In short:
Primož Roglič lost ground to other Tour de France contenders after being caught up in a crash late in the 12th stage.
Biniam Girmay claimed his third sprint stage win to hold a firm grasp on the sprinter’s green jersey.
What’s next?
Stage 13 will offer the sprinters one last crack before the Tour heads up the mountains.
Primož Roglič lost more than two minutes to his main yellow jersey rivals after crashing near the finish of stage 12, where the new king of sprints, Biniam Girmay, completed a hat trick of Tour de France stage wins.
Roglič hit the tarmac with some 12 kilometres to go, after a rider in front of him hit road furniture and lost control of his bike. Roglič could not avoid the crash and went down with several others.
It was the second accident in 24 hours for Roglič , a four-time grand tour champion. He got back on his bike but struggled at the back and was helped to the stage finish by his Bora-Hansgrohe teammates.
He crossed 2 minutes and 27 seconds after the winner, according to provisional results, and dropped to sixth place overall.
Girmay, who became the first black rider to ever win a Tour stage this month, edged Wout van Aert, who was boxed on the right side of the road, and Arnaud Démare to extend his lead at the top of the rankings for the sprinter’s green jersey.
Démare was later demoted from second to 67th for having pushed Van Aert to the barriers, with Pascal Ackermann promoted to third place.
Two-time Tour champion Tadej Pogačar kept the yellow jersey. He said he was “devastated” when he found out that Roglič, his fellow Slovenian, had crashed.
“It’s really sad to see him crash today. I hope he is fine. Normally he is a big fighter, maybe he bounces back and wins some stages.”
Pogačar has a lead of 1:06 over Remco Evenepoel, with two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard in third place, 1:14 off the pace.
Roglič dropped behind João Almeida and Carlos Rodriguez, lagging 4:42 behind Pogačar.
The crash disturbed preparations for the final sprint, with Matthieu Van der Poel also missing from the main group and unable to lead out teammate Jasper Philipsen.
Girmay had Mike Teunissen with him, and his Intermarché-Wanty teammate did an amazing job to guide him through traffic. Girmay jumped into Teunissen’s wheel and was perfectly set up before he unleashed his raw power in the final 200 metres.
“The last 600 metres I found Mike and then he did a super good job, he took me from 15th to top 3 and from there I just knew I could deliver,” Girmay said.
Stage 12 took riders on a 204km route from Aurillac to Villeneuve-sur-Lot in south-western France without major difficulty.
There were 167 riders on the start line after Michael Morkov tested positive for COVID-19 and the Astana-Qazaqstan team’s medical staff withdrew him from the Tour.
Stage 13 is another flat trek from Agen to Pau.
AP
