Simon Yates sprints to his first Tour de France victory on stage 12

Vuelta a España champion Simon Yates sprinted to his debut Tour de France victory on stage 12 to give Mitchelton-SCOTT their second win of the race.

The British rider made it into the break of the day before attacking over the top of the final climb in a leading trio and taking the win in a three-up sprint in Bagnères-de-Bigorre. Meanwhile twin brother Adam Yates rolled home in the peloton 9’35” later with no action amongst the general classification contenders.

The win means that Simon Yates has now won a stage in all three Grand Tours after his victories in the Giro d’Italia (2018) and the Vuelta a España (2016 and 2018).

Big Battle

As expected there was a massive fight to get into the break at the start of the day, with the stage always looking likely to favour the group in front. Numerous attempts came and went in the opening 40-kilometres before a large group of 42-riders were eventually allowed down the road by the peloton.

Mitchelton-SCOTT had both Simon Yates and European Champion Matteo Trentin in the move as the group worked well together to stretch their advantage over the bunch, and the escapees enjoyed a five-minute buffer by the time they hit the foot of the Col de Peyresourde. But the numbers in the 42-man breakaway soon began to fall on the slopes of the climb as Lilian Calmejane (Team Total Direct Energie) attacked solo.

The Frenchman opened up a 40-second lead on the rest of the breakaway, but he was reeled back in over the top, with Simon Clarke (EF Education First) launching a counter move on the descent. The Australian raced into a one-minute lead ahead of the final climb, but as the Hourquette d'Ancizan approached, Trentin set off in pursuit while Simon Yates sat in the chase group behind.

Final Climb

With Trentin beginning to close in on Clarke at the head of the race, Simon Yates attacked the remains of the breakaway on the climb, with only Gregor Mühlberger (BORA – hansgrohe) able to react to the initial dig by the Mitchelton-SCOTT man. The chasers were eventually able to bridge back up to Yates, but as the pace stalled the 26-year-old attacked again, while out front Trentin caught Clarke.

Another attack from Yates was enough to distance the chasing pack, as again only Mühlberger could follow, and the duo raced past Trentin to lead the race over the summit. Pello Bilbao (Astana Pro Team) gave chase on the ascent and the Spaniard was able to join the duo on the descent to make it a leading group of three.

The trio worked well together to extend their advantage over the chasers on the run towards the finish, and the gap stood at over a minute as they hit the outskirts of the city. Yates moved himself into prime position at the back of the group under the one-kilometre to go banner before launching his sprint into the final corner and holding off his rivals at the line to take the win.

Simon Yates:
“I’ve been saving energy all the way until we got here in the mountains and this is my first chance to try something. Normally I’ve been back in the peloton helping Adam, but today I had my own chance so I’ve grabbed it with both hands.”

“I wasn’t very confident of beating either of them [in the sprint], I didn’t really know how fast they were, I just knew from the directors in the car, they told I needed to be in the front coming around the last corner, so I made sure to do that and luckily I held on to win.”

“Really my main priority here is to help Adam and today was just one of the chances to get up the road, so we’ll see how we go in the next few days. We’re having a fantastic Tour and long may it continue.”

Matt White (Sports Director):
“We expected a big group and a big group with the right combination was going to be very, very hard to get back, especially with so much flat terrain before we got to the mountains.”

“The boys rode well, we had exactly what we wanted, we had someone who could climb to finish off the stage and obviously someone for the flat, for an extra form of protection, because things can get out of control in a break that size. The boys worked well together in the final and we had both bases covered.”

"Nobody wants to take Matteo Trentin down a 30-kilometre descent sitting on and then try and beat him in the sprint. So it gave us options at the front end and in the second group.”

“Simon might be a little guy, but he’s got a turn of speed on him and the other guys, they’re no slouches, but at the end of the day we were pretty confident that when we got into that group of three that he could beat them.”

Tour de France 2019 Stage 12 Results:
1. Simon Yates (Mitchelton-SCOTT) 4:57:53
2. Pello Bilbao (Astana Pro Team) ST
3. Gregor Mühlberger (BORA – hansgrohe) ST

General Classification After Stage 12:
1. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck–Quick-Step) 52:26:09
2. Geraint Thomas (Team INEOS) +1:12
3. Egan Bernal (Team INEOS) +1:16
7. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-SCOTT) +1:47

Photos courtesy of Getty Images.
 

Alaphilippe scrive la storia del Tour de France portando la maglia gialla nella cronometro individuale di Pau   Il francese della Deceuninck – Quick-Step,, idosserà il simbolo del Tour nel giorno dell'anniversario dei 100 anni dalla prima cronometro alla Grande Boucle 18-Jul-2019: Julian Alaphilippe passed without any difficulties the second mountain test of the Tour de France, which took the peloton into the Pyrenees for a 206.9km stage between Toulouse and Bagnères-de-Bigorre, featuring two first-category climbs: Col de Peyresourde (13.2, 7%) and Horquette d’Ancizan (9.9km, 7.5%). A rapid start to proceedings had the bunch travel at 50.6km/h in the first hour before a breakaway finally established. Deceuninck – Quick-Step took up the pace-setting duties, working tirelessly behind the 42 men in the front for Alaphilippe. Elia Viviani – who repaid the favour after the yellow jersey contributed to his lead-out train on stage 4 to Nancy – Yves Lampaert and Maximiliano Richeze were the ones maintaining a steady pace in the bunch on the flat first part of the day, which took the race to the foot of the Peyresourde. Featuring for the 66th time on the route, the climb first used in 1910 split the huge group up the road, leaving around 15 riders in the lead. Part of the original breakaway, Michael Mørkøv was dropped when the big attacks came close to the summit, but still had enough to take over from countryman Kasper Asgreen and relay in the valley after being caught. Things remained calm also on Horquette d’Ancizan, which the field topped with 30 kilometers remaining, before starting a long descent to Bagnères-de-Bigorre, where they arrived around nine minutes behind winner Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), who outsprinted his breakaway companions.   By keeping the overall lead after the race’s first foray into the Pyrenees, UCI World Individual Classification leader Julian Alaphilippe wrote a remarkable page of history at the Tour de France, as he’ll now get to wear the yellow jersey during the stage 13 individual time trial around Pau, on the day the race celebrates 100 years since the prized garment was introduced, ahead of a road stage starting from Grenoble. “It’s historic to wear the yellow jersey on its 100ath anniversary and on Friday it will be a very special moment for me. As a Frenchman, to sport the maillot jaune in an individual time trial will be one of the most beautiful moments of my entire career. Having the yellow jersey tomorrow motivates me to hurt myself even more than usual and you can be sure that I will push my limits while enjoying every single minute of it”, an emotional Julian said after receiving his eighth maillot jaune since the start of the race.   Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele/ Getty Images

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