Tour de France stage 12: Tadej Pogačar punishes challengers with massive victory on Hautacam and regains race lead

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) stamped his authority on the Tour de France as the race visited the high mountains for the first time, attacking 12km from the top of Hautacam to score a dominant solo stage 12 victory.

The World Champion, still sporting bandages following his late stage 11 crash, employed a Classics-style lead-out on the early slopes of the hors categorié mountain, with Tim Wellens giving way to Jhonatan Narváez, who sprinted uphill to launch the reigning champion.

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) had no answer to the move, while everybody else in the GC group had already been dropped by Narváez. It was all about limiting losses for the Dane as the seconds ticked away.

After managing to hold the time gap to 10 seconds initially, Vingegaard’s deficit ballooned out to a minute with 6km still to run, with the seconds only piling on from there. By the time the pair had crossed the line, 2:10 separated them, leaving Pogačar firmly in charge of the Tour’s general classification.

“We did superb job. The team rode really well. Chapeau also to Ben Healy and EF. They were trying to defend the jersey, and they showed a really big spirit. Also, Uno-X were fighting for their own GC.

"It was a hard day for everybody but in the end, we were super strong. We had this stage in mind for a long time, and we did it,” Pogačar said after the stage, before paying tribute to Samuele Privitera, who died at the Giro della Valle d’Aosta on Wednesday.

“I think this stage can go for Samuele and to all his family because it was really sad. It was the first thing I read in the morning, and I was thinking in the last kilometre about him and how tough this sport can be and how much pain it can cause.”

Pogačar also thought back to the 2022 Tour, where Vingegaard beat him on Hautacam by 1:04 on the way to the overall win.

“I knew the first time I rode Hautacam, when I did recon, that it was a super nice climb. I was always looking forward to riding this climb and then it was in the 2022 Tour de France,” Pogačar said.

“For the GC, I was trying with my head through the wall to get back the yellow jersey, but Jumbo was too strong back then. I almost already forgot about this. I was looking forward to today and then all the people were coming to me to say, ‘This is the revenge time, blah blah blah’.

“Then, when we approached the bottom of the climb, it was just the reverse story of a few years ago, one Belgian on the front and our team on the front. Really, I’m super happy to take time and to win on this climb.”

Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was the best of the rest, finishing 13 seconds further back. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) and Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL) were next across the line, three minutes down.

White jersey Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) finished seventh behind Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) at 3:35, a creditable result after he was initially dropped 54km from the end of the day.

Former race leader Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) dropped from the GC favourites group with over 50km from the line. Having lost ground on the day’s first hard climb, the Col du Soulor, the Irishman would lose 13:38 at the finish.

Pogačar is now back in yellow for the third time this July, already holding a commanding lead of 3:31 over Vingegaard. Evenepoel remains in third overall at 4:45 down, while Lipowitz is fourth at 5:34, six seconds up on Vauquelin.

How it unfolded

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Stage 12 of the Tour de France marked the race’s first visit to the high mountains this year, racing from Auch into the Pyrenees with a 180.6km stage heading to the hors categorié summit finish of Hautacam (13.5km at 7.8%).

Along the way, the riders would tackle a largely-flat opening 122km, featuring just a single fourth-category ascent of the Côte de Labatmale (1.3km at 6.3%), before hitting the first-category Col du Soulor (11.8km at 7.3%) and the second-category Col des Bordères (3.1km at 7.7%) on the way to Hautacam to round of 3,913 metres of climbing.

The battle for the day’s breakaway was a fierce one, though not overly long. Stage 11 winner Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) kicked off the action, while green jersey contenders Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) and Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) were among the early attackers.

The breakaway fight was settled after 16km of racing, with a massive 51 riders splitting off the front of the peloton. Picnic-PostNL were the only team to miss out on the move, while other teams had multiple riders out front, including Ineos Grenadiers with five and Tudor and Cofidis with four.

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was back on the attack, while several GC helpers including Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Max Schachmann (Soudal-QuickStep) got into the group, as did Ineos Grenadiers leader Carlos Rodríguez, who lay within six minutes of the race lead.

Joining them were a host of strong climbers, including Santiago Buitrago, Lenny Martinez (both Bahrain Victorious), Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Guillaume Martin (Groupama-FDJ), Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling), Ben O’Connor (Jayco-AlUla), Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), Einer Rubio, Pablo Castrillo (Movistar), Emanuel Buchmann (Cofidis), and Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech).

Ineos Grenadiers, Bahrain Victorious, Groupama-FDJ, and Jayco-AlUla drove the break, while back in the peloton EF Education-EasyPost and UAE Team Emirates-XRG pulled in the peloton.

With the GC men keeping an eye on Rodríguez and hoping to contest the stage win amongst themselves, the breakaway was kept on a tight leash of just two minutes on the run to the mountains.

Before the ascent of the Soulor began, Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) led the break over the Côte de Labatmale, while Laurez Rex (Intermarché-Wanty) took the maximum 20 points to Van der Poel’s 17 at the day’s intermediate sprint.

The early slopes of the Soulor threw up a few surprises in the breakaway as several of the stronger climbers dropped back from the move, with Buchmann, Martin, and mountain classification leader Martinez all going backwards.

Visma-Lease a Bike paced the peloton up the climb lined out in front of Vingegaard, with their pace proving too much for Evenepoel. The Belgian went out the back 8km from the top, a full 54km from the finish line.

Soon afterwards, the yellow jersey of Ben Healy was also in trouble, losing ground on the GC group. Up in the breakaway it was Woods pushing on with Skjelmose, Storer, and Rubio leading the chase behind along with Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).

Over the top, the main GC group lay two minutes away from Woods, while Evenepoel, having passed Healy, lay a further minute back. The maillot jaune, meanwhile, was overheating and almost five minutes from the front.

Final two climbs

Woods was joined by Skjelmose and Armirail on the descent into the final 40km and onto the Col des Bordères, with the Frenchman going solo at the front on the climb itself. At the top, he’d pulled out 50 seconds on a chase group including Skjelmose, Storer, Woods, and Rubio.

Still two minutes down the mountain, Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) shared pacing duties for their teams, with Jonas Vingegaard, Sepp Kuss, Pogačar, and Jonatan Narváez also up there.

Joining them were Primož Roglič, Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL), Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility).

Evenepoel worked hard to keep in touch with his GC rivals, doing a stellar job to crest the top just 20 seconds down a full 24km after he was dropped.

The long, stop-start descent into the valley and to the base of the day’s final climb followed, with Pogačar gaining a reinforcement as Wellens waited for the GC group. The group gained several more riders shortly afterwards, including Evenepoel, who got back on with 27km to go. Simon Yates was another notable name to make it back.

In the lead, Armirail was flying, pulling out two minutes as Skjelmose, Storer, Woods, and Rubio dropped back towards the GC men. The quartet were caught before the start of the final ascent, leaving the enlarged group chasing the solo leader.

Wellens led the way onto Hautacam with Narváez, Yates, and Pogačar next in line, the UAE train immediately cutting 30 seconds from Armirail’s lead as riders dropped from the rear – including Kuss, Simon Yates, and, once again, Evenepoel.

Now 12km from the top, both Wellens and Adam Yates were done, leaving Narváez to lead out a shockingly-early Pogačar attack. Vingegaard had no answer to the sprint, while the last few hangers-on – Onley, Lipowitz, Roglič, Johannessen, Gall – had already been left behind by Narváez’s acceleration.

At 11km, Pogačar passed Armirail, while Vingegaard chased 10 seconds down. Roglič’s group lay almost a minute back, while Evenepoel chased at 1:15.

From there, the seconds only totted up as Pogačar rode away to a dominating victory. At 9km, those same gaps lay at 30 seconds, 1:10 and 1:25, while at 7km to go, Vingegaard lay 50 seconds back with Evenepoel at two minutes.

At 5km to go, the group of dropped GC men between Vinegegaard and Evenepoel split as Lipowitz and Onley jumped away from Roglič and Johannessen. The Austrian looked the strongest of the quartet, pushing on alone at 4km to go with Onley trailing.

Up front, Pogačar was well on the way to his 20th Tour stage win, 1:30 up on Vingegaard at the 3km marker, a further 50 seconds on Lipowitz, and three minutes on Evenepoel.

By the finish, he’d have plenty of time to celebrate, crossing the flamme rouge 1:50 up on his main rival and with the 2025 Tour de France already in his hands. Vingegaard, noticeably flagging in contrast to Pogačar’s fresh look, eventually came home at 2:10 down, his Tour de France bid possibly over on the race’s first visit to the high mountains.

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