Seven years after he won his first Tour de France stage, Ion Izagirre triumphed once more on Thursday, giving Cofidis its second victory of the 110th edition in the process. He’s the second Basque victor in three stages. The peloton seemed over-caffeinated on Thursday’s twelfth stage, with wild attacking and counterattacking in the first half. Jonas Vingegaard stayed safe in the yellow jersey. Hugo Houle was the top Canadian in 57th.
The Course
There were five categorized climbs on Thursday’s menu, but it was the Triplet in the final third of the 169 km that would be crucial. Three back-to-back climbs were all around 5 km in length, and the final one, Cat. 2 Col de la Croix Rosier, was the toughest at 5.4 km of 7.7 percent, cresting 28 km from the finish line in Belleville-en-Beaujolais.
Another hard, fast and crazy day looms in the horizon at the #TDF2023, as the peloton is set to travel between Roanne and Belleville-en-Beaujolais. pic.twitter.com/kDp9zOL3RA
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) July 13, 2023
The early action over the first two climbs was frantic. Wout Van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel were in the moves. After Côte de Thizy-les-Bourgs and Col des Écorbans, there was no breakaway, but Mikel Landa, Sepp Kuss, Neilson Powless, Egan Bernal and others were 2:00 behind.
The relentless attacking and counterattacking continued on the uncategorized climbs and the long downhill to the valley. Finally, in the valley a move stuck. Van der Poel, Thibaut Pinot, Mads Pedersen, Julian Alaphilippe and Matteo Jorgenson were among the lucky 15.
The Triplet
By the first of the three climbs, Cat. 3 Col de la Casse Froide, the break was 3:45 clear of the yellow jersey group. Guillaume Martin led the group over. Michael Woods was among those caught up in a crash on the descent.
The penultimate ascent was Cat. 2 Col de la Croix Montmain. Van der Poel and Andrey Amador left the others in the breakaway, and the group was spread all over the slopes. Van der Poel dropped the Costa Rican.
The Dutchman tipped over with 20 seconds on the chase group and started up Col de la Croix Rosier with Pinot and Jorgenson his closest pursuers. Behind, the Kuss-Landa gang made it back to the yellow jersey.
Pinot and Jorgenson found van der Poel just before a general regrouping of the breakaway. Ion Izagirre pulled clear in the last 2 km. Van der Poel blew up trying to follow. The…
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