Stage 12

The road

At the start

Down out of Andorra to Lleida

Vallnord has finally stretched the race out. Igor Antón is back in red with Nibali at 45 seconds, Xavier Tondo at 1:04 and Rodríguez, who led yesterday morning, at 1:17; Antón heads the points classification too. Today drops out of Andorra over the Boixols and then runs flat and straight for thirty-five kilometres into Lleida — the first real chance in five days for a sprinter still without a stage.

How it was won

1. 123 km to go

   Caught with twenty-three to go

   Nine riders have been out since the tenth kilometre and never got past 3:18. On a straight, flat run into Lleida they were never going to survive it.

2. 2At the line

   Cavendish, finally

   Matthew Goss takes him through the last corner and pulls off at 200 metres, and Cavendish wins by bike lengths — twelve days after HTC-Columbia won the opening team time trial and put him in red. It moves him ahead of Antón in the points classification.

The result