Tour de France: Bardet wins stage 12 as Froome loses yellow to Aru

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Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) won stage 12 of the Tour de France while Fabio Aru (Astana) moved into the yellow jersey after Chris Froome (Team Sky) unexpectedly faltered on the steep haul to the finish line at Peyragudes.

What a difference 300 metres can make. The Tour's opening day in the Pyrenees followed a well-worn script as Team Sky dictated the terms of engagement at the head of the peloton, only for Froome to grind almost to a halt as the gradient reared towards 20 per cent in the finishing straight.

After traversing the Col de Mente, Port de Balès and Col de Peyresourde, only nine riders remained in the yellow jersey group on the short final haul towards Peyragudes, where Sky's Mikel Landa discouraged attacks by setting a fearsome tempo all the way up.

The Basque even had enough in reserve to peg back George Bennett's acceleration with 600 metres to go, but once the baton passed to Froome in the finishing straight, the music changed. Froome was on the back foot when Aru launched a stinging attack with 300 metres to go, and distanced altogether when Bardet responded with what proved the decisive acceleration shortly afterwards.

Bounding from side to side, Bardet grinded his way up the stiff final slopes to claim stage honours, two seconds clear of Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac) and Aru, while Landa had the strength to take 4th, five seconds down.

While Bardet and Aru were trading blows at the front, however, Froome was scrambling to absorb the impact. Weaving from side to side, Froome struggled to limit the damage as he crossed the line in seventh place. He conceded some 22 seconds in scarcely 300 metres, and lost the yellow jersey in the process to Aru.

"The team did an amazing job today but I just didn't have the legs at the end to finish it off. It's as simple as that, no excuses," said Froome, who is now second overall, six seconds behind Aru.

"I just didn't have the legs to finish it off on the final kick. It was brutal, ramps of over 20 per cent. That's a really, really hard finish. I can only say congratulations to Romain Bardet for winning the stage and also to Fabio Aru for taking the yellow jersey. The race is certainly on now."

Aru had spent much of the day perched on Froome's rear wheel, to the extent that he even followed the Briton off the road when he overshot a corner on the approach to the base of the Peyresourde, though both men stayed upright. Sky's brisk pace-making on the Peyresourde climbs discouraged all attacks, and despite the tight margins, Aru was thinking only of stage victory rather than the maillot jaune in the closing metres.

"Romain went in the best moment possible," Aru said. "I tried to attack and then I suffered a bit. I was using a 39x28, and it was just such a hard finish."

Bardet's stage victory – his third in as many years – edges him closer to the yellow jersey. Still third overall but now just 25 seconds off the lead, the Frenchman has scarcely put a pedal stroke askew since the race hit the mountains.

By a similar token, the quietly impressive Uran almost claimed a second stage victory at this Tour, and remains in fourth place overall, although his satisfaction will be tempered by being penalised 20 seconds for accepting a bottle from a spectator in the final 10 kilometres. The team accepted the punishment, even if manager Jonathan Vaughters complained that Bardet had committed the same infraction. Uran now lies 55 seconds off the maillot jaune, which, for the first time on this Tour, is no longer on the shoulders of a Sky rider.

Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors) placed sixth on the stage at 13 seconds, and now lies fifth overall at 1:41, but it was a trying afternoon for two men who began the race with designs on overall victory. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) was distanced early on the Peyresourde and lost 2:04 on the stage, leaving him 8th overall at 4:01 and now bereft of all hope of the maillot jaune.

Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) stuck with the yellow jersey group to the top of the Peyresourde, but suffered greatly on the final kick to Peyragudes, where he was caught and passed by Quintana on the approach to the line. Contador is now 11th overall, 7:14 away from yellow, his race surely run.

How it unfolded

It was something of a stage of two halves, for while there were six categorised climbs on the menu, the day's principal difficulties were shoehorned into the final 80 kilometres. Shortly after leaving the start in Pau amid spitting rain, the day's early break sallied clear, featuring Steve Cummings (Dimension Data), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Jack Bauer, Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors), Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates), Koen de Kort (Trek-Segafredo), Michael Matthews (Sunweb), Stefan Kung (BMC Racing), Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin), Cyril Gautier (AG2R La Mondiale), Imanol Erviti (Movistar) and Julien Simon (Cofidis).

As they built a lead in excess of six minutes, the chief entertainment came from the duel for the points classification between the green jersey wearer Kittel and his chief rival Matthews. Although Matthews won the intermediate sprint in Loures-Barousse, he had a net gain of just two points to show for his efforts as Kittel came past the line just behind him.

Although Kittel eventually dropped back on the category 1 Col de Menté – where, incidentally, the multi-talented Matthews led over the top – the break stayed together until the day's fourth climb, the hors categorie Port de Balès, which signalled the beginning of real hostilities, both in the leading group and in the main peloton.

Up ahead, De Gendt went on the offensive five kilometres from the mist-shrouded summit, before he was joined and then dropped by Cummings, who was, like Bardet, targeting a third stage victory in as many Tours. The British champion crested the top with a lead of two minutes over a yellow jersey group where Team Sky, as per habit, had begun to impose its rhythm.

Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), who suffered a fractured wrist in a crash on Wednesday, was among those distanced as Sky turned the screw, and their pace-making was such that a tentative acceleration from Contador was swatted away as a mere distraction. Only Warren Barguil (Sunweb), who was chasing king of the mountains points, managed to slip away, but he was reeled in over the other side along with everyone else bar Cummings.

On the approach to the foot of the Peyresourde, only 20 riders remained in the yellow jersey group, and Sky – with four riders – was the only team present in numbers. Indeed, Froome's rivals have become so conditioned to Sky's dictating of the terms of the engagement that they simply slackened the pace and waited for the men in white to resume their duties on the front when the race leader briefly went off the road. Even when Michal Kwiatkowski, Mikel Nieve, Landa and Froome slowed to empty the musettes passed to them by a roadside soigneur, nobody dared to attack.

Instead, the selection came from the back on the Peyresourde, as Kwiatkowski's fierce pace-making burnt off no less a figure than Nairo Quintana (Movistar) some six kilometres from the summit. Cummings was caught after Nieve took over, and the front group was down to its bare bones by the time it reached the summit, where Contador finally yielded and lost contact.

After a short descent, Landa controlled affairs with apparent ease on the 2.4km climb to Peyragudes, smothering Bennett's late attack for good measure. It seemed to be business as usual for the Sky machine, only for a rare malfunction in the closing metres.

Aru has the jersey and Bardet has snatched back a clump of precious seconds. And, as importantly, Froome's rivals might just begin to dare to dream.

"We have to stay focused because tomorrow is a hard stage too," Bardet said. "My goal is to fight for the overall victory, maybe the yellow jersey isn't possible but I'll try to gain time on my rivals and see what happens at the finish."

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