Nils Politt takes Bora's first stage win on the day Peter Sagan leaves Tour de France 2021

After yesterday's historic double ascent of Mont Ventoux, stage 12 seemed designed for a sprint finish and a first chance for Cavendish to take his fourth victory in this Tour de France and reach the record 34 victories of the legendary Eddy Merckx in the French Grand Tour. However, the British rider will have to wait for another day because the race today surprised us again with a breakaway from the first kilometers that saw the German Nils Politt win his first stage in a Tour de France and debut the Bora team in this edition.

Precisely today, Peter Sagan, leader of Bora, did not take the start of stage 12. Sagan with knee problems has not been able to show his talent in this Tour de France and will focus on recovering for the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Start of the stage with the wind as protagonist

A stage between Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux and Nîmes. 159.4 km in which the cyclists were going to find a third category pass (4.4 km at 4.6%) at kilometer 83 and a bonus sprint at kilometer 132. The wind first caused a delay at the start of more than 10 minutes and then caused some cuts that affected riders like Richie Porte or Geraint Thomas. Definitely the Welshman is not having luck in this edition of the Tour de France.

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With 143 km to go, a group of 13 riders jumped out, including Julian Alaphilippe, Imanol Erviti, Nils Politt, Brent Van Moer, Greipel and Theuns among others. A breakaway of high level that soon opened a gap with the peloton.

With 120 kilometers to go, Mark Cavendish had to go down to the team car and stop for a moment to fix a problem with one of the cleats in his shoes. 

The first hour of the race showed a beastly pace: 45.7km/h and the group of 13 escapees was around 9 minutes ahead of the peloton. Everything pointed to the stage victory going to one of the 13 escapees. The group: André Greipel (Israel-Start Up-Nation), Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo), Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Imanol Erviti (Movistar), Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-Nippo), Connor Swift (Arkea-Samsic), Harry Sweeny and Brent Van Moer (Lotto-Soudal), Luka Mezgec (BikeExchange), Sergio Henao (Qhubeka-Nexthash) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (TotalEnergies).

The breakaway's lead only increased, reaching over 11 minutes with 75 km to go. Cavendish's feat of equaling Merckx in the number of stage victories in the Tour de France was complicated. The Briton will still have a couple more chances in this edition.

 
The only peak of the day, the Belvédère de Tharaux (kilometer 83.7) was to be crowned by the German Nils Politt without dispute. Politt took the 2 points for the king of mountain classification followed by the Swiss Stefan Küng who took 1 point.

With just over 49 km to go to the finish line, attacks began to follow one after another among the escapees. First Politt and Connor Swift managed to break away from the group. They were soon caught by Luka Mezgec and within a few kilometers the group of 13 riders regrouped again to continue attacking each other relentlessly. Finally, a group of 4 riders formed by Küng, Sweeny, Politt and Erviti managed to open a gap of 47 seconds with the rest of the breakaway. There were 17 kilometers left of stage 12.

The group of 13 riders breaks up and the finish in Nîmes sees a brand new winner in the Tour de France 

With 14 kilometers to go to the finish in Nîmes, the first to drop from the lead was Stefan Küng, who was unable to keep up with Politt, Sweeny and Erviti. None of these riders had ever won a stage victory in the Tour de France and the stakes were high.

With 12 kilometers still to go, Nils Pollitt launched a hard attack to go solo in search of the stage victory. Behind, the always hard-fighting Alaphilippe raised the pace with the intention of chasing the breakaway group, but everything indicated that he would not be able to catch them. 

Pollitt remained strong in his solo breakaway and was soon able to gain valuable seconds on all his pursuers to the point that he was able to enjoy the last kilometer of the race and the sweetness of his victory. The German took his first stage win in the Tour de France of his life and gave Bora its first victory in this edition of the French round just on the day that the leader Sagan retired. Day without changes in the general classification in which Pogacar continues to dominate.

STAGE 12

1. Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe)
2. Imanol Erviti (Movistar Team) +33”
3. Harry Sweeny (Lotto-Soudal)
4. Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) +1’58”
5. Luka Mezgec (BikeExchange) +2’05”

GENERAL RANKING

1. Pogacar, T. - UAE | 47:22:43
2. Uran, R. - EF Nippo | +5:18
3. Vingegard, J. - Jumbo Visma | +5:32