The Spaniard Ion Izagirre of the Cofidis team has won the 12th stage of the Tour de France. 30 kilometers from the finish in Belleville-en-Beaujolais he made the decisive attack.
On the 168.8-kilometer stage on Thursday (July 13th, 2023) with a lot of small groups, numerous attempts to break away and constant hectic activity, Mathieu van der Poel (ADC) initially had a pinprick almost 47 kilometers before the arrival, which promised a lot: being fast the Belgian all-rounder put half a minute between himself and his pursuers, initially there was disagreement as to who should follow this year’s Paris-Roubaix and Cyclocross World Champion.
Thibaut and Jorgenson represent van der Poel
On the penultimate mountain of the day, the 737 meter high Col de la Croix Montmain 43 kilometers before the finish, van der Poel had lost a good half of his lead again. but was able to make up ground again on the subsequent descent.
Going into the climb to the Col de la Croix Rosier, a two-man climb like the Montmain, van der Poel had a 20-second lead and still looked relatively fresh. 32 kilometers before the end, however, two drivers caught up with him: Thibaut Pinot from France and the American Matteo Jorgenson, shortly afterwards there were eight drivers again in the leading group.
Izaguirre quickly pulls away
But there was no peace, as soon as the eight riders got together, the next attack followed two kilometers from the summit and thus 30 kilometers from the finish: Ion Izagirre from Cofidis pushed hard, van der Poel and Pinot briefly tried the to take up pursuit, but had to give up very quickly: the Basque had gained almost 30 seconds at lightning speed.
At the summit there were still 28 kilometers to go on the route plan, but Izagirre seemed wildly determined: on the descent he extended his lead to 50 seconds, ten kilometers before the end it was still 45. Izagirre’s advantage: this slightly undulating terrain in the direction He knows Belleville-en-Beaujolais from his Basque homeland and trains like that every day.
The pursuers then realized pretty quickly that for them it was only about second place: The winner of the Tour of Poland (2015) and Basque Country (2019) drove home the day’s victory quite confidently, it’s his second in the tour after 2016.
No shifts in the peloton
At the finish, Izagirre spontaneously burst into tears, but he certainly had time to celebrate: the peloton with all those wearing special jerseys only arrived after almost four and a half minutes later. The Dane Jonas Vingegaard remains at the top of the overall standings ahead of the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar.
One of the first to congratulate Izagirre was his teammate Simon Geschke, who then said in the sports show interview: “It was very hectic, there was a lot of chaos today, so I’m all the happier that we were able to place our man at the front. I had good legs, but it wasn’t quite enough for the top group.”
Pogacar has good memories
On the 13th stage on Thursday, the duel for yellow is expected to flare up again. After Pogacar and Vingegaard recently saved their strength, the epic Grand Colombier will be climbed for the second time on the French national day. Incidentally, Pogacar had triumphed three years ago in the only previous arrival on the most famous peak of the Jura.