On a feverishly hot and fast day in southern France marked by strong winds, Nils Politt took several opportunities to ride away with the stage 12 victory on Thursday at the Tour de France.
It was the first stage win for the Bora-Hansgrohe team at this year’s Tour de France, and the first career win at the Tour for the German rider. He was aggressive all day, being part of the main 13-rider breakaway that formed 10 kilometres in to the 159.4km stage, then part of a four-rider attack with 14.5km to go.
From that quartet as the road found a small climb heading to the finish in Nîmes, Imanol Erviti (Movistar) would finish second on the stage in front of partner Harry Sweeny (Lotto Soudal), 31 seconds behind Politt. The fourth breakaway companion, Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) would follow more than another minute to take fourth, and in the remnants from the original break, Luka Mezgec (Team BikeExchange) would lead seven riders to finish fifth.
Points classification leader Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-QuickStep) sprinted across the line with the peloton, which included Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and his GC rivals, 15:53 behind the stage winner.
One of the big names missing on stage 12 was Politt's teammate Peter Sagan, who did not take the stage 12 start in Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, citing knee pain from a crash on the stage 3 sprint in Pontivy.
Watch the video above for the full highlights.
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