14 July 2006 — Luchon to Carcassonne, Stage 12 started in the Luchon, which held big celebrations because this was the fiftieth time that the
Tour de France visited the city. The stage end location was
Carcassonne and in between those cities the course featured four categorized climbs: •
Col des Ares (Category 2 at 27.0 km/16.8 miles) •
Côte des Pujos (Category 4 at 47.5 km/29.5 miles) •
Côte du Pâl de Pailhes (Category 4 at 126.0 km/78.3 miles) •
Côte du Palmiers (Category 4 at 136.0 km/84.5 miles) There were also two intermediate sprints in
Caumont (at 76.0 km/47.2 miles) and
Mirepoix (162.0 km/100.7 miles). This being the first stage after the
Pyrenees, many riders were hoping to get an easy day, sitting at the back of the peloton; however, there were also a lot of riders who had lost a lot of time during those mountain stages and who knew that they were not going to get a good position in the general standings. Those riders all tried to get into the escape group which led to everyone chasing everyone for the first 100 kilometers and an extremely fast pace which caused the first riders already passing the 46-kilometre mark after just one hour. As a result, 4 riders dropped from the race during the first hour; among those were
Paolo Savoldelli and
Benjamín Noval from and the sprinter
Isaac Gálvez. Another important fact for the large number of riders trying to escape was that it was 14 July, in France known as
Bastille Day. On this day the French are extra motivated as it is their national holiday, which shows in the results of the latest years with
David Moncoutié winning in
2005 and
Richard Virenque in
2004 on this day. So a lot of changing situations during the first hours of this race, as there was always some team not happy with the current group of escapees. On the first climb of the day the first serious group formed, consisting of 15 riders: •
Michael Albasini, , , •
Daniele Bennati, , , •
Sylvain Chavanel, , , •
Damiano Cunego, , , •
Stéphane Goubert, , , •
Giuseppe Guerini, , , •
George Hincapie, , , •
Thor Hushovd, , , •
David Millar, , , •
David Moncoutié, , , •
Cristian Moreni, , , •
Óscar Pereiro, , , •
Michael Rasmussen, , , •
Gorka Verdugo, , and •
Jens Voigt, , . This group looked to be getting away from the peloton at first, but suddenly started working for
Robbie McEwen as sprinters Bennati and Hushovd were in this group. They were working hard to keep the gap between the peloton and the group reasonable, but of course the leaders tried to stay ahead too. This led to the gap fluctuating between 45" and 1'15" for a very long time. From this group which formed after about 30 kilometres, six riders dropped as they waited for the peloton after 70 kilometres, knowing that they would not let the group go. Meanwhile, Albasini, Bennati, Goubert, Guerini, Hincapie, Millar, Moncoutié, Verdugo and Voigt pushed on. Bennati then won the intermediate sprint and stopped working, but now the teams from and
Team Milram were trying to close the gap as they did not have any riders up front. Finally they succeeded at kilometre 94. As soon as the breakaway group was caught, a new group formed which now consisted of only four riders: •
Alessandro Ballan, , , •
Óscar Freire, , , •
Christophe Le Mével, , and •
Yaroslav Popovych, , .
Robbie McEwen was not happy again with Óscar Freire among this group, but when he tried to start up the chase again, almost the whole peloton was mad at him as they had been now riding at a huge pace for over 100 kilometres, just one day after a heavy mountain stage. It took him a few kilometres to settle down and give in and so the group did get away. was now maintaining a moderate pace just to keep the riders within a reasonable distance but without wasting too much energy. Most riders were happy to catch a break and at that time it was almost sure one of the 4 leaders was going to win the stage. Looking at the leading group, it was reasonable to think that Ballan, Le Mével or Popovych was going to attack sooner or later, as Freire is a top-class sprinter and would probably beat them all if they went to the finish line together.
Yaroslav Popovych was the first to attack and immediately the French got disappointed as
Christophe Le Mével dropped and never managed to come back.
Alessandro Ballan however closed the gap and brought
Óscar Freire back in his wheel. It was then Freire's turn to attack, but again Ballan closed the gap and now brought back Popovych. Popovych and Freire both took turns in attacking but Ballan seemed to be the strongest as he closed the gap every time. However, after a while he was also getting tired and could not respond to yet another attack by Popovych. He did not get any help from Freire in closing the gap and so Popovych won the stage. Freire knew he did not deserve the second place and left it to Ballan; however, this could cost him the
green jersey in the end. Le Mével finished as fourth and in the peloton it was
Tom Boonen who convincingly won the sprint for the fifth place, 4'25" behind Popovych. As a result of this stage
Floyd Landis remains in yellow and
Yaroslav Popovych just moved into the top 10 at place 10.
Robbie McEwen still holds a considerable lead of 25 points over
Óscar Freire in the standings for the
green jersey but sees Freire come 11 points closer,
Daniele Bennati 3 points and
Tom Boonen 1 point.
Michael Rasmussen scored 12 points today for the
polka dot jersey, but is still 19 points behind
David de la Fuente.
Markus Fothen stays the best rider under 23 and also in the team standings nothing changes, keeps a small lead over . Next to the earlier mentioned quitters, today
Agritubel also loses two riders who give up —
José Alberto Martínez and
Samuel Plouhinec.
Daniele Bennati, who was not amongst the escaped riders but was almost constantly in the offense during the first 100 kilometres, received the combativity trophy for the day. == Stage 13==