2020 Tour de France Stage 12 Results & Recap
Stage 12 of the 2020 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Third time’s a charm: Hirschi wins stage 12
Marc Hirschi’s (Team Sunweb) perseverance paid off on stage 12, when he finally won his first pro race, which just happened to be a stage in the Tour de France. The 22-year-old U23 world champion attacked the breakaway on the final climb, cat. 2 Suc au May, and held off his chasers to the finish in Sarrans.
“It’s unbelievable,” Hirschi said. “Two times, I’ve been really close. I never thought I could win today. I went full gas in the last few hundred metres. I can’t describe my feelings. I’m lost for words. On the bike, I was always doubting I’d win. I had in my mind the picture of the last two times when I lost. To get my first pro victory at the Tour de France, it couldn’t have been any better. It’s incredible. In the Pyrénées, I got the confidence for trying to win today, otherwise, I would have never attacked solo in that climb. What I did last week gave me this extra power. Two podiums and my first pro win at the Tour, it’s like a dream.”\nPierre Rolland and Soren Kragh Andersen rounded out the podium. Primoz Roglic rolled across the line, safe in the yellow jersey for another day.
“It was not an easy stage,” Roglic said. “At the beginning we expected the break to go up the road immediately, but there were riders from other teams pulling and attacking which delayed this. So it turned out to be far from a rest day for our legs. Actually, it’s been a good warm-up thinking of the mountains that we will tackle tomorrow. We expect tomorrow’s stage to be very hard - especially its final. It will be a new challenge for us.”
The pace was high leaving Chauvigny. World champion Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) was eager to start a breakaway, but it was Imanol Erviti (Movistar), Max Walscheid (NTT), Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana), and Nils Politt (Israel Start-Up Nation) who broke away less than 10 kilometres into the stage.
It took a long time, but Mathieu Burgaudeau (Total Direct Energie) and Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick Step) bridged across to the leaders at kilometre 63. The break of six gained a maximum of three minutes, but they were kept on a tight leash otherwise, thanks to CCC Team and Bora Hansgrohe.
The break shattered with 50 kilometres to go, when Asgreen and Erviti attacked, knowing the peloton was just 30 seconds from joining them. Several riders took that opportunity to jump across and formed the new break, including Hirschi.\nThe rest of the break included Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Kragh Andersen, Tiesj Benoot, Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) and Marc Soler (Movistar).
Soler attempted an attack on the final climb, but he was countered by a determined Hirschi with 30km to go.
On the Suc au May, Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) favoured his chances for a stage win and attacked out of the yellow jersey group, leapfrogging several small chase groups until he was in the second, 45 seconds behind the Swiss debutante. He looked threatening for a moment, but Alaphillippe couldn’t gain any time on Hirschi, who time trialed his way to victory. \n
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