July 16, 2026
While not as flat as yesterday, today's twelfth stage from the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours to Chalon-sur-Saône should end in another bunch sprint. The riders will start at the famous motor racing circuit, last visited by Paris-Nice last year for a TTT, and head due East through the same terrain they covered in the first half of yesterday's stage. The intermediate sprint comes early again after 45 km of racing in the town of Decize. From 104 km to go to 20 km to go, the roads become a bit more undulating. There are three category four climbs in that span but plenty of other lumpy roads to sap the energy from the legs of the sprinters. Côte de Montagny-les-Buxy is the last climb but it averages less than 4% and is followed by a 3 km downhill and 17 km of flat for the run in to Chalon-sur-Saône. From 3 to 2 km to go, there are a few technical turns which will be hotly contested before a river side run to the finish along the banks of the Saône.
Race Summary
The riders lined up on the hot tarmac of the motor racing circuit and set off on the neutral roll out on part of a lap of Magny-Cours. Once through the gates, the flag waived and the race was on. Looking through the upcoming stages, the sprinters would have noticed that there are very few chances left in this Tour for them so their teams were ever-present at the front marking every dangerous move of which there were plenty.
Tudor Pro Cycling and Netcompany-Ineos were relentless in their attacking but with 152 km to go, Baptiste Veistroffer of Lotto Intermarché chipped off the front and was gone in an instant. Everyone got the message from the sprint teams that a big group wasn't going to be allowed and the peloton shut down. The bunch gave Veistroffer 2 minutes but that came down coming into the intermediate sprint. The little town of Decize was quite pretty with peloton crossing over La Loire under the shadow of the Tour de l'Horloge that sat in the middle of the town square. 1 km from the sprint, Lidl-Trek and Alpecin-Premier Tech had dualling trains with XDS-Astana taking more of a back seat than they had in previous days. Lidl-Trek had the firepower to take control which pushed all of the other sprinters back to fight for Mads Pedersen's wheel. Pedersen was dropped off a little long and from the center of the road. He felt the pressure coming on his right side from Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Premier Tech and decided to move across the road to shut it down. Philipsen kept sprinting and almost went into the barriers but he managed to get his front wheel across to Pedersen's left side to continue the sprint. The pause in pedaling was too much to make up and Pedersen crossed first with Philipsen in second and Tim Merlier of Soudal Quickstep in third. The jury took a long time to award the points to Pedersen although it would have been justified to relegate the Dane just the same.
Passed the intermediate sprint, Liam Slock of Lotto Intermarché made a bid to come across to his teammate up the road. He had five riders on his wheel, all of whom were there to mark and shut it down. TotalEnergies sent a counter attack which looked promising for a moment but everything was stitched back together with 129 km to go. The accelerations had the gap down to 1 minute and one more counter went which actually stuck. Damiano Caruso of Bahrain Victorious went with Ewen Costiou of Groupama-FDJ United and Mattéo Vercher of TotalEnergies and the three riders managed to bridge the 1 minute gap to Veistroffer with 122 km to go.
A chance of rain was forecasted for a bit further into the stage so the peloton made the decision to keep the break closer than they would otherwise normally do. George Bennett of NSN Cycling, Silvan Dillier of Alpecin-Premier Tech, and Pascal Eenkhoorn of Soudal Quickstep had the leaders at just 40 seconds when the first drops began to fall with 92 km to go. The rain was quite heavy to the base of the Côte de Cuzy but over the other side towards Toulon-sur-Arroux, the roads were dry and the skies were clearing.
The gap nudged under 40 seconds with 62 km to go and the break started to question whether the effort was worth it. 1 km later, Vercher and Caruso sat up leaving just Veistroffer and Costiou at the front. Coming into Montceau-les-Mines with 50 km to go, the peloton bunched up at the front to position through the urban center. The gap went down to 30 seconds and Costiou bid adieu to Veistroffer as well.
Action kicked off in the peloton with 35 km to go on a short climb that rose away from Pont des Morands. Quinn Simmons of Lidl-Trek put in a big effort which created a split of about 25 riders. His teammate, Mathias Vacek, countered and a group of 15 went went clear, catching Veistroffer in the process. Roughly half the group had riders from sprint teams so as soon as someone would finish their turn, no one would come through and the group would slow down. The front group was primarily being towed by Vacek, Filippo Ganna of Netcompany-Ineos, Rob Stannard of Bahrain Victorious, and Mauro Schmid of Jayco AlUla who were able to build a lead of 20 seconds. Soudal Quickstep and NSN Cycling clawed the move back with 24 km to go but Lidl-Trek weren't done. They sent Mattias Skjelmose and Derek Gee on the attack and the peloton hit the the Côte de Montagny-les-Buxy in full flight.
Gee continued to power up the climb with about 10 riders on his wheel but the peloton closed it down halfway up. Simmons immediately countered and rode an incredible pace to the top, even having enough awareness to give a high five to his father along the way. A little group was with Simmons but again, the peloton was still within a stone's throw and the catch was made on the downhill with 17.5 km to go. The helicopter panned backwards and it was clear that Lidl-Trek's plan had not worked because nearly everyone was still in the peloton. Mads Pedersen even got involved in the attacking further on, constantly instigating moves off the front. It wasn't until 9 km to go when the sprint teams finally calmed the bunch down and set up for the sprint.
XDS-Astana, NSN Cycling, and Decathlon CMA CGM came up to lead through 5 km to go at a rapid speed, completely opposite of yesterday's run-in. A U-turn leading into a narrowing to one lane stretched the peloton with 2 km to go and Bahrain Victorious found themselves nicely positioned near the front with a few riders but they were swarmed by the Alpecin-Premier Tech train that came charging to the front under 1 km to go with three riders in front of Jasper Philipsen. Everything was looking good for Alpecin-Premier Tech until Jasper Stuyven of Soudal Quickstep came level with their train and forced them to ride faster. The pressure blew Philipsen's penultimate lead out man leaving only Mathieu van der Poel to bring Philipsen from 400 meters out. As van der Poel took over, there was a bump of shoulders behind and Fernando Gaviria of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA crashed. His body and bike ricocheted back into the group which caused chaos. Multiple riders went over the bars with absolutely no place to go but, the sprint continued. Van der Poel swung off with 250 meters to go and all of the sprinters fanned wide to take their lane. Philipsen was on the right barrier, Mads Pedersen was on the left barrier, and Milan Fretin of Cofidis and Huub Art of Lotto Intermarché were in the middle. 100 meters from the line, Tim Merlier of Soudal Quickstep popped out of Fretin's slip stream and into clean air. His burst was short but powerful enough to carry him across the line first for the third time this Tour. Olav Kooij of Decathlon CMA CGM had been following Merlier but with such a short sprint for Merlier, the Dutchman had no time to come around to really challenge for the win but he did manage to take second away from Philipsen who had to settle for another third place.
There were no time gaps in GC because of the 5 km rule so everyone will remain on the same time but there is no doubt that there will be fewer riders on the start line tomorrow morning.