The 2012 Tour de France was the 99th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started in the Belgian city of Liège on 30 June and finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 22 July. The Tour consisted of 21 stages, including an opening prologue, and covered a total distance of . As well as the prologue, the first two stages took place in Belgium, and one stage finished in Switzerland. Bradley Wiggins () won the overall general classification, and became the first British rider to win the Tour. Wiggins's teammate Chris Froome placed second, and Vincenzo Nibali () was third.
The general classification leader's yellow jersey was worn for the first week by Fabian Cancellara (), who won the prologue. Wiggins, second in the prologue, took the leadership of the race on stage seven, the first mountainous stage, which was won by Froome, and maintained his lead for the remainder of the race, winning the two longest time trials, and not losing time to his main challengers for the overall title in the mountains.
The points classification was won by Nibali's teammate Peter Sagan, who won three stages. André Greipel of and rider Mark Cavendish also won three stages. 's Thomas Voeckler, winner of two mountain stages, won the mountains classification. 's Tejay van Garderen, in fifth place overall, won the young rider classification. The team classification was won by , and Chris Anker Sørensen () was given the award for the most combative rider.
Teams
The 2012 edition of the Tour de France featured 22 teams. The race was the 18th of the 29 events in the UCI World Tour, and all of its eighteen UCI ProTeams were entitled, and obliged, to enter the race. On 6 April 2012, the organiser of the Tour, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), announced the four second-tier UCI Professional Continental teams given wildcard invitations, of which three were French-based (, and ) and one was Dutch (). The presentation of the teams – where the members of each team's roster are introduced in front of the media and local dignitaries – took place outside the Prince-Bishops' Palace in Liège, Belgium, on 28 June, two days before the opening stage held in the city.
Each squad was allowed a maximum of nine riders, resulting in a start list total of 198 riders. Of these, 35 were riding the Tour de France for the first time. The riders came from 31 countries; France, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Germany and Australia all had 12 or more riders in the race. Riders from six countries won stages during the race; British riders won the largest number of stages, with seven. The average age of riders in the race was 30.17 years, ranging from the 22-year-old Thibaut Pinot () to the 40-year-old Jens Voigt (). The cyclists had the youngest average age while cyclists had the oldest.
The teams entering the race were:
UCI ProTeams
UCI Professional Continental teams
Pre-race favourites
According to many observers before the race the favourite for the general classification was Bradley Wiggins. His closest rivals were thought to be Cadel Evans () and Vincenzo Nibali (). Alberto Contador, the winner of both the 2007 Tour and 2009 Tour, was serving a doping suspension and did not race in the 2012 Tour. Andy Schleck, who finished second in the 2010 Tour (later promoted to the winner after Contador's result was annulled in February 2012) and 2011 Tour, was not able to recover from an injury suffered in the Critérium du Dauphiné. The other riders considered contenders for the general classification were Ryder Hesjedal (), Fränk Schleck (), Samuel Sánchez (), Jurgen Van den Broeck (), Tony Martin (), Denis Menchov (), Levi Leipheimer (), Alejandro Valverde () and Robert Gesink ().
Prior to the 2012 Tour, Wiggins's highest finishes in a Grand Tour were third in the 2011 Vuelta a España and fourth in the 2009 Tour (later promoted to third after Lance Armstrong's result was annulled in October 2012). Wiggins had shown his form in the lead-up to the Tour by winning the general classifications in three stage races in the 2012 season: the Paris–Nice, the Tour de Romandie and the Dauphiné. As a time trialist, Wiggins was thought to be the rider most suited to the race's course. The 2011 Tour winner Evans came back from an illness earlier in the season to win the two-day Critérium International and place third at the Dauphiné. The 2010 Vuelta a España winner Nibali had shown his form in the lead-up to the Tour by winning the Tirreno–Adriatico stage race.
The sprinters considered favourites for the points classification and wins in bunch sprint finishes were Mark Cavendish (), André Greipel (), Matthew Goss (), Peter Sagan () and Marcel Kittel (). Cavendish, the world road race champion and defending points classification winner, did not have the full support of as he did in the 2011 Tour with the team; 's focus was on Wiggins' general classification ambitions. He had won the four-stage race Ster ZLM Toer 13 days before the start of the Tour. Greipel, who had the full backing of his team, had shown his form in the season with thirteen victories up to the Tour. Goss was second to Cavendish at the world championships and was the new sprint leader of his team, although he had only one win in the year up to the Tour. Sagan was equal in wins with Greipel with thirteen, of which five came in the Tour of California and four in the Tour de Suisse. Kittel won two stages in both the Tour of Oman and Ster ZLM Toer.
Route and stages
On 29 October 2010, the ASO announced that Liège would host the 2012 edition's opening stages (known as the Grand Départ). Further details of the first three stages held in Belgium were released at an event at the city's Prince-Bishops' Palace on 18 November. Liège, which had also hosted the 2004 Grand Départ, became the first city outside France to host the Grand Départ twice. The entire route of the race was accidentally published on the ASO website on 10 October 2011, eight days before the official presentation at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. At the event, the race director, Christian Prudhomme, said, "It's a Tour designed to widen the possibilities". The route was noted as being innovative when compared to recent years, with fewer high altitude stage finishes, and more of a focus on medium mountain stages and individual time trials. Due to a clash with the start of the Olympics at the end of July, the Tour began a week earlier than usual.
After the opening prologue in Liège, stage one left the city with the finish in Seraing. The second stage took place between Visé to Tournai. The race then moved into north-west France, with the third stage ending in the coastal city of Boulogne-sur-Mer, before the fourth ended in Rouen, and the fifth in Saint-Quentin. Stage six took the race east, with the seventh ending in the Vosges Mountains. Stage eight then entered the Jura Mountains, with the finish in Porrentruy, Switzerland. A return to France saw the next stage take place between Arc-et-Senans to Besançon. The next stages, ten and eleven, went into the Alps, and stages twelve and thirteen took the Tour down to the Mediterranean coast at Cap d'Agde. Stage fourteen moved the race into the east of Pyrenees, before a transitional stage taking it to the western side of the mountains for the next two stages. Stage eighteen was held between Blagnac to Brive-la-Gaillarde in the south of the country, before a long transfer took the race back to the north-east for two further stages, with the finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
There were 21 stages in the race, covering a total distance of , shorter than the 2011 Tour. The longest mass-start stage was the twelfth at , and stage 21 was the shortest at . The race featured twice the time trialling distance of the previous Tour, a total of , with the prologue, stage nine and stage nineteen. Of the remaining stages, nine were officially classified as flat, four as medium mountain and five as high mountain. There were three summit finishes: stage 7, to La Planche des Belles Filles; stage 11, to La Toussuire-Les Sybelles; and stage 17, to Peyragudes. The Col du Grand Colombier, in the Alps, was included for the first time, and was among six hors catégorie (English: beyond category) rated climbs in the race. The highest point of elevation in the race was the -high Col du Tourmalet mountain pass on stage sixteen. There were nine new stage start or finish locations. The rest days were after stage nine, in Mâcon, and fifteen, in Pau.
+Stage characteristics and winners Stage Date Course Distance Type Winner P 30 June Liège (Belgium) Individual time trial 1 1 July Liège (Belgium) to Seraing (Belgium) Flat stage 2 2 July Visé (Belgium) to Tournai (Belgium) Flat stage 3 3 July Orchies to Boulogne-sur-Mer Medium mountain stage 4 4 July Abbeville to Rouen Flat stage 5 5 July Rouen to Saint-Quentin Flat stage 6 6 July Épernay to Metz Flat stage 7 7 July Tomblaine to La Planche des Belles Filles Medium mountain stage 8 8 July Belfort to Porrentruy (Switzerland) Medium mountain stage 9 9 July Arc-et-Senans to Besançon Individual time trial 10 JulyMâconRest day 10 11 July Mâcon to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine High mountain stage 11 12 July Albertville to La Toussuire-Les Sybelles High mountain stage 12 13 July Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Annonay-Davézieux Medium mountain stage 13 14 July Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Cap d'Agde Flat stage 14 15 July Limoux to Foix High mountain stage 15 16 July Samatan to Pau Flat stage 17 JulyPauRest day 16 18 July Pau to Bagnères-de-Luchon High mountain stage 17 19 July Bagnères-de-Luchon to Peyragudes High mountain stage 18 20 July Blagnac to Brive-la-Gaillarde Flat stage 19 21 July Bonneval to Chartres Individual time trial 20 22 July Rambouillet to Paris (Champs-Élysées) Flat stage Total
Race overview
Opening week
The opening prologue stage in Liège was won by 's Fabian Cancellara. Bradley Wiggins and Sylvain Chavanel () placed second and third respectively, both seven seconds in arrears, with Wiggins fractionally faster. Cancellara claimed the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification and the green jersey as leader of the points classification. In stage one, a large group of riders reached the final climb, the Côte de Seraing. Cancellara attacked from the finish, followed by Peter Sagan and Edvald Boasson Hagen (), before Sagan won the three-man sprint finish at the summit. Michael Mørkøv of took the first polka dot jersey as leader of the mountains classification. The next stage was won by Mark Cavendish from a bunch sprint finish in Tournai, Belgium, with Sagan taking the green jersey. Stage three, the first in France, saw Sagan win again, crossing the finish line with a comfortable margin on the short steep climb in Boulogne-sur-Mer. The fourth stage ended with a bunch sprint which was won by André Greipel. A crash with remaining took Cavendish out of contention for the stage win. Another bunch finish occurred on the next stage, with Greipel victorious again. The sixth stage was won by Sagan in another bunch sprint.
Vosges, Jura and Alps