A spectacular crash distances Primoz Roglic's chances of reaching the podium in the 2024 Tour de France

What was supposed to be a transitional stage to recover the legs for the Pyrenees has turned into a drama for Primoz Roglic, who was affected by a spectacular fall that sends him to sixth position in the general classification, pending to see how both yesterday's and today's falls will affect his performance. Biniam Girmay scored another sprint victory and now has three wins in this Tour de France 2024.

Third stage victory for an unstoppable Biniam Girmay

After the fantastic cycling spectacle we enjoyed yesterday, with the top favorites for victory: Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard facing off in an exciting showdown, today (and also in tomorrow's stage) it was time to face another transitional stage with a almost certain sprint finish.

In fact, the script of stage 12 of the Tour de France 2024, a 203-kilometer stage from Aurillac to Villeneuve sur Lot, followed exactly what was expected of these stages. A start that could have been conducive to a more relevant breakaway given the challenging terrain, but after several attack attempts, it was reduced to a group of 4 cyclists made up of Valentín Madouas, Quentin Pacher, Anthony Turgis and the cyclist who will undoubtedly win the most combative trophy at the end of the Tour de France 2024, Jonas Abrahamsen, who still wore the mountain jersey but had to lend it after being surpassed in the classification by Tadej Pogacar.

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After the breakaway was formed, the stage passed calmly and was marked by the abandonment of Fabio Jakobsen, who fell behind the peloton practically from the beginning of the stage and had already shown signs of weakness. A few kilometers later, Pello Bilbao also abandoned the Tour de France 2024, far from his usual level throughout the race. Rumors were circulating about a virus that must be affecting a good number of riders and could be COVID.

Also commented on during the stage was the theft of 11 bikes and almost all the equipment of their mechanics suffered by the TotalEnergies team overnight. A curious image of the French team's car carrying spare Factor bikes borrowed from Israel-PremierTech.

In terms of sports, in addition to the usual control in these stages by Alpecin-Deceuninck, there was the unusual presence of Movistar Team, whose community manager joked on social media about having a sprinter like Fernando Gaviria in their ranks. A risky bet since, despite occupying honorable positions in the sprints contested during this Tour de France 2024, he had not had a real chance of winning any of them.

Just when it seemed that the stage would not have much significance, 12 kilometers from the finish, the median of the road caused a spectacular fall. Primoz Roglic could not avoid one of the affected cyclists and took a significant flight that left his shoulder and back bruised, and he could no longer reintegrate into a peloton that was already sprinting towards the finish line.

Biniam Girmay entered the sprint poorly positioned, but the Arkéa team prepared it perfectly and launched Arnaud Démare. When everything seemed to indicate that the Frenchman was going to end his drought, out of nowhere, Girmay found a gap to escape from the tangle of cyclists he was trapped in and made a tremendous comeback to once again win clearly.

It is worth noting the second place of Wout van Aert, who seems to be finding his physical form for the Olympic Games and it would not be surprising if he added some new victories to his record in the remaining stages of the Tour de France 2024.

1 minute and 39 seconds later, Primoz Roglic crossed the finish line accompanied by the entire Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe team, with a significant blow to the shoulder and, judging by the gels exploded in his jersey, also on his back. The latter could be a problem because, let's not forget, that in the Tour de France two years ago, he suffered several vertebral fractures that led to his abandonment, apart from being the second fall in two days. For now, this hard blow distances him in the classification and makes his podium chances very difficult.

Stage 12 Classification

1. Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) 4h17'15''
2. Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) +00''
3. Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) +00''
4. Pascal Ackermann (Israel-PremierTech) +00''
5. Mark Cavendish (Astana) +00''
6. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +00''
7. Arnaud de Lie (Lotto-Dstny) +00''
8. Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) +00''
9. Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) +00''
10. Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) +00''

General Classification

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 49h17'49''
2. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +1'06''
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1'14''
4. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +4'20''
5. Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +4'40''
6. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +4'42''
7. Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) +5'38''
8. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) +6'59''
9. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +7'09''
10. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +7'36''