African sprinting sensation Biniam Girmay of the Intermarché-Wanty team won the sprint finish to stage 12 of the Tour de France in Villeneuve-sur-Lot, claiming his third win in 11 days.
However, while the Eritrean consolidated his hold on the points classification, one of the Tour’s big four lost more time in the overall standings, after a traffic island caused a bad crash in the heart of the peloton with 11km to race.
The crash distanced Primoz Roglic and as the race leader Tadej Pogacar, defending champion Jonas Vingegaard and fellow contender Remco Evenepoel sped on, the 2023 Giro d’Italia and three-time Vuelta a España champion lost yet more time and dropped from fourth overall to sixth. He had also crashed on a hairpin during Wednesday’s stage.
In hot and heavy conditions on the Tour’s fourth 200km-plus stage, an increasingly fatigued peloton, with many licking their wounds after Wednesday’s gruelling stage through the Massif Central, zig-zagged south west through the Lot towards the Pyrenees.
The race is now nearing the end of the second week and steadily the number of drop-outs is increasing, with the Dutch sprinter Fabio Jakobsen and Pello Bilbao, who won last year’s 10th stage, among those heading to the nearest airport for a flight home.
After Mark Cavendish’s key lead-out man Michael Mørkøv quit the Tour with Covid, the British sprinter voiced his concerns over the spread of illness in the peloton.
“I think our team has taken a responsible decision,” he told Eurosport. “I know there are riders riding in the peloton with Covid and that can affect everybody. But there’s not much you can do about that, is there?”
Cavendish, who took a record-breaking 35th stage win on stage five in Saint-Vulbas, described Mørkøv’s withdrawal as a “massive blow” and finished fifth in Villeneuve-sur-Lot.
“Professionally and personally, he’s one of my closest friends,” he said of Mørkøv. “Obviously he’s a massive part of this team. He’s a road captain, he’s a final lead-out man. We’ve got to adapt, but for me, more important than any bike race, is that he’s healthy.”
Sam Bennett placed 12th on Thursday’s stage, while Ben Healy came home 46th, moving up one place on general classification to 16th. Bennett moved up three places to 147th. – Guardian
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