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news
Tour de France logo on yellow 3x2Tour de France Stage 12: Joaquim Rodriguez wins at Plateau de Beille
Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha has won Stage 12 of the Tour de France at the Plateau de Beille, the Spanish rider attacking from the break on the final Pyrenean climb of this year’s race to win the 195km stage from Lannemezan.
It’s the 36-year-old's second stage victory in this year’s race, and again on one of the most eagerly anticipated finishes of the 2015 parcours, the other coming on the Mur de Huy on Stage 3.
Fellow breakaway riders Jakob Fuglsang of Astana and AG2R-La Mondiale’s Romain Bardet finished second and third respectively, the runner-up crossing the line 1 minute 12 seconds behind Rodriguez.
Team Sky’s Chris Froome retains the overall lead as the peloton prepares to tackle a series of transitional stages before hitting the Alps next Wednesday.
Stage winner Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha:
After the first two Pyrenean stages, my morale was pretty low. The only way to make it today was to break away. I always said I was coming to the Tour for GC but since I'm out of contention, I focus on stage wins. I've had a hungerflat at La Pierre-Saint-Martin. It hit me badly. I was strenghtless. Yesterday, I crashed in the neutral zone and my hip was hurting.
I like this climb to Plateau de Beille. I live about fifty kilometres away. I've come here a thousand times and I've dreamt of winning here a thousand times. Last time I was here training with Alberto Losada, I had a flat tyre but I didn't bring a spare one so I called my wife, she came to pick us up and we rode here again the day after.
Today I've seen many acquaintances on the road side, people who came here to cheer on me. I wouldn't say the last kilometres were easy but I managed to savour my victory. Everyone wanted to win here and it was even harder due to the weather conditions.
It means a lot to me to have won two stages at the Tour this year. I have never won a Grand Tour but it doesn't mean that I don't deserve it. I just haven't had the luck that is the trademark of the big champions.
Race leader Chris Froome of Team Sky:
I was happy to get through today's stage. I was fortunate to have Richie Porte and Geraint Thomas all the time with me in the hill. It was definitely a team effort in finding the right kind of speed all day. When I accelerated myself with 4km to go, I was just testing the legs to see who was at the limit but everyone was still pretty fresh.
There wasn't any attack by my rivals that was more threatening than another. I'm a bit more concerned about Nairo Quintana because from the attackers he's the closest to me on GC. We haven't seen Alberto Contador's explosive attacks yet but maybe it'll happen in the Alps.
But I pay the same respect to all the guys who are three or four minutes down on GC. I can't let them go. They'll have opportunities to attack me until we reach Paris, maybe in the crosswinds, maybe downhill, I expect it to happen anywhere.
Geraint Thomas has been fantastic again today. Riding as a helper is a role I'm familiar with. I've done it in the past. Can he be on the podium like me with Bradley Wiggins in 2012? At this stage, nothing is impossible.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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The small frame, the aggressive posture, lots of standover height.
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18 comments
Not up a hill he wasn't...
What was his best overall TDF before dominating?
What was Quintana's best Giro before winning?
Kedi and Daddy - the point with Lance is he went from zero to hero, became a climber and a sprinter all at once. You may think that it was unfounded speculation that started the ball rolling but the majority knew the truth, it was just the power that he and the team had over the majority. Testing may still not be up to scratch but reputations, earnings et al have changed massively over the last 10 years the risk is fast becoming too great.
The point I tried to raise on the opening comment is that a team performed massively well on one stage, rode well as a team, used the exertions of others and set a huge marker for the GC contenders. Froome benefitted from this and was immediately questioned. Over the last couple of days they could be seen to ride a little more defensively and maybe recover somewhat. However, riders are jumping out of the peleton, riding 100k's pretty much solo and gapping the main field by 5 minutes plus without scrutiny.
To question one but not the other is utter madness!
Wasn't he World Champ at 21?
Not got a clue!
I think he may have been taking the Mick a bit
I agree an assertion about doping is not negated because someone hasn't won that days stage. I would think if they had of read around the subject they would understand about the ineffectiveness of testing and prevalence of doping. It isn't just Sky and Mo Farah, it far more widespread.
Chris Froome was dead fast on Monday, so that's all the evidence you need apparently.
I've got no issues with pro cyclists taking PEDs - its very common. Its Sky's hypocrisy that grates.
Where is your evidence that sky has sanctioned doping for their riders?
Obviously its conjecture based on performance within the historical context of the sport. Given that testing is so ineffective that its next to pointless, it will take a siginificant amount of time, money, cooperation and resources to come up with said evidence to prove it. Think about what it required to catch LA. Think about where all that started - David Walsh being suspicious of his performances - without a shred of evidence.
If hard eqvidence is what you require (and i accept that probably the majority of people are the same as you), then I will never convince you of my asertion. I can guarentee you that a top doped athlete will never ever fail a doping test so nothing will be proven until millions of dollars and years of time have been spent on a Travis Tagyrt (sp?) like investigation.
Until then, enjoy the racing, I will be.
No, you can't. Further more for the current logic about all teams doping to make sense, effectively all riders in all teams are getting away with it all the time, apart from a few who are, for some reason, deliberately taking enough detectable PEDs we can catch the odd one or two. Given the resources of the teams that have had positives of late, you'd have to ask yourself why would they do that? What possible benefit is it to them when the undetectable PEDs are as prevalent as is being maintained ?
That's what they want you to think! They're letting a few people take the fall to distract you from the real truth! While you're looking the other way everyone else is absolutely nailing the EPO!
The doping thing is a bit like a religion. Those asking for evidence will be shouted down by those who will insist that it's obvious that, like, everyone is doing it because, well, it's obvious. If we're continuing the religion analogy, I remain largely agnostic. I'm prepared to believe they're not all doing it, but I'm not overly surprised when it turns out that some of them are dirty.
That's what they want you to think! They're letting a few people take the fall to distract you from the real truth! While you're looking the other way everyone else is absolutely nailing the EPO!
The doping thing is a bit like a religion. Those asking for evidence will be shouted down by those who will insist that it's obvious that, like, everyone is doing it because, well, it's obvious. If we're continuing the religion analogy, I remain largely agnostic. I'm prepared to believe they're not all doing it, but I'm not overly surprised when it turns out that some of them are dirty.
Oh come on, that is taking conspiracy theory to the next level.
The majority are clean, with the odd rider for whatever reason is willing to risk a ban of 2 years or life time ban for second offence, probably because their form isn't as great as it once was.
They need to be able to compete with likes of Sky and the other pro outfits which take each element of training and racing to the nth degree of analysis to extract the maximum each rider can give.
Sky were one of the first with this analysis, now all the other pro outfits are doing it.
Yeah you can hear crickets on here today. No so much two days ago when all the experts were out in force.
I take it all of the riders that are finishing ahead of Froome are also cheating, or did Froome and Sky just pick an important stage and perform well?
No, see, it's only the person who's winning the GC who's cheating. Anyone can beat him on any given day, but the GC winner is always definitely cheating. They wouldn't be winning otherwise, see?
Not got a clue!