Tour de France 2026: stage 12 offers sprinters one of their final chances to win – live
Key events
I hope you are planning to stick with the blog all day, but in case you’re not here are the key timings:
William Fotheringham
William Fotheringham’s stage guide
Nevers/Magny Cours to Chalon-sur-Saône, 179.1km
The penultimate sprint stage, with nearly half the race left. Today may have a little twist in it however; the three ranked ascents are fourth category, but team managers with sprinters who can climb a bit will look closely at the lumpy roads between 141 and 162km. The obvious tactic would be to pile on the pressure at this point and see if Merlier, Pedersen and Philipsen can be dislodged or discomfited so at least they burn up some matches before the finish – Girmay’s NSN are the best candidates depending on what reserves they have left.
Read the full stage-by-stage guide to this year’s race:
Here’s a quick look at today’s stage:
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Preamble
A farewell to the fast men. It’s stage 12 and there is every chance some of the sprinters knock it on the head after flogging themselves for a final time in Chalon-sur-Saône. From tomorrow it’s all about the climbers and the rouleurs, which means this is the final opportunity for the likes of NSN’s Biniam Girmay and Jasper Philipsen, who was bailed out by his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Mathieu van der Poel in Ussel on Sunday, to break their ducks at this year’s tour. Nothing in the route map should particularly worry the sprinters, even if there is 1800m of climbing in the back-end of this stage. Should they be succsessfully delivered to the final kilometre then it will be all about who has the speed in their legs after yesterday’s effort and 11 days of draining riding in the heat. Tim Merlier has looked the best of them so far and is the favourite, according to the bookies.
The breakaway will be another talking point, UAE Team Emirates have not won any friends with the level of control they have exerted on the race. Tadej Pogacar’s approval ratings are slipping as his dominance becomes boring, especially with the French public on the roadside. There is an unwritten code to cycling which his team seems to care little for. Having a rider who is so clearly better than everyone else, yet still insisting that the team do not afford the break any kind of threatening time gap is a fast way to lose friends in the peloton. Kévin Vauquelin of Netcompany Ineos said it well to Jeremy Whittle: “We too would also like to play at bike racing.” Let us hope they get a bit of playtime today.
