CHALON-SUR-SAÔNE, France – On a tense Thursday of the 2024 Tour de France, Belgian sprinter Tim Merlier secured his third stage victory of this year’s race, capping off a dramatic final sprint that was marred by a multi-rider crash just meters from the finish line. Reigning overall champion Tadej Pogacar emerged from the incident unscathed, retaining his comfortable general classification lead heading into the race’s second weekend.
The 12th stage of the Tour covered a mostly flat 111-mile route that began at the Magny-Cours motor racing circuit – a former host of Formula 1 Grand Prix – and wound through eastern France to the finish in Chalon-sur-Saône. Early in the stage, French rider Baptiste Veistroffer launched a solo breakaway that held off the peloton for much of the day. He was eventually reeled in by a 14-rider counter-attack group inside the final 30 kilometers, and that small group was itself caught by the charging main peloton shortly before riders reached the third and final minor climb of the day.
As teams jockeyed to position their top sprinters for the final push to the line, tension ran high on the home straight. The crash unfolded when Colombian sprinter Fernando Gaviria clipped another rider’s rear wheel and tumbled to his left, pulling Wednesday’s stage winner Soeren Waerenskjold of Norway down with him. Trailing riders had no time to avoid the fallen pair, and four additional cyclists went over their handlebars in the pileup. Race medics reported that none of the involved riders suffered serious injuries. After several minutes of assessment and recovery, Gaviria – who sported a heavily bloodied left knee and appeared to have injured his left arm – walked across the finish line with assistance from a teammate.
When the dust settled, Merlier crossed the line first to claim his sixth career Tour de France stage victory. Young Dutch sprinter Olav Kooij took second place, while Belgian Jasper Philipsen finished third. The result extended Merlier’s impressive run of form at this year’s race, and the rider credited extra motivation from having his family trackside for the stage. “Winning for them is special,” Merlier told reporters after the finish. “I managed to find the opening, I had to stay calm and wait. It was a finale and a finish that suited me very well.” For Philipsen, the day brought another near-miss: his Alpecin-Premier Tech team placed three riders at the front of the peloton to lead out his sprint, but the team’s early attack mirrored mistakes from previous stages, leaving the three-time stage winner still searching for his first victory of the 2024 Tour.
In the overall general classification standings, Pogacar – a four-time Tour champion – maintained his large lead over his closest rival, two-time champion Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark. After 12 stages, Pogacar holds a 3-minute 36-second advantage over Vingegaard in second place, while Belgian Remco Evenepoel sits in third, 4 minutes 6 seconds off the overall lead. Pogacar extended his lead earlier this week with a signature attacking performance in the 10th stage, one that has put him in a commanding position with less than two weeks of racing remaining.
The Tour’s next challenge will be the 13th stage on Friday, the longest route of this year’s race at 206 kilometers. The stage is set to test general classification contenders with a steep Category 1 climb – the Tour’s second-hardest ranking – coming late in the route. The 2024 Tour de France will conclude with its iconic traditional finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on July 26.