Tour de France 2026: stage 12 offers sprinters one of their final chances to win – live

Updates from the 179.1km stage to Chalon-sur-Saône
Wærenskjold wins fastest ever Tour stage | Email Tom

Here’s a quick look at today’s stage:

A farewell to the fast men. It’s stage 12 and there is every chance some of the sprinters knock it on the head after flogging themselves for a final time in Chalon-sur-Saône. From tomorrow it’s all about the climbers and the rouleurs, which means this is the final opportunity for the likes of NSN’s Biniam Girmay and Jasper Philipsen, who was bailed out by his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Mathieu van der Poel in Ussel on Sunday, to break their ducks at this year’s tour. Nothing in the route map should particularly worry the sprinters, even if there is 1800m of climbing in the back-end of this stage. Should they be succsessfully delivered to the final kilometre then it will be all about who has the speed in their legs after yesterday’s effort and 11 days of draining riding in the heat. Tim Merlier has looked the best of them so far and is the favourite, according to the bookies.

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