Team Quickstep rider Tom Boonen sprinted to victory in the twelfth stage of the Tour de France, beating Erik Zabel (Milram) and Robert Hunter (Barloworld) to the line by half a bike-length after an unexpectedly difficult chase. The race was up for grabs going into the final half-kilometer, but Boonen, led pout by teammate Gert Steegemans, managed to power through to the victory.
Stage Twelve was a relatively easier mountain stage, with only the Category Two Montée de la Jeante climb ascent offering a serious challenge. Early crashes eliminated or slowed some riders. Fifty kilometers into the race, Pierrick Fedrigo (Bouygues Télécom) and Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel-Euskadi) broke from the pack and opened a fifteen-minute lead of the field.
T-Mobile rider Marcus Burghardt tried to bridge the gap, but was swept up by the peloton near the base of the climb, with 58 km to go.
Txurruka and Fedrigo held a six-minute lead at the base of the ascent; experts were predicting that they would be chased down by the main group of riders with fifteen kilometers to go.
Instead, a powerful headwind kicked up, which, combined with the climb, began shaking out the riders whose legs were not up to the challenge. Many of the Tour favorites including Quick Step Tom Boonen and Vinokourov of Team Astana, began moving to the front of the pack.
Txurruka led over the peak of the climb—with 48 km to go, the leading pair maintained their 5-minute gap over the peloton.
Txurruka led all the hillclimb stages, while Fedrigo won all the sprint points.
With 33 km to go, Team Lampre and T Mobile began moving to the front of the peloton, setting up their team sprinters for a breakaway at the end. The peloton was only 3:18 behind the leaders, and starting to accelerate; Tour leader Rassmussen and his Rabobank team worked to stay on the wheels of the leading teams
The leaders snaked through curving, undulating rural roads, losing time steadily, at the rate of one minute per ten kilometers.
Because of the headwind on the hill, the strong hillclimbers were unable to attack, which kept the pack bunched together coming into the tricky curves of the final 30 km, presaging a group sprint through the final kilometer. The size and density of the peloton created the possibility of peril negotiating the twisting dips and rises. The main field found it difficult to organize its pursuit through the worst of the bends, preferring to wait until the slightly flatter and straighter final 18 kilometers.
With seven kilometers to go the gap between the leaders and the pack stood at 45 seconds. Lampre, Quick Step, and La Francaise des Jeux worked hard to push the pace and close the gap. By five kilometers the gap was half-a-minute.
The peloton still could not organize with four kilometers to go. The teams had expected to have caught the leaders and be maneuvering for the final sprint, but instead were forced to spend their energy chasing the flying pair.
Txurruka and Fedrigo rode flat-out, hoping to hold of the pack, with the pack right on their shoulders with a kilometer to go, but they could not maintain the lead.
With 800 meters to go Steegeman led Boonen out for the final sprint, with Erik Zabel right on his wheel, with Robert Hunter coming up on the left. Boonen help on to take the win by half a bike-length, with Zabel on his right and Hunter on his left in a photo-finish.
The thirteenth stage is a twisting, hilly technical time trial, a 54-km individual ride that tests each rider's inner strength and motivation.
Feeds