Stage 12 Breakdown:

Stage 12 bring the riders on a hilly 168km trip from Roanne to Belleville-en-Beaujolais. The stage contains no less then three 3rd category and two 2nd category climbs, with a total elevation gain of over 3000m. This will likely suit the riders that specialize in the one-day classics, as it’s an overall tough day with mixed terrain.

The final climb up 2nd category mountain Col de la Croix Montmain is reached with 28km to go, from where the remaining stage is mostly downhill and flat, with a few small hills. It might be too far to attack solo from this top, so it will be interesting to see whether a smaller or larger group arrive together when they enter Belleville-en-Beaujolais.

From the 2km mark there is a dead straight road until about 400m remaining, there awaits a sharp 90 degree corner to line them up for the finish. Although it’s likely that riders from some sort of a breakaway arrive here first, if it turns out to become a sprint from a larger bunch, the fighting for position in this final corner can turn both important and dangerous.

Favorites:
| +++ | Wout van Aert,  Matej Mohoric, Mattias Skjelmose
| ++ | Julian Alaphilippe, Matteo Jorgenson, Giulio Ciccone
| + | Tadej Pogacar, Tobias Johannessen, Ruben Guerreiro

Tour Manager:
Etappe 12 er en etappe for en-dags klassikerrytterne, en hard etappe med mye kupert terreng. Etappen favoriserer trolig bruddryttere, og det kan bli stor kamp om å komme seg avgårde i det avgjørende bruddet. Ettersom det er mange kategoriserte fjell, er det også mange klatrepoeng å hente, så det kan være lurt å få inn rytterne som kjemper om klatretrøyen til denne etappen.

Tune in for more stage by stage analysis, and predictions to come!