Frenchman Thomas Voeckler bravely defended the yellow jersey on Bastille Day as Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez won the first mountain stage of the Tour de France.
- Olympic champions Samuel Sanchez wins stage 12
Voeckler, who pulled on the maillot jaune after a second place finish on stage nine, finished just 50 seconds behind Sanchez on the hors categorie summit finish to Luz-Ardiden.
Frank Schleck finished third after a late attack to steal 30 seconds on fellow general classification contenders Cadel Evans, Ivan Basso and brother Andy, while Alberto Contador was trailed by the trio in the last 500m to suffer a further blow to his title defence.
Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas won the day’s combativity award after riding as part of a six-man break before attacking on the second of three climbs, the Col du Tourmalet, only to be pipped to the summit by Jeremy Roy.
After a crash-filled first week that eliminated a host of general classification contenders, including Bradley Wiggins, Janez Brajkovic and Jurgen Van Den Broeck, the race began in earnest with the first high mountains stage in the Pyrenees.
Wiggins, fourth overall in 2009, broke his collarbone on stage seven to force Team Sky into a change of focus, instead targeting stage wins, and Thomas jumped into the break with Roy (FDJ), Laurent Mangel (Saur-Sojasun), Ruben Perez (Euskaltel), Jose Gutierrez (Movistar) and Biel Kadri (Ag2r).
- The first high mountains stage saw the general classification contenders go head-to-head
Mark Cavendish, who won stage 11 to increase his overall Tour tally to 18 victories, led the peloton gallop over the intermediate sprint to extend his lead at the top of the green jersey standings.
And the focus then switched from the fast men to the climbers as the La Hourquette d’Ancizan, Col du Tourmalet and Luz-Ardiden climbs approached, with the break building up a lead of more than seven minutes.
Mangel claimed maximum King of the Mountain points on the category one Ancizan before Thomas crashed twice on the descent, first slipping on some grease on the road before struggling to stay upright on the following corner.
Four riders in the peloton also hit the deck on the same bend, while Thomas fought back to his fellow escapees in time for the hors categorie ascent of the Tourmalet.
And the Olympic team pursuit gold medallist went on to ride past the lead group on the 17.1km climb, before Roy bridged the gap to nip past Thomas to the summit and claim the Prix Jacques Goddet.
The duo arrived at the foot of the final climb – a 14.7km, hors categorie ascent, averaging 6.9 per cent – with a two minute advantage over the peloton, but, with Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Jelle Vanendert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) chasing hard.
- Stage 12 included a category one ascent and two hors categorie climbs
Thomas and Roy were soon caught by the duo, who pushed on to hold a one minute lead over the main group with four kilometres remaining.
Voeckler, who held the yellow jersey for 10 days in 2004, remained unflustered, paced by team-mate Pierre Rolland, as Andy Schleck made a tentative move.
Frank Schleck countered with a dig of his own that Andy, Basso, Evans, Contador, Voeckler, Rolland and Damiano Cunego were unable to follow.
The Leopard Trek rider bridged across to Vanendert and Sanchez, who in turn both accelerated, with Sanchez pushing on to open up a seven second gap on Vanendert, with Schleck a further three seconds adrift.
Basso, Evans and Andy Schleck finished 30 seconds behind Sanchez, while Cunego crossed the line 35 seconds back, with Contador trailing by another eight seconds to slip further away from his rivals after losing time early on due a stage one crash and the following day’s team time trial.
