2012 Tour de France

The 2012 Tour de France was the 99th edition of the most important stages - cycle race in the world. It began on 30 June 2012 - as in 2004 - Liege and ended July 22, 2012 traditionally on the Avenue des Champs- Élysées in Paris. It won the Briton Bradley Wiggins, the last year's winner Cadel Evans wound up a 7th place in the overall standings. The Green Jersey won superior Slovakian Peter Sagan in his first participation.

The first three stages were completely driven in Belgium, only then led the tour to the home country. Unlike in the previous year, the tour resumed with a short time trial, a prologue.

After 24 years of absence from the Tour de France Le Coq Sportif solved now from Nike as rating jersey supplier. Likewise, Le Coq Sportif other races of the ASO is to equip (Paris- Nice, Critérium du Dauphiné, Paris -Roubaix, etc.).

ARD and ZDF had announced in February 2011, no longer to transfer the 2012 Tour de France. The reason this was that the long live broadcasts no longer could find the desired audience acceptance due to the doping problem. The transmission in Germany, therefore, took place exclusively via the transmitter Euro Sport. In Switzerland, the tour with German (SF2 ), French (RTS un) and Italian (RSI LA 2 ) was transferred comment.

  • 2.1 stages
  • 2.2 First Week
  • 2.3 Second Week
  • 2.4 Third Week
  • 2.5 ratings in the itinerary

Starting position

Participants

At the 2012 Tour de France, as usual, took part in 22 teams, each with 9 riders. Eligible were the 18 ProTeam. In addition, the organizer ASO awarded four wildcards Professional Continental teams, namely Team Argos - Shimano, Cofidis, le Crédit en Ligne, Europcar and Saur - Sojasun. The 198 riders came from 31 different nations, including Germany with 13, Austria with a plus Switzerland with three starters. France presented with 43 ​​drivers - how many years - the largest national contingent, followed by Spain with 21, and the Netherlands with 18 riders.

With 40 years was Jens Voigt ( RSN ) is the oldest starter of the Tour de France in 2012. Youngest participant was the Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (FDJ ) at age 22. The American George Hincapie (BMC ) was with his 17th tour start the driver, who may have the highest participation in the Tour de France in its history. He relegating the Dutchman Joop Zoetemelk, who came to 16 participants. In the junior rating fell this year all the drivers from the year 1987, in total there were at the start of the Tour 23, which accounted for about one-tenth of the peloton, which is below the value of the last few years.

A detailed entry list with an overview of the nationalities, successes and exits of individual drivers and teams during the 2012 Tour de France can be found on the separate page → riders of 2012.

Favorites

In the 2012 Tour de France around 100 kilometers were discharged as ITT. Consequently, the strong time riders the greatest opportunities were given a tour victory. These included run-up to the Tour, especially last year's winner Cadel Evans and the Briton Bradley Wiggins. The seemingly biggest competitor of the two drivers, last year's runner-up and winner of the 2010 Tour de France, Andy Schleck, dropped out due to injury. In addition, his brother Fränk Schleck, Denis and Andreas Klöden Menshov and Jurgen Van Den Broeck be mentioned as a possible top-10 drivers. Also the winner of the Giro d' Italia in 2012, Ryder Hesjedal, as well as the Italian veteran Ivan Basso has been credited by some experts to win. The circle of contenders for top positions included Janez Brajkovic, Pierre Rolland, Samuel Sánchez, Vincenzo Nibali, Michele Scarponi, clean Taaramäe, Jean -Christophe Peraud, Alejandro Valverde, Robert Gesink and Jelle Vanendert.

The Topanwärter on the green jersey as the top point was Mark Cavendish, who had dominated the sprint decisions in previous years and won the year before the vote. Next to him, especially Peter Sagan, André Greipel, Tyler Farrar, Óscar Freire and just for demanding sprints were also called Edvald Boasson Hagen. Furthermore, Mark Renshaw, Robert Hunter and Alessandro Petacchi were regarded as promising candidates for a sprint victory.

The mountains classification seemed again to be relatively open to tour. Favorites for the polka-dot jersey was next to some of the overall classification riders, for example, Samuel Sánchez, who had won the polka-dot jersey in 2011, aggressive drivers like Johnny Hoogerland Jérémy Roy, Jelle Vanendert or veteran Sylvain Chavanel. Also, the Dutchman Robert Gesink was credited frequently winning the climber jersey.

In the junior level Tejay van Garderen one spoke, Edvald Boasson Hagen and clean Taaramäe to the best chance to win the white jersey of best young rider. Also, the Slovakian Peter Sagan scored here for contenders circle.

For the three individual time trial of the Swiss Fabian Cancellara and German Tony Martin were regarded as the most promising candidates, as well as some of the tour favorites like Cadel Evans, Bradley Wiggins, Denis Menshov Andreas Klöden or Edvald Boasson Hagen and David Millar and Dave Zabriskie.

Itinerary

Stages

The stage plan was officially launched on October 18, 2011. Due to an oversight, however, he was seen on 10 October on the site of the Amaury Sport Organisation for a short time.

First Week

The prologue was won by multiple individual time trial world champion Fabian Cancellara. He must therefore bear the first yellow jersey of the Tour de France 2012. In the points standings, he was also the front, because there was only the prologue for the finish sprint points and he therefore received the most points as the winner. As Cancellara was thus support two jerseys, wore Bradley Wiggins, who was lying in the scoring in the second place, the green jersey for the best sprinter. In the white jersey of best young rider of Americans Tejay van Garderen went. Fastest team was at the end of the prologue Team Sky. The climber jersey was not awarded.

The following six stages were mostly flat in profile and were therefore dominated at the finish of the sprinters in the peloton. The breakaways were intermediately formed every time overtaken by the pace of work of the sprinters' teams to the finish again. From such a leaving group out of Denmark Michael Mørkøv brought in the first leg of the most mountain points and drove it into the jersey for the best climber. Also in the following two stages Mørkøv was represented in breakaways and enabled it to secure a total of nine points in the mountains classification.

The Slovakian Peter Sagan managed in his first Tour participation equal to his first stage success. Thus he moved first to the second place in the points standings. A sixth place in the second stage was enough for him to take the green jersey from Fabian Cancellara. The stage was won by five-time stage winner of last year's Tour, Mark Cavendish. Sagan also won the third and sixth Tour stage and thus secured his lead in the points standings. The German Andre Greipel has two stages in a row decide for herself and moved up to third place in the points standings.

After the third stage, Fabian Cancellara won for the 27th time the yellow jersey of the overall leader. He was thus the driver who has the maillot jaune most commonly worn without winning the Tour.

In the other ratings, there was hitherto hardly shifts. The third stage Kanstanzin Siuzou and José Joaquín Rojas had to finish the tour prematurely because of a fall as the first driver. During the sixth stage, there was a massive crash, which divided the peloton into two groups. This meant that well-known riders like Edvald Boasson Hagen and Ryder Hesjedal fell back in the standings. The latter did not start in the following stage seven. A total of twelve riders finished because of the fall during the sixth stage of the 2012 Tour de France prematurely, including the previous year's Eighth Tom Danielson.

The first tour week ended with two mountainous stages. The seventh stage was the first mountain stage of the Tour in 2012, which was won by Briton Chris Froome before Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins. Wiggins took the lead in the overall standings, with almost two minutes behind Cancellara crossed the finish line on him. Also in the white jersey moving van Garderen fell back and had to give up the lead in the standings the Estonians clean Taaramäe. Froome received by the victory in the mountaintop finish 20 mountain points, sparking Michael Mørkøv as a carrier of the Mountains jersey from.

The eighth stage won the youngest driver in the field, the Frenchman Thibaut Pinot before favorites. In a flight action Fredrik Kessiakoff had previously collected 21 mountain points, enough to Chris Froome remove the polka-dot jersey. In the team standings RadioShack -Nissan now lay ahead. At the end of the first week tour Bradley Wiggins was ahead of Australian Cadel Evans, the Italian Vincenzo Nibali, the Russian Denis Menshov and Spaniard Haimar Zubeldia. These riders were all less than a minute behind the leading rider Wiggins. In the squares of six to ten were Chris Froome, Maxime Monfort, Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Nicolas Roche and clean Taaramäe.

Second week

At the beginning of the second week tour was again an individual time trial on the program, which was won by the overall leader Bradley Wiggins. This could thus increasing his lead to the counterparty. With a fourth place at the end of this ninth stage to Tejay van Garderen brought back the white jersey of Taaramäe. A first rest day was brought on July 10. The German professional cyclist Tony Martin announced that he would not take to the next stage because of a fall. On the rest day, there was the arrest of the French driver Rémy Di Gregorio from the Cofidis team on suspicion of trafficking in doping substances. He was suspended by his team and excluded from the tour.

The following stages ten and eleven were high mountain stages. Both were won by outliers. At the end of the tenth stage Thomas Voeckler took over the polka-dot jersey of Kessiakoff, it had to leave the next day but right back at him, as Kessiakoff was represented in a breakaway group from which also the later stage winner Pierre Rolland solved. By tightening the pace Sky rider Wiggins and Froome defending champion Cadel Evans had to be demolished and fell back. Alessandro Petacchi and Yuriy Krivtsov eliminated by exceeding the waiting period from the tour. In addition, Fabian Cancellara, Bauke Mollema, Mark Renshaw and three other riders gave up. The as candidates traded on a top 10 place Robert Gesink did not occur at the following twelfth stage. She won from a five-man breakaway group the Briton David Millar out with about eight minutes ahead of the peloton. In the 13th stage André Greipel celebrated his third stage victory in the Tour de France in 2012 and moved with it the same with Peter Sagan, who previously also won three stages in this year.

The 14th stage did not yield any significant changes in the classifications. Luis León Sánchez was responsible for the first stage victory of the Spaniards in 2012. In the overall standings Bradley Wiggins was ahead of Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali, Cadel Evans and Jurgen van den Broeck, who was about five minutes behind Wiggins. This was followed by Haimar Zubeldia, Tejay van Garderen, Janez Brajkovic, Pierre Rolland and Thibaut Pinot on the courts from six to ten. Points are awarded by Peter Sagan on followed by André Greipel and Matthew Goss. The most mountain points had Fredrik Kessiakoff, behind Pierre Rolland and Chris Anker Sørensen. In the young Tejay van Garderen rating drove in the white jersey, before Thibaut Pinot and Peter Sagan. In the team standings, the team RadioShack -Nissan was before Sky and BMC.

Third Week

With the 15th stage whose profile was largely flat, began the third week of the Tour de France. It was won by outliers, the peloton came eleven minutes behind the finish. After the second rest day of the Tour on June 17, followed by two high mountain stages in the Pyrenees. All four climbs the 16th stage, including two scores of the Hors Category, won the Frenchman Thomas Voeckler. He reached the first pass, the summit of the Col du Tourmalet and was awarded the special prize souvenir Jacques Goddet. Voeckler could then win the stage in Bagneres -de- Luchon and drove it back into the polka-dot jersey, which he already was allowed to wear for a day, but then lost to Fredrik Kessiakoff. This was now just four points behind Voeckler and launched an attack on the polka-dot jersey, Voeckler but the ward and was able to extend his lead in the mountains classification during the 17th stage and at the same time last high mountain stage. The 17th stage was won Alejandro Valverde against the favorites.

The 18th stage of the 2012 Tour de France was again a stage for the sprinters in the field. An escape group was obtained from the peloton just before the goal of the day's victory secured before Mark Cavendish Matthew Goss and Peter Sagan, the was no longer to take the green jersey. The last time trial of the Tour took place on Saturday, July 21, 2012. This 19th stage won again the driving in Yellow Bradley Wiggins. He had already won the individual time trial stage 9 and was able to celebrate his second stage win in the Tour, as well as winning the overall classification, since, overall leader is traditionally not attacked during the last stage, which ends in Paris on the Champs- Élysées.

Mark Cavendish reached in the 20th and last stage of Rambouillet to Paris his third stage win of the Tour de France in 2012 and the fourth victory on the Champs -Elysées after the other. A most aggressive driver has not been selected at this stage; the Dane Chris Anker Sørensen was, however, awarded the most aggressive rider throughout the Tour.

With Bradley Wiggins won a Brit for the first time in the Tour de France. He won with 3:21 minutes ahead of his countryman and team-mate Chris Froome. Third Italian Vincenzo Nibali was with the 6:19 minutes behind. In the fourth to sixth place followed Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Tejay van Garderen and Haimar Zubeldia. Last year's winner Cadel Evans reached number seven, ahead of Frenchman Pierre Rolland, the Slovenian Janez Brajkovic and Thibaut Pinot from France.

The points classification secured Peter Sagan of Slovakia before the German André Greipel and the Australian Matthew Goss Harley. As best climber Thomas Voeckler won, he won the polka-dot jersey before Fredrik Kessiakoff and Chris Anker Sørensen. In the ranking of the best young rider Tejay van Garderen won the white jersey, second best was Thibaut Pinot and in third place was Steven Kruijswijk from the Netherlands. The team score went to the team RadioShack -Nissan, followed by Sky Procycling and the BMC Racing Team.

Ratings in the itinerary

The table displays the leaders in the respective rating or the support of the classification jerseys or colored shirt numbers at the end of each stage. A more detailed overview of the rankings after a stage to offer individual stage article linked in the first column.

Comments on the table:

Doping

On 10 July 2012, the Frenchman Remy Di Gregorio was interrogated by the French police on charges of organized trafficking of doping substances in Marseille. His team, Cofidis, le Crédit en Ligne, suspended him then. Also the team hotel was searched.

On 17 July 2012, the UCI announced that the urine sample taken on July 14 of the Luxembourg Fränk Schleck of Team RadioShack -Nissan was tested positive for the diuretic xipamide. Diuretics are often used to disguise of doping substances. His team pulled him back from the tour. On July 20 it was announced that the B sample is positive.

Prizes

During the tour, prize money totaling € 3,414,246 were distributed. Each team received an appearance fee of € 51,243.

Special ratings:

  • Souvenir Jacques Goddet on the Col du Tourmalet for the First: 5.000 €
  • Souvenir Henri Desgrange on the Col de la Croix de Fer for the First: 5.000 €
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