninck-QuickStep controlled the peloton.

There was precious little action on the flat roads that followed, save for the abandons of Dimension Data's Giacomo Nizzolo, who crashed hard on stage 11, and Bahrain-Merida's Rohan Dennis, who was on the attack earlier in the day.

At the intermediate sprint in Bagnères-de-Luchon, Sagan took the points after a stellar lead out by teammate Daniel Oss. Colbrelli took second ahead of Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates). Matthews didn't pick up any points, a sign perhaps that his challenge for green is already over.

Colbrelli kept it going as the break hit the Peyresourde, while his fellow sprinters sat up, their job for the day over and done with. He didn't last long out front though, with Calmejane going on the attack for the second day in a row on the lower slopes of the climb.

Reaching the higher slopes of the climb, the Frenchman built a gap of 50 seconds over the rest of the break, while the peloton knocked it off somewhat, dropping to 6:30 behind. Wellens would not be denied his points at the top though, catching and then sprinting past Calmejane at the summit to grab an additional ten mountain points.

Clarke, who had gone across the gap with Wellens, pushed on down the descent, opening a gap on the rest of the break. By the time he reached the base of Horquette d'Ancizan, he was a minute up the road.

Attacks flew from the break on the day's final climb. Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) led the way, catching Clarke to make it two versatile sprinters out front five kilometres from the top.

Clarke dropped under Trentin's pace, and soon the European champion was joined by Simon Yates, who brought Mühlberger with him. 33 kilometres from the finish, Trentin was dropped by his own teammate, while further back it was Bilbao who led the chase.

Yates was first over the top, followed by Mühlberger, while Bilbao followed metres behind. The remainder of the break crossed the summit 50 seconds behind, while the peloton was over eight minutes down the road.

On the descent, Bilbao made it a trio out front, and with a sizeable gap to the chasers, it would be those three riders contesting the stage victory. Further back, the disorganised chase group only swelled as dropped riders caught back on.

No trouble for the front trio, then, who were working well together until they began the fight for the win in the final kilometre. Yates, who had to win after dropping his faster-finishing teammate on the Horquette d'Ancizan, duly delivered the goods, perfectly judging the closing metres to deliver his third victory of 2019.

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