Stage 12

The road

At the start

Magny-Cours, and one more sprint

Nothing has changed at the top — Pogačar 3:36 clear of Vingegaard, Evenepoel third — after a stage into Nevers ridden at record speed, the fastest road stage in the Tour's history. Today rolls out of the Magny-Cours motor circuit and east to Chalon-sur-Saône. With the Alps and a cobbled Montmartre still to come, this could be the last flat finish the sprinters are given.

How it was won

1. 162 km to go

   Veistroffer blows up his own break

   On his third day in the move of this Tour, Baptiste Veistroffer decides waiting is worse than working: with the peloton under a minute back he jumps clear with Ewen Costiou, and the rest of the break is dismantled behind them.

2. 221 km to go

   Lidl-Trek run out of road

   Simmons, Skjelmose, Gee-West, Skujiņš and Pedersen have spent 15km trying to break the stage open; once the Côte de Montagny-lès-Buxy is behind them, the sprint teams take the reins and the mutiny is over.

3. 3At the line

   Merlier freestyles it in Chalon

   Alpecin and Soudal-QuickStep trade blows under the flamme rouge before Merlier abandons the script entirely, jumping off Fretin's wheel to take his third win of the race — as Gaviria goes down behind and holds up half the peloton.

The result