The 2012 Tour de France began on 30 June, and stage 10 occurred on 11 July. The 2012 edition began with a prologue – a short individual time trial stage – where each member of the starting peloton of 198 riders competed against the clock – in Liège, Belgium with two more stages held in the country before moving back into France. The race resumed in Orchies for the start of the third stage; also during the first half of the race, the peloton visited Switzerland for the finish to the eighth stage in Porrentruy, and contested another individual time trial stage – having returned to France – the following day.
Fabian Cancellara held the lead of the race throughout its opening Belgian leg; having won the race-commencing prologue, Cancellara defended it on the following two stages before the race returned to France. Cancellara maintained his overall lead for the rest of the race's first week, before eventually losing time on the first true mountain stage of the race – stage seven – as he was dropped on the closing climb to La Planche des Belles Filles. As a result, Bradley Wiggins assumed the maillot jaune, becoming the first British rider to wear the jersey since 2000. Wiggins maintained the lead for the following three stages, including his first victory at the Tour during the ninth stage individual time trial in Besançon. Wiggins held a lead of almost two minutes in the overall standings with the more mountainous second half of the Tour still to race. Two riders won multiple stages during the first half of the race; Peter Sagan, in his first Tour de France, won three stages and also held the lead of the points classification, while André Greipel took back-to-back stage victories on the fourth and fifth stages. World champion Mark Cavendish achieved one stage victory, while French riders Thibaut Pinot and Thomas Voeckler each took breakaway victories.
The race was also marked by several large crashes, most notably on the sixth stage, when the majority of the field crashed with around remaining. In total, twelve riders had to abandon the race due to injuries suffered during the crash. During the race's first rest day – held after the ninth stage individual time trial – the team hotel of the squad, in Bourg-en-Bresse, was searched by French police and gendarmerie. One of team's riders in the Tour, Rémy Di Gregorio, was arrested in relation to an ongoing anti-doping case, and was immediately suspended by the French team; although the case had been open since 2011, when Di Gregorio was a member of the team.
Classification standings
Legend Denotes the leader of the general classification Denotes the leader of the points classification Denotes the leader of the mountains classification Denotes the leader of the young rider classification Denotes the leader of the team classification
Prologue
30 June 2012 — Liège (Belgium), , (ITT)
The prologue was a short and fairly flat circuit around Liège, with expected stage times to be about eight minutes. The start ramp was located at Avenue Rogier next to the Parc d'Avroy; the riders then headed north by the Boulevard d'Avroy and Boulevard de la Sauvenière. They then followed the Quai Roosevelt, along the Meuse, until the midway point when they returned on the opposite carriageway, before turning right towards Place Saint-Lambert, in front of the Palais des Princes-Évêques. From there, the riders rejoined the original route on the opposite carriageway of Boulevard de la Sauvenière before the finish line located on Boulevard d'Avroy on the opposite side of the Parc d'Avroy from the start.
With several tight corners, the prologue was expected to favour riders with good bike handling skills. The first rider to leave the start house in Liège was 's Tom Veelers, with most of the general classification contenders going towards the end of the starting order, as rain was not scheduled to disrupt the race. Veelers set a time of 7' 47" for the course – which was near-identical to the 2004 prologue held in the city, won by then- rider Fabian Cancellara, over a parcours – but this was immediately beaten by rider Simon Gerrans, who went five seconds quicker around the course. Gerrans' lead was also not to last for long, as Ukrainian national champion Andriy Hryvko () bettered his mark by 14 seconds; the time was ultimately good enough for tenth place in the stage results. Hryvko held the lead for over an hour, as no other rider could get within three seconds of his time at that point.
It was not until Gerrans' teammate Brett Lancaster, a former prologue winner at the Giro d'Italia, that Hryvko's time was beaten; Lancaster recorded a time four seconds quicker, crossing the line at 7' 24". rider Edvald Boasson Hagen marginally bettered Lancaster's time to assume the lead for a time, but French champion Sylvain Chavanel () set a mark of 7' 20" for the course. His time held until the final ten riders to take to the course; Bradley Wiggins () trailed Chavanel by six seconds at the intermediate time-check – coming around halfway through the test – but paced the second half better to negate the deficit, and beat the time of Chavanel by around half a second. Cancellara, the pre-stage favourite, recorded the fastest time of 3' 35" to the intermediate point, and extended his eventual stage-winning margin to seven seconds by the finish; in the process, Cancellara won his fifth Tour prologue stage, a record.
Of other overall contenders, defending champion Cadel Evans (), 's Vincenzo Nibali and rider Ryder Hesjedal, the winner of May's Giro d'Italia, all placing solidly inside the top twenty riders. Nibali's teammate Peter Sagan and world time trial champion Tony Martin (), who both had been tipped as favourites to win the stage, both encountered difficulties on the course during their respective runs. Sagan lost time after he overshot one of the 180-degree hairpin bends and had to clip out of the pedals, while Martin – who had set a similar time to teammate Chavanel at the intermediate time-check – suffered a puncture, and ultimately finished 23 seconds down on Cancellara's time.
+ Prologue result and general classification after the prologue Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 7" 3 + 7" 4 + 10" 5 + 11" 6 + 11" 7 + 12" DSQ + 13" 9 + 13" 10 + 15"
Stage 1
1 July 2012 — Liège (Belgium) to Seraing (Belgium),
The Tour remained in Belgium for the first full day's racing with a stage through the rolling countryside of the Ardennes. After four Category 4 climbs en route, the race finished at Seraing, a municipality just outside Liège. The finish was at the top of a long and fairly steep drag – the Côte de Seraing – rising for at an average of 4.7%, which was expected to suit the race's puncheurs such as rider Philippe Gilbert, who won a similar finish in the opening stage of the 2011 Tour at Mont des Alouettes.
Six riders – Yohann Gène (), rider Pablo Urtasun, 's Maxime Bouet, Nicolas Edet of , Anthony Delaplace () and rider Michael Mørkøv – advanced clear of the main field in the early running of the stage; the sextet managed to extend their advantage to a maximum of almost five minutes around a quarter of the way through the stage. By this point, Mørkøv and Urtasun had both scored a point towards the mountains classification, having led over the Côte de Cokaifagne and the Côte de Francorchamps respectively. Overall leader Fabian Cancellara was being paced by his teammates, and help to stabilise the gap to the leaders at around three minutes. Mørkøv then proceeded to win the two remaining climbs on the day, to take the race's first polka-dot jersey, becoming only the third Danish rider to have held the lead of that classification.
The breakaway also scored the major points at the stage's intermediate sprint point in Érezée, where Gène took the honours ahead of Urtasun and Edet, while in the main field, 's Matthew Goss out-sprinted his former teammates Mark Cavendish () and André Greipel () for seventh place. were joined by Gilbert's squad in order to reduce the lead advantage; it was cut to around a minute with to go, and the break was eventually caught inside of remaining. The field remained together onto the Côte de Seraing, but halfway up the climb, Cancellara attacked and only Peter Sagan () could hold pace with him. 's Edvald Boasson Hagen later bridged up to the duo, and it was left to the three riders to fight it out for the stage win, with the reduced peloton chasing behind. Cancellara attacked first, but Sagan came around the outside and freewheeled to his fourteenth victory of 2012, ahead of Cancellara – who maintained his overall lead – and Boasson Hagen. Gilbert led home the peloton in fourth, as 22-year-old Sagan became the youngest rider to win a Tour stage since Lance Armstrong in 1993.
+ Stage 1 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 0" 3 + 0" 4 + 0" 5 + 0" 6 + 0" 7 + 0" 8 + 0" 9 + 0" 10 + 0"+ General classification after stage 1 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 7" 3 + 7" 4 + 10" 5 + 11" DSQ + 13" 7 + 13" 8 + 17" 9 + 18" 10 + 18"
Stage 2
2 July 2012 — Visé (Belgium) to Tournai (Belgium),
The race remained in Belgium for one more day with a flat course heading almost due west from Visé. There was one fourth-category climb of the Côte de la Citadelle de Namur during the stage, but it was expected to ultimately result in a sprint finish in Tournai. Three riders – French pairing Anthony Roux of and rider Christophe Kern, along with Michael Mørkøv (), wearing the polka-dot jersey as mountains classification leader following his part in the breakaway on the first stage – went clear around after the start of the stage, making the early breakaway from the field, and the trio managed to extend their advantage over the main field to around eight minutes, around later.
took up duties at the front of the peloton in order to reduce the gap that the leaders had held; although by the time that Mørkøv scored the point for crossing the summit of the Côte de la Citadelle de Namur first, around later, the lead had only been reduced to around six-and-a-half minutes. Again, the breakaway took top points on offer at the intermediate sprint point in Soignies, with Kern taking maximum points for for the second successive day. None of the trio elected to contest the sprint, while back in the main field, Matthew Goss () again won the sprint contest for fourth place ahead of rider Mark Renshaw, Mark Cavendish of and the previous day's stage winner, 's Peter Sagan. With around remaining of the stage, Roux attacked his two fellow breakaway companions, going off on his own as Mørkøv and Kern allowed themselves to fall back into the confines of the main field.
Roux managed to gain an advantage of almost a minute, but he too was brought back by the main field inside the final of the stage. , and held the front with sprinter Marcel Kittel falling off the back of the field, as he was suffering from stomach problems; instead their focus would be left with his lead-out man Tom Veelers. The field remained together for the sprint finish in Tournai; led it out for Greipel, with Sagan just behind. Cavendish moved up the order, behind two other riders – 's Daryl Impey and rider Óscar Freire – and slid in behind Greipel with around to go. Cavendish launched his sprint off Greipel's wheel with left, and got the better of him by half a wheel to take his 21st Tour stage victory, moving out of a tie with Luxembourg's Nicolas Frantz for sixth place on the all-time Tour stage wins list. Greipel, Goss, Veelers and 's Alessandro Petacchi completed the top five on the stage, with Sagan taking the points classification lead, and the green jersey, from 's Fabian Cancellara with sixth place. Cancellara maintained his seven-second overall lead over Cavendish's teammate Bradley Wiggins.