Tour de France 2020: stage 12 – live!

131km to go: Alistair Connor emails: “It’s preposterous for Ineos to have TWO former winners on the staff and not select them. While they were probably not fully match fit and not serious GC contenders, they would have made first-class team members; and more importantly, excluding them is disrespecting the public, and the race itself. And serving the sponsor pretty poorly too.

“Both Thomas and Froome are stars, and the public loves them. And even if Brailsford excluded them on purely sporting grounds, he’s wrong there too: they are both master tacticians and stage-winners, especially when freed from GC concerns.

“I think Brailsford is running his outfit into the ground, and any sensible top-end rider should flee.”

142km to go: Oss still riding on the front. The gap to the six-man breakaway is down to 1’42”.

Luis León Sánchez (Astana), Imanol Erviti (Movistar Team), Max Walscheid (NTT Pro Cycling) and Nils Politt (Israel Start-Up Nation), Mathieu Burgaudeau (Total Direct Énergie) and Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck – Quick-Step) are the riders up front.

144km to go: All looking very focused and businesslike, Jumbo-Visma ride with the race leader Primoz Roglic at the front of the peloton. I say at the front – there are actually two Bora-Hansgrohe riders working in front of them.

One of the fascinating questions about the rest of this overall race is: Have Jumbo-Visma done too much work for too little reward in the early stages? Can they maintain their dominance into the third and final week? Or will Team Ineos and Egan Bernal emerge as the strongest on the way to Paris?

148km to go: Fields of sunflowers: a photographic Tour de France staple, even in September …

The gap to the break is 2’00”. Everything has settled down just a bit – the riders know that this is going to be incredibly hard when the climbs arrive, so they can’t go flat-out all day.

150km to go: Speaking on Eurosport, commentator Daniel Lloyd insists that Peter Sagan will not give up on the green jersey, despite yesterday’s difficulties. What did you think of the punishment for Sagan? I initially thought it was a bit harsh, but having rewatched it on the highlights, I think it was probably right.

155km to go: When I said the two riders trying to bridge across were not making headway, I was wrong. Asgreen and his buddy Burgaudeau have made it across to the break, so now we have six men up front. Deceuninck – Quick-Step may be planning to set up Julian Alaphilippe later for the win, so having a man in the break will not hurt. The gap is 1’32”.

160km to go: Those four categorised climbs today should spice things up considerably as the longest stage of today’s race rolls on.

The Côte de Saint-Martin-Terressus is up first, a category four which peaks with 113.9 km still left to race. Then comes the the Côte d’Eybouleuf (category four, 96.9 km to go), Côte de la Croix du Pey (category three, 40.6 km to go), and finally the Suc au May (category two, 26 km to go).

The gap is 2’00”. The peloton’s plan is clearly to keep this break on a relatively short leash. The pace has been high, which on such a long stage is probably a good thing for all concerned on such a mammoth stage.

167km to go: The German rider Pollitt takes maximum points at the day’s intermediate sprint, which is uncontested by his breakaway companions.

Sam Bennett of Deceuninck – Quick-Step, wearing the green jersey, is first across the line from the main peloton and takes nine points. His teammate Michael Morkov, having led him out, takes eight points, and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) takes seven points.

170km to go: Do get in touch with any thoughts on today’s stage or anything else cycling-related.

There are some interesting quotes in that Thomas interview by Jeremy Whittle. In my opinion, Thomas’s current situation shows why leaving Sky and signing for the likes of Trek-Segafredo in 2018 would have been a high-risk but potentially high-reward move. He was always likely to fall behind in the GC pecking order while riding for the richest team in the sport.

Meanwhile, the gap between peloton and break is 2’11”, and the two riders trying to get across aren’t making much headway. They are 1’03” behind the leaders.

173km to go: Daniel Oss, of Bora-Hansgrohe, is working on the front of the peloton along with the rest of the Bora-Hansgrohe team. The intermediate sprint is coming up in about six kilometres. The gap between break and peloton has come down slightly, to 1’45”. Asgreen and Burgaudeau are still gamely trying to get across.

It will be interesting to see if the pace drops in the peloton after this intermediate sprint. It is looking likely that it’s going to be another day ‘on’, rather than a nice chilled ride for the peloton …

A bit of mid-stage reading for you – an exclusive with Geraint Thomas, the 2018 champion.

“The Welshman’s non-selection by team manage Dave Brailsford was a shock to many but Thomas dismissed rumours that he had refused to ride in support of teammate and 2019 Tour winner, Egan Bernal.

“It’s nothing against Egan,” Thomas said in response to that suggestion. “It’s not like I’m throwing my toys out of the pram. But these last few years — I want to make the most of them.””

182km to go: It’s been a flat-out start to proceedings today with plenty of riders trying to break away from the main bunch and earn the right to fight for the stage win. At the moment, four riders have successfully done so and it’s a potent group, too: Luis León Sánchez (Astana), Imanol Erviti (Movistar Team), Max Walscheid (NTT Pro Cycling) and Nils Politt (Israel Start-Up Nation).

They have a lead of 1’48” over the peloton. Mathieu Burgaudeau (Total Direct Énergie) and Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck – Quick-Step) are trying to bridge across. If a powerhouse like Asgreen makes it across to the escape group, that would massively boost their chances of staying away.

The longest stage of this year’s Tour de France will offer us several storylines: the peloton’s breakaway specialists are itching to make their escape and fight for a stage win, the maillot jaune Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) will be determined to keep his overall lead, while Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) will be desperate to try and reboot his green jersey campaign after yesterday’s relegation for barging Wout van Aert in the bunch sprint.

And of course, despite a gruelling stage which features four categorised climbs, it might all come back together for a bunch sprint at the end, too. It’s been an intense start already and four riders have formed a breakaway which has around a minute. Details to follow …