Tour de France 2021: Stage 12 extended highlights | Cycling on NBC Sports

we are all set for day 12 of the tour de france uh yes one one two is behind them and so is the wind hence an early a late start rather today on this stage of the tour de france we'll follow it live presented by rocket mortgage and we of course is i'm phil leggett and with me is bob roller another big day there's plenty of those bob for mark cavendish just now cavendish in the green jersey trying to do something that no one thought was possible a very short time ago and that's equal the record of stage wins held by eddie merrick's the greatest of all time at 34. cavendish during this magical tour of his has 33. okay well as they assemble at the start of saint paul twas chateau let's check in very quickly with adam blythe are you set adam i'm set the crosswinds are going to be about everything today and i spoke to mark cavendish this morning phil he said that he can't wait for today these conditions right up his street and for him this could be the easiest deal at all the way that he can position himself he's the king at doing this so he can't wait for it today thank you very much anna it's another big day for this man in the green jersey he's dreaming of joining eddie merks with 34 stage wins we're on the couch [Music] this lovely little town of saint paul we've been here before i'm heading to nema now with this wonderful roman coliseum where mark cavenish won the stage there when he arrived in 2008. is that an omen bob as we do a short stretch of a neutralized riding to the race start proper could very well be an omen for things to come later today cross wins and tailwinds to start the stage they have delayed the start by 10 minutes but they're now out on course geico stage map looks like this 99 miles we start heading west lots of twists and turns before heading south tailwind to start that means once they hit southville after the first kom and that category three there and tharvo it will be cross wins that's what's predicted as long as they're howling watch for the riders to get to neem lickety split one sprint point 20 points up for offers uh just about 18 miles before the finish in uz a wild and wooly day on offer today it's a sprint stage but watch out for the crosswinds and with our weather here this is the tour de france we've come to love now it's full sun all day today 74 degrees but the wind speed at 19 miles an hour and that is why the organizers have decided to delay the start by 10 minutes they are expecting the riders to be well inside four hours for the 100 miles of racing today they may start with a slight crosswind then after about five miles they'll turn south for a while with the tail then they're back in the cross then they turn and they'll pick up the tail again it is going to be a very very fast stage that's fabian dubli off the back looks like thomas the hint also this is going to be a long day for the groups until the echelons get established if you're not in line field you can get dropped and lose your chance to start tomorrow in the tour de france we're not expecting the time cut to be a factor but the way they've raced at the start and because of these crosswinds you're going to have to be on your game yesterday was a suffer fest today is no better well we heard more cavities say the boys in blue get to the front today that's his team he's referring to was the kerning quickstep and already in second wheel is casper asgreen of denmark one of the strong members on the team and look at this big group bob also split to the windows got into the peloton absolutely this is an echelon forming wind coming from the left-hand side of the row excuse me from the right blowing to the left a lot of strong riders here caught off the back that's pierre latour number 201 already on the back foot mark cavendish in the green jerseys got his teammates around him and all of this traffic furniture is going to create absolute chaos throughout today's stage tare pogacha long ways back in the yellow jersey um 10th row maybe 40 riders in front of him he needs to move up here's a split already starting to break up in the first couple of miles of racing film well kavanagh belies his 36 years his intelligence is sprinting in this tour de france his teamwork and they're right at the front driving this and he's loving it like he's in his first tour de france gonna be a long day for this group unless they get caught up or if they slow down in the front no breakaway established obviously they're going too fast there's no way a brake could get off the front there is davide ballerini on the front max valshad pulling through casper asgreen in the blue jersey there ida shelling early king of the mountains also there borah no longer has their sprinter saigon watch the borah riders now to be free to fly and go in the brakes as often as they feel like it watch out for the hero of yesterday he was right there look at the echelons bob this is the most feared area of france where the mistral is blowing and it's ripped into the riders it's blowing from the north to the south and this course today zigzags are from a westerly direction to southerly to westerly this is why the organizers brought the stars back 20 to 10 minutes because they expected this not exactly a 100 percent rosy picture being painted by the crosswinds for dakunik in that third group i think i just saw michael markov that's mark cavendish his lead out man if he doesn't get back on turns with the front that could be a problem later on in the stage let's hope so we'll check that in later but again geraint thomas winner of the tour in 2018 second in 2019 injured in this race now in the back group let's go back into adam blight he's probably not far away from that group with adam with uh get like thomas adam no i am right behind the group with michael moore coffin and he's just sat behind philip gilbert right now about two-thirds away down in this last group he was he's still in there it's surprising that he's still in there just because decoding quickstep knew what was happening today i think he's got three teammates in here which is a massive shock to me i thought they'd be all over the start of this stage today but just through the tiredness and fatigue i think a couple of guys have missed it we can see them now mark i've just coming in my shot hello we've just gone past him so all the guys are uh yeah we're just going oh it's very tight here it's very tight but you can see some of the guys here have lost contact i'm in the groove with them still you've got mad pedersen just in front of me david a formula from uae so these guys have completely missed the boat there and they're a good i'm going to say 15 20 seconds off the group in front now so mr missed a big chunk of it it's going to take a big effort and a lot of cooperation from these guys to get back to that group just in front of them that's before they get back to the peloton thanks so much adam well you were a sprinter as well and you got through on the inside nicely on that moto without causing any shouts from the riders in the tour de france well that's we're looking at pictures here we've got a stoppage here because this is mark cavendish who is stopped just kevin adjusting his shoe there the cleat out of position he's taking a long time here to wow i usually do that in the garage uh when i'm having a snack after my ride but on the fly change to the cleat for mark cavendish not 100 percent comfortable we've see this is the tour of tears and the tour of shoe adjustment apparently a lot of riders i've seen plenty of them yeah i mean the rain in the first week has a lot to do with the changing feeling you have on the bicycle and then the hot weather yesterday and so cavendish i don't know if he was tightening his cleats down or adjusting them but not easy to do on the fly now he's almost two and a half minutes behind the peloton shouldn't be a problem to catch up as they're going so um reasonably at the moment but mark cavendish gosh if he had to ride with a male adjusted cleat all the way to the finish if it was really going hard all day that could translate into some serious knee trouble overnight and affect the rest of the tour for him yes that's a good point adam bly that the shoes are so crucial to the knees aren't they they are crucial to the knees and kav is uh he's a little monkey actually for changing his position i think when he gets tight muscles he'll fiddle with his seat fiddle with his shoes but back to what i was saying i think that quickstep have just massively made a bad call here they've got so many guys in that breakaway that could just try and well they are going to beat alaphilippe i think you know they're going to try to attack him beforehand he's got a lot of responsibility to keep this together until that last climb and as soon as he moves they're going to be all over him but adam don't you think this is a little bit out of their hands for how much work they had to do i mean you've been in these situations before with teammates trying to make sure you get in the time cut don't they think that these guys were already on their knees when at the start of this race and they just didn't have the firepower for once yeah but everyone's in the same boat right everyone's just feeling as bad as the other person and the team they've got today if these get into the crosswinds later on at that kilometer marker i mentioned it's going to be full gas anyway feeling good or not feeling good they could if they wanted to control it today they could have just controlled it let a small little breakaway go on this climb and as soon as you get there use the whole team because i think when it gets to that point anyway it's going to be the exact same thing that we'll do if they were riding for calf but just behind we shall see my man we'll see there's there's a lot of racing still yet to come i mean there's we got some tailwinds crosswinds of course but as far as cab goes he's still over a minute back he has to get back in the field but these guys i don't know if we're going to be seeing them again adam and i think that with alafleet being able to sit on the back that gives him a good opportunity to still launch at the end he's still got a good sprint on him the king of the mountains yesterday of course is a major contest now that quintana staying on top of but today is pretty much a day off quintana uh didn't ride too well yesterday in all honesty but he kept his leave 50 points vouch van art came up into second place michael woods has been there for a while he's in third polls fourth and balcomolomer came in yesterday too into the top five there well there's only two points available today and here it is this is the coat of belvedere de toho it's 4.4 kilometers they've just started it by the way elevation up of 646 feet bob 4.6 nice gentle hill of the day what a difference to yesterday be interesting to see if anybody in the breakaway tries to light it up on this climb maybe put andre greipel and the other quick riders in the breakaway in a little bit of trouble it might not split things up but it might be the first salvo in what we will see a definite splitting up of the breakaway before the finish only two points available for the first and one point for the second and nobody really worrying about that it wouldn't surprise me bob because julian alaphilippe who does feature in the king of the mountains it tries to snick a couple of points there i would call that a cheeky move but you never know do you well knowing about a kilometer or so kilometer and a half a long ways before we know what the pelotons mood is when we get to that only categorized climb out on the race course 11 minutes 15 13 seconds behind the breakaway yes they're recognizing the fact of course there's nobody in that breakaway threatening the yellow jersey uh i would have expected to have seen mark cavendish try to keep this race close together for the green jersey this is the smiling chris froome here who is uh happy to be just in the tour de france the four times winner after his accident of two years ago and a nice kiss from jonas van gaal who rode so well yesterday to climb up into third place overall in his first tour de france on the hardest day thus far let's get back up to the break dog how do bob how'd you read this now edward bosenhagen on the back i would keep an eye on that rider that just came through the screen brent van moore so powerful a few days ago when he almost held off the peloton in one of the most unlikely scenarios seen in a long time just caught a couple hundred meters before the line but the power he produced phil to stay away from the field was so impressive he's my along with julian alla philippe hot favorite for today's stage and ala philippe will not want to let brett van more get more than a few meters in front of him he might never see him again before the finish line a lot of riders in that breakaway would love to win a stage bob right now the only team in the front in that breakaway is de kerning who actually won a stage of the race this year and they've won four so very slim pickings for the rest of the peloton and these are the teams that have won to kunich with four twice as many as albus and phoenix alpha no rider in the breakaway bahrain two no rider in the breakaway he t2r uae yambo visma none of them have a rider in the breakaway and the kunic and that's considered pretty heads up and mark cavendish today he thought he would be cruising to a sprint finish and get the 34th win of his career equalling eddie murphy's record don't think it will come today could come later sagan unfortunately 12 stage wins dropped out this morning didn't start greipel is in that leading group and his team israeli startup have not won a stage of the race yet there are in fact 11 teams in that front group who have not won a stage of the tour de france this year so it's important for them and for the sponsors they keep that breakaway going to the finish today archaea the team of conor swift does have the king of the mountains jersey he's uh in the red jersey a little bit further down the line right there with the red helmet on the shoulder of neil's pawlet in the dark blue of borah otherwise this team's they've got a big responsibility maybe one of their best chances maybe only chance for a lot of these riders to get a statement well these are the teams represented up from lotto's got two riders here the rest have all got one israeli startup trek secretary to koenig bobby star and borah hansgrove the team of peter sagan who sadly is now out of the race today group armor team quebecer south african team total energies team bike exchange ef education and team archaea samsic they would love any one of them to get the stage win at the finish today we're racing to the beautiful city of nema where they have that wonderful roman coliseum all the famous pop festivals are held in the center of the coliseum in neem here in france this is neil's politics on the front just now for borah well they're nudging up all of the time they're keeping the tempo they're on the climb don't forget none of these riders except julian ella philippe the world champion is interested in the points and it looks to me bob well there you are he wasn't interested either niels pollock getting points there with stefan kung two points first man over one point and i think nils paulette got two and stephen kuhn got one harry sweeney pulling through and julian olla philippe not interested at all in those prints so i'm sure he's saving himself for his raid closer to the finish line at vault bosenhagen on the front needs to play his cards perfectly one of the most dangerous riders however if things do move in his favor long line of the peloton led by uae teddy pagacha has just been following the wheels throughout the day and sharing some jokes early on with richie port and the team just behind them from uae in the dark excuse me from ineos in the dark blue i'll tell you what bob that's an awful long single file of cyclists down there or as you say all the team of uae and the yellow jersey at the back of them being looked after in teddy pagatcha but they are riding at just under 30 miles an hour right now they're going to pull this rate bike right back to the original arrival time despite the fact because of the wind we started 10 minutes later today to try and slow them down a little bit but they're back on schedule as we race to the finish in neem the beautiful wooded areas here it is as well i'm just trying to work out if i can tell you the name of that village which is up the road there i'll have a little look for you and see if i can work it out i think it's possibly it might be at valarga noise to know it's too far away let me have another go let me go for les galad is the name of that village in the mountains that's much more likely mark here on the front should be a big asset for tarepogacha moving forward here she a stage winner last year changed teams a little bit controversial he started the year in january on the dsm squad and then changed teams to uae with a big pay raise well let's find out where steve perrino is wandering through the gorges of the audesh and you should now i hope be in the department of the guard steve that's where i think i am about 50 kilometers from the finish line down the road here a procession of the recon cars are coming by and now they know what i know that there is virtually no wind whatsoever in fact it's not even that hot out adam bligh could probably bring me that ice cream that he was holding on to now this these folks right here get this they've been following the tour the entire time they are from this region right here but there's no communication here whatsoever so they have no idea what's going on inside the race now get this while we've been trying to work it out i asked him i said what do you think happened they said oh probably a breakaway i'm like huh well nostradamus why don't you just tell me who's in the breakaway and get this [Music] looks like we could be out of a job boys well done steve well i guess that was a picture of julian ella philippe he's not really from the region but hey they're following him anyway this is the breakaway 13 riders a lucky 13 the baker's dozen as we call them clear of the field today and now ala philippe that's the picture we just saw with these spectators and supporters kung paoli erviti who's on the blue jersey in the right there as we continue with van moore swift to bowsen harden by sega harry sweeney the australian this is a mega mez getch coming through on the right now uh turns is also here and andre greipel if it came to a sprint well i think we might all back andre greipel but will it be a sprint bob i'm not so sure absolutely andre grapple from that group miss getch lead out for that rider with his hand up michael matthews when things are going smoothly so mejic also very fast ed tunes a quick finisher that's true i would be very surprised if that breakaway all stayed all together to the finish that's very unlikely to happen [Music] now let's not forget this race started in the brest in brittany uh two weeks ago almost now and i saw the banner up there ale le breton that's the people from brittany they will follow this race from its start to its finish and then they'll face up a 600 mile drive back home um that's the bretons uh delhi's love the cyc and they gave us a wonderful send-off we spent four days in the region of brittany this year it's a long time before we moved off across france and we've got some good memories seven riders from brittany by the way started in this year's tour de france 13 in the breakaway no action this is a it's not a day off you can't possibly have a day off when you're pedaling at nearly 30 miles an hour but it's a good day to try and recuperate for the race leader taday pogacha remember just around the corner now bob we've got the pyrenees coming up soon pyrenees not far away after a couple of transitional stages another long day tomorrow for the sprinters over 215 kilometers tomorrow this is not as long of a stage but it's been very dynamic since the beginning and a big high-powered breakaway moving clear of the peloton teddy pagata went deep into his reserves i would imagine yesterday trying to manage the accelerations of vingo and iran and karapaz was able to do that and he will be relishing this day to follow the wheels of his teammates recuperate a little bit tomorrow should be similar to today for the uae team uae team excuse me but then after that teddy paga is going to have to come out in the hills and the mountains to come and defend that yellow jersey before the second rest day on monday but the only time we leave france is into the lovely principality of andorra i know yesterday it was very hot and sunny could still be the same when we get down there soon this is the team uae the team we used to say was too weak to guide the yellow jersey around france beginning to eat my words i think as they come over the top of the climb 11 51 is the gap welcome back and just in time because in fact connor swift in the red and neil's polish in the lead here just tried an attack it happened on a little climb coming out of san jose and there's causing a reaction of course but this is very determined move bob it looks like the chase is being led by ed tunes at the moment and lotto on the back foot this is harry sweeney watching nils pollock go up the road he's gonna have to react to that the action is on in the breakaway and these attacks might not stop until there's some serious splits in the breakaway and that is on the on the cards now and nils pilot lighting the fuse let's see what happens to the breakaway it doesn't look like connor swift's been able to pull through yet mesjek trying to get across might just make it across to the two leaders now well luca messier coming across here for bike exchange the australian setup and the two riders on lotto sedella on the front here they're they only ride with two teammates in this group and having to drive now to try and close this gap down now they're in angry mood now with the gauntlet is down all the shadow boxing is over we're 29 miles from the finish in neem and the road is quite undulating no climbs as such but brilliant springboards bob for attacking riding now and harry sweeney's been the rider from lotto to try to do the chase and the other men in the breakaway content to watch the lotto riders be on the back foot and have to chase these three down uh putting in a big effort to close the gap unable to pull through but that's maybe a good tactic for nils paulette and not such great tactics for the followers i'm sure riders will try to springboard and leap across basically now going to the front trying to limit the damage let's see if uh harry sweeney has any energy left to chase down this split in the breakaway and the sega is going across as well for ef let's check in with adam blythe are you behind this adam i'm not phil i've just come back to the to the peloton but what's interesting about this breakaway is everyone wants to get ahead of allah philippe if they can before that final uncategorized climb there coming into the finish if they can do that they have a little bit of a buffer they know that he's going to attack so you've got the likes of greipel he'll be happy to see oxy wants it to be a sprint then he got the likes of ala philippe who has to react to all these things to try and keep it together not to let that gap go too far and then the likes of stefan kung the european time trial champion from francis de gea if he can get away with it such as neil's pollet boy alaphilippe's gonna need some friends in that breakaway to help bring it back because it will be very very difficult for him on his own well i can tell you now adam there are no friends in this breakaway these three boys are going at it full on they're trying to be reached by stefan bye sigur uh it's also uh um eminol uh vt who's coming across in blue and uh now i think it's bozenhagen just behind there bob they're clawing the way back but now there's no need to shatter box now they can get on with racing towards the finish well with my heart i really hope greifeld does win but let's find out adam blythe wants to come back in i suppose you changed your mind adam i did i misunderstood the question sorry about that phil i'm going to go with stefan kung the same as bob he's got the horsepower to do it he's a he's a very strong rider and i think if he just gets that little bit of a gap if he's let go if he times his attack right there's not going to be many people that can close him down and the guys that do want to close him down they don't want to waste all their energy trying to get there so they'll just mess about a little bit i don't think they'll work together because it'll take a lot of energy out of them to closing down so i think i think if he goes he's going to be a a hard one to catch but he's got to go is there a tall rider in the middle by the way the blue and red shoulders to his racing jersey stefan kung but he's got to finish on his own and i don't think he's got a chance uh so i'm going to stay with luka mezcache as a possible winner i think he he packs a very good sprint finish but kunga by the way is just going across to the one attack which again has come from harry sweeney so one thing we can be certain of that breakaway of 13 riders bob they're no longer friends no that's for sure phil uh a little bit of a diversion there with a gel in his mouth going off the front joined by stephen clever riding by harry sweeney not sure it's gonna work nils pollock trying to close it down well harry sweeney is in the tour de france at 22 years of age by the time he goes to the start tomorrow morning he'll be 23. he's getting a bit old isn't he he looks always in his first tour de france harry he's an australian but he really has flown under the radar until this tour de france i have to tell you now stefan kung has got two votes out of our possible five here driving on the front police who started all the unfashionable attacking he's in third wheel and we've got avita's coming in that blue jersey two for movie star and bob moby star i've had such a poor tour so far they have won the term team race over for the last three years in the tour hardly seen them uh and this is exactly what lotto needs to do from this breakaway they need to keep covering these moves and that way one of the teammates can sit on beastik are not able to get across mesjec trying to get across so brett van moore now if anybody chases he'll have the chance to sit on with a teammate up the road and that's why strength in numbers often plays the the deciding factor in a breakaway one kilometer to the green jersey sprint now well mark cavendish had he been here might have been thinking of the 20 points for first rider but frankly we've got 13 riders up here these are the first four con pollet aviti and sweeney sweeney's on the front driving aviti is on the back good time to cross the road always the helper wants they want a drink so the chase group of nine riders is 26 seconds back and they're at one kilometer to go but it'll be a long wait for the final two points available in the sprint because of 14 minutes back these are the chasing group here all the riders that we've had up front the whole day today and they fell out about 49 kilometers from the finish and we're now 27. now bob there isn't a lot of points of them sprinting for this they don't really feature in the race for the green jersey but nonetheless there's a usual score and there we are cavendish the leader 218 points matthews phillips and colbrelli alifari bob is in there but he's not going to spin for the top points he will not get the top points in uh just a few hundred meters before nils pilot who's on the front gets there with three others interesting to see how harry sweeney is playing this he's still putting the hammer down as hard as he can do in the front so i think that lotto still playing for brent van moore and harry sweeney making it hard on the chasers while brent van moore sits on they're not out of it yet so one that once the juncture is made ala philippe is on the back foot though he's going to be obliged to chase this is going to go right down to the wire but watch for brent van moore the teammates with the rider number 156 to go on the offensive if the chasers get any closer to the four men in front of them as well they could see them that little chase group behind this is sweeney on the front just now and maybe he's waiting for something here now ala philippe no it's andre greifel so alaphilippe not interested right to the back there in the white jazz here he is number 51. he could have moved up a place there if he did won the sprint but not back here now so i'm just wondering if they are actually just a little bit too tired now bob to close that gap it's gone up to 30 seconds we're in the town of the uzer the elastic is not quite snap but it's getting very close once it gets over 30 seconds what happens is the dynamics change weather a little bit different out on the race course sunny at the finish but 79 and scattered showers falling on the peloton if you're in the breakaway it's dry roads and these roads i'm sure will dry out for the peloton beforehand but what happens in the breakaway oftentimes when the small group gets off the front and they're 25 to 30 seconds ahead then you have a a definite difference in the chase there's not nearly as much cooperation because you do not want to help anybody around you get across because you'll probably lose anyway so you stop working bob three left at the moment now kung seem to be your favorite now what about one of these staying away to the finish just three of them left at the moment well harry sweeney looks the most spry but he does have the least amount of experience so if nils paulette and eminol erviti play their cards right they might be a little bit quicker also a hilly course like this is not out of the wheelhouse of harry sweeney the pursuers haven't given up yet but they're now they're over a minute behind and the riders in front all they have to do is calculate their effort based on the chase which they can they can monitor depending on how closely these pursuers get to them i don't have to agree a lot of sudah no stage wins caleb young their sprinter crashing out harry sweeney looks to be the best and let's see if it's experience or actual talent i am very surprised that stefan kung was the first man dropped from the breakaway though so my so my bob i'll tell you but what i can tell you about harry sweeney is he comes from warwick in australia which is in the state of victoria and also he's only 22 years of age his first year on a world tour team his first tour de france he's never ridden a classic race and here he is driving this breakaway it would be a fabulous story for victory and as a cat ed turns has gone reaction coming yes they're all after him now and harry sweeney's teammate brent van more trying to get across there as well hammered down by the movie star in the peloton not sure how i'm not sure why they've gone to the front here i would imagine to keep henry moss out of danger enrique moss has has crashed uh in the closing miles of the stage a few days ago so i'm sure they want to keep enrique moss their gc contender out of danger in the closing miles it's got to be that bob there's absolutely no other reason to start racing there they're 15 minutes behind uh if mother's order going to win today it's with number 63 here right in the front he's won three three races in his life but he's chosen well he won the tour of rioja and two stages of the tour of spain and that is it seven miles of racing left and change mary sweeney the retention strap of his helmet coming unglued there putting the earpiece back in that'll get communication from the team car uh i'm sure they will just leave him to it for the rest of the stage and he looks to be riding really well maybe the best chance of those three for the stage win well we're on to that little rise now unofficial climbs are not official climbs although the polka dot jersey is certainly pumped up and this is where allah philippe knows it's his last chance saloon to get across to these leaders kung is between them so he's going to act as a bit of a carrot for ala philippe and the rest of those nine chasers as these are the three leaders here still working together that's good to see that's good news for the three riders contestant oh there goes nils paulin about to attack he's come oh nice one he's come right out of the wind and if he did no reaction he flicked his left elbow to try and get harry sweeney that is the way to attack caught them off guard wait until they're on the wrong side of the wind and jump them and that's a move bob that's a great move by polly now it's up to the rest tremendous moves by nils paulette i don't think unless harry sweeney has something special left in the in the gas tank he'll be able to close this gap nils paul and a tremendous time darling time trial list best result was eighth place back in 2019 on a stage in the tour de france uh but he's trying to go seven better than that today with the state excuse me eight better and get the stage win a aviti i'm not sure if he has the power even if he wanted to cooperate with harry sweeney if he could be able to do that so niels paul is sensing a little bit of weakness going on the offensive i don't think anybody's catching neil paulette from here to the finish line peter sagan his team captain and the rider they came to work for during the tour de france has dropped out this morning nils paula didn't wait long to take his chance best chance for a stage with his career today phil i would save the face of the teamer peter sega and borah hansgrower as well now he is a very good time childish he's never been the champion of the time trial for his country at senior level but he has had silvers and bronze medals so he can ride really quickly when he's free to ride alone against the clock if they let this man get into his rhythm then they've got trouble on hand i don't think he could have more coming in the grill than nils paula does right now phil pollet continues on this is the outskirts of neem he's got two miles to go across the city to the finishing line gap is far from safe he can't afford any problems whatsoever 23 seconds i was just thinking a flat tire would be catastrophic for nose pollen and a real heartbreaker uh let's hope that that does not happen because he's earned this stage should it come to him [Music] nicely done around that's a circle there two miles to go and he sees three kilometers so that makes it 1.8 miles to go really our ticker there is just slightly out in his favor he's living the moment now that's a thought a german rider 26 years of age 27 in fact he was in uh march this year how ironic though bob the day that peter sagan the man who was supposed to win the stage and retires because of a swollen knee and now it's polite taking his chance all it would have been doing the lead out work should the peloton have come together in these closing streets for peter sagan and of course that out the window for borah but making the most of his opportunity and i think that this is a great portent for the team moore will get their stage win and i think that we're going to see the riders apart from wilco kelderman in the breakaways throughout the rest of the tour de france that might translate to more stage wins do that as it may they will be celebrating at the team hotel tonight the borah squad the stage win being delivered in two kilometers by niels paulette spectacular ride he read the breakaway perfectly and he had the power also by the way phil and the strength to distance stefan kung and harry sweeney in the final miles of the race and these are the two chasers still racing for second or third on the day some tricky bends if a whole field of 150 have come through here today that was a short left-hander but for this man he really doesn't mind he is now picking his way across neem he's just over one and a half kilometers from the finishing line niels pollitt in his fifth tour de france he's never won anything in the tour de france absolutely nothing until today but he's always finished the tour closing in on the official go ahead phil no no carry on bob closing in on the last kilometer through nils paul is still pilling along at 30 miles an hour no way they're closing 28 seconds in these final few hundred meters of the race [Applause] i just wonder bob just how is he feeling and this is going to be yet another emotional victory he can't believe it he shakes his head as he sees one kilometer to go looked over his shoulder they're never going to bridge 29 seconds in a kilometer he's riding a kilometer in about one minute and six seconds at the moment that's why he knows now this is going to be for him five years he's tried to win a stage of the tour de france now it's literally around the corner this has been an amazing tour de france this year what a long and hard way to do it breaking away at the beginning 13 men getting rid of them all till it was only just him now enjoy this neil's polit it's going to be very very special indeed for once and you said it earlier but this man always looks flat out and tired even when he's not trying now he can smile as he comes up towards the line neem welcomes the tour de france for the 19th time in history and a german winner today neil's apology still can't believe this bob it's one of those exceptional days of the tour de france on the radio to the team car in case they don't know about to win this stage absolutely wonderful another fairy trail written in the animals of the tour bucks now harry sweeney in his first tour de france never been seeing the finish for a place like this while the other man hasn't won a race for over 10 years in the blue harry won't know him he won't know harry which one is the fastest sprinter we're going to find out now harry's been forced to lead out as vt goes over the top of harry sweeney but that's good harry sweeney finishes third aviti gets second that is a great result for a long breakaway the bank's missile is about to fire and there he goes over the top matthews behind in the white said he's too fast for us and i think he's right he is way too fast for them cavani's just said well they are boys that's a dress rehearsal for tomorrow when i get my 34th staging we'll see a commanding lead in the green jersey competition for mark cavendish wow another two points in the bank because all the boys who took the points today didn't matter so on what was a poor day for mark cavendish not winning a stage he's increased his lead a little bit further in the green jersey competition matthews couldn't beat him peeks out one point versus michael matthews second in the competition i think matthews would probably be satisfied with that and a lot of a lot of points still up for grabs but mark cavendish moving into a huge lead in that competition phillipson just said something to his teammate as if look at that you can't get near the man he makes it look so easy matthew has never even tried to get past him matthew said two days ago but bottom line is cavendish is just simply too quick for us oh nairo quintana being brought in been dropped even today that's not looking good bob surprised to see nairo not able to follow a pretty easy tempo in the closing kilometers and maybe just sitting up saving his strength which he's going to need to defend that jersey in a couple of days a very hilly stage into andorra on sunday and then a difficult trip through the pyrenees starting on tuesday big mountains and lots of points in the kom competition still upcoming which under normal circumstances nairo quintana would welcome but this is the man who's in the yellow jersey and mark cavendish i couldn't hear what mark said but he speaks english and so does that of course and so does teddy a very routine day for the man in yellow you must be getting tired of all these yellows bob yellow helmet yellow sunglasses yellow shorts yellow jersey yellow bike that would drive me crazy how about you i don't think uh you'll ever get tired of the more yellow the better for today he's in the pink there yeah he had to hustle to get up there real quick right after that interview so he run around the back get those flowers he's not familiar with the routine he was yeah he was fast on the bike but slow on the podium that's the way to do it legs are tired man go up those stairs twitter francis up their game as far as the medals and those medals that i have my drawer back at home are plastic so you see a little bit of metal going there neil's pilot well deserved i have a team classification metal that is literally two inches tall and about one and a half inches wide and we won not in the class not even for the hardware next up yellow jersey no change at all this reads just like it did this morning today pagatchar 5 18 ahead of rigo berto iran and still what jumps out to their nobody closer than 518 to the lead of the defending champion gotcha slipped into the yellow back on stage eight and he's had it on since and i don't expect to see him losing that anytime soon especially in these kind of stages i did expect to see a little bit of hairy racing out there today ended up being pretty chill for the most part but that first 20 kilometers that was insane a lot of his teammates were out the back and some of those echelons tomorrow could be something very similar as we saw today and especially at the beginning i gotta agree with christian i thought the beginning of this race he was in a dangerous situation there with less teammates and the other general classification favorites teams did not do anything to get organized to try to put pressure on him green jersey standings we saw mark cavendish sprinting there ahead of the peloton there 16 minutes after neil's public came in to claim three points and his lead now is almost 60 points over michael matthews [Music] see green i still think of peter sagan he wanted seven times he gave us the first news story this morning when he announced at the start line that that sore knee chased him from the rest of the race he's done and mark cavendish now ten years ago he won the green we'll see how much longer he can stay in leed looks pretty good right now at 59 points it looks great man i mean this is we expect to see some stage wins but the green jersey man going for eddie merckx's record and the green jersey incredible not a lot of action with the polka dots today we don't expect much tomorrow either nairo quintana's six-point lead over yesterday's stage winner wow that are struggled a little bit today yeah but i don't really know i don't know if nairo was actually being smart coming off the back of the end because there's really nothing to gain let's be honest it doesn't really matter if he loses another minute or so so i don't know if he's being smart if he really is beat up yesterday i expect him to have a big race and he didn't have anything for long two but we'll see we'll see what naira has left in the tank he was really strong over last weekend he's got a big day coming up on sunday into andorra [Music] alps behind in pyrenees coming up back to this weekend just like that yeah i mean alps it wasn't you know the typical alps we got we saw a little smitten but the your knees are gonna be a lot harder there chris yeah we'll have to see if he can hold on this polka dot jersey has not looked fantastic when we're talking about yesterday's stage where julian alla fleet just wrote him off the wheel on the first kom climb leaving the young rider the white jersey we haven't seen sante fagachar in it recently even though he owns it jonas vengago has been wearing it since todd has been in yellow just like we were saying with the yellow jersey conversation how teddy expects to have that for a while of course the same thing goes with the white jersey and not even just this year but next year and the year after that and the year after that he's got a long way to go where you get to contend with a white jersey you know 22 years old enjoying the white jersey and a lead of over five minutes 5 18 to be exact over the next best that's rigo berto iran [Music] the box you

Channel: NBC Sports

Views: 279,207

Keywords: 2021 tour de france, tour de france 2021, tdf 2021, Olympics, cycling, cycling race 2021, Cycling race, cycling on nbc sports, cycling on nbc gold, cycling on nbc sports network, cycling highlights, cycling highlights 2021, tour de france 2021 highlights, 2021 tour de france game, tour de france highlights, tdf highlights, stage 12 tour de france 2021, stage 12 highlights, stage 12 highlights tour de france, Tour de france stage 12 highlights, saint paul trois chateaux

Id: 0ZInbbaxJEA

Length: 48min 12sec (2892 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 08 2021