Tour de France: Explosive stage 12 sees another crazy start, breakaway win sees Ion Izagirre back at the top

Seven years following his last win at the Tour de France, Cofidis climber Ion Izagirre has succeeded in taking a big win, being the strongest from the breakaway on stage 12 to take a second win for the team.

The start of stage 12 was very explosive and promised to deliver similar spectacle to that of stage 10, and it delivered. The first 70 kilometers of racing averaged 47Km/h despite the many small climbs, where the attempts to form breakaway were constant and it saw Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar and Adam Yates in the move quite a few times.

Often in front of the main GC group, and a third group which included riders such as Louis Meintjes, Mikel Landa, Emanuel Buchmann and Sepp Kuss who were at a certain point several minutes behind the front groups. Some did manage to return later on however, despite the efforts of AG2R Citröen Team to keep the gap alive.

That work equally controlled the gap to the breakaway which had in the meantime formed. Julian Alaphilippe, Mads Pedersen, Thibaut Pinot, Ion Izagirre, Mathieu van der Poel, Dylan Teuns, Jasper Stuyven, Ruben Guerreiro, Andrey Amador, Victor Campenaerts, Tiesj Benoot, Matteo Jorgenson, Mathieu Burgaudeau, Tobias Johannessen and Guillaume Martin formed the group.

INEOS and Jumbo-Visma controlled the modest peloton pace, whilst in front the stage win began to be fought between the group on the treble of climbs. On the descent of the first Mathieu van der Poel and Andrey Amador moved off the front, with the Dutchman going solo in the second climb as the pace began to grow. He remained in front until the middle of the last of the three climbs.

Then Thibaut Pinot and Matteo Jorgenson bridged across, but were joined by the remaining survivors of the group. Ion Izagirre then was the one to have the legs to make the difference, with a stinging attack which saw him grow a meaningful gap of around 20 seconds by the summit of the ascent. He was then chased by teammate Guillaume Martin who was destabilizing the group, Matteo Jorgenson, Tiesj Benoot, Thibaut Pinot, Mathieu Burgaudeau and Tobias Johannessen.

However in the mostly downhill and rolling terrain that followed, Izaguirre's gap further grew, almost into one minute as the collaboration was not ideal in the chasing group. One attack was enough, the Basque rider rode all the way into the finish to bring in the French team's second win of the month. Mathieu Burgaudeau sprinted to second place whilst Matteo Jorgenson settled for third.