Tour de France 2024 Stage 12

July 11, 2024 The roads are never straight or flat on the route between Aurillac and Villeneuve-sur-Lot on another 200KM stage that could either be a break or a sprint. After 20KM, the break went with Anthony Turgis of TotalEnergies, Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X Mobility, and Valentin Madouas and Quentin Pacher of Groupama-FDJ. Alpecin-Deceuninck started controlling when the gap got to 3 minutes and 30 seconds. When the peloton went over Rocamadour at 119KM to go, Alpecin-Deceuninck had pulled the break down to just 2 minutes. Silvan Dillier did a mountain of work chasing in the peloton and got the break back at 42KM to go as GC teams started their positioning for the final. A large crash at 11KM took down many riders including Primož Roglič of Redbull-Bora Hasgrohe. The pace in the bunch was high and only went higher, making it impossible for Roglič to come back, eventually coming in 2 minutes 27 seconds down. The sprint was as chaotic as the run in. Arkéa-B&B Hotels had the best formed lead out for Arnaud Démare, with Wout Van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike and Pascal Ackermann of Israel-Premier Tech on the wheel. Van Aert saw his time and started his sprint to the right of Démare on the barriers. Démare felt the move and closed the door. Van Aert had to stop pedaling for a moment but he got going and came around to Démare's left. It looked like Van Aert would have the win but Biniam Girmay of Intermarché-Wanty popped out from the center of the bunch to come home with his third win. Van Aert was second in the photo with Démare in third. Démare was relegated after the stage by the jury, giving Ackermann the final podium spot in third.