Another round of the breakaway world championships.Spectacle Sone et lumire: the month-long heatwave in France is ending. Among the complaints, one has been difficulty sleeping at night given the persistent high temperatures. Stage 12 did not help anyone hoping for a languid siesta in front of the torpor of a Tour sprint stage.A flurry of attacks showed intent from plenty to get away while the sprinters teams played whack-a-mole to knock back each attempt to escape. It worked andBaptiste Veistroffer went clear, almost too strong as he went solo and nobody joined him, no threat to the sprinters.If the curtain fell down on the peloton anyone hoping for 40 winks was disturbed by the intermediate sprint where Mads Pedersen sprinted across to the right and after a enquiry that saw his team convoked to the jury car and them him too, he was lucky not to get relegated.Soon after Ewen Costiou, Damiano Caruso and Matteo Vercher got across to Veistroffer while the peloton was in a long line for hours. If anything the bunch chased too hard as when the breakaway was caught this opened the way for more attacks. Lidl-Trek were firing riders forward.Mads Pedersen took a flyer and tiny Valentin Paret-Peintre, head tilting to the side as if wracked by severe torticollis, fought to thwart him. The moves kept flying and if they were desperate, that was half the entertainment.In the finish on the quays beside the Sone Fernando Gaviria overlapped his front wheel with Vlad Van Mechelen as he tried to squeeze into a gap and fell, causing many more to fall like skittles in a bowling alley. Van Mechelen got a yellow card and after leniency towards Pedersen further evidence that consequences weigh on the jury even if this not said aloud. Olav Kooij was luck to swerve around this but this put him out in the wind and with work to get back while Tim Merlier was able to kick for the line again to win. The average speed was 49.095km/h, no record but still in the top-10 fastest stages.Merlier gets his third stage, his Soudal-Quickstep team handling the post-Evenepoel era well and knowing Paul Magnier is waiting too.Merlier sits fourth in the points competition despite the scale being tilted towards the flat finishes, in part because hes been sitting out of the intermediate sprints. He told LEquipe the other day that in the sprint for the finish line he seems able to find more resources, mental and physical, than he can for a point along the way. In a post-stage interview he lamented how he came to road cycling late he was slopping around municipal parks of Belgium on the cyclo-cross scene with its euphemistic Super Prestige circuit and how this means he may have missed out on the Champs-Elyses sprint. Itll be interesting to see how many sprinters stay in the race now.The Route: 206km and 2,400m of vertical gain. This is the longest stage of the race.The intermediate sprint is in Mlisey, home of Thibaut Pinot of course. Its late in the route but which sprinters teams have an interest in contesting it to the point of trying to neutralise the race all day? Instead we might see some sprinters trying to infiltrate the breakaway and treat this as their virtual finish line.The Col des Croix is a regular road, a gentle introduction to the Vosges mountains.The Ballon dAlsace is 8.9km at 6.9% and very even with it, it feels as if the slope varies between 6.7% and 7.1% and all on a wide road. The matters as there are almost no tactical points along the way, even the hairpin bends are steady. Its a sub-25 minute effort today and so accessible to some.Theres a brief flat section over the top and 30km to go. The descent is even in slope but has many more hairpins and bends the first 5km on the way down before opening up. With 16km to go the descent eases and its onto wide, straight roads towards Belfort.The Finish: flat with a gentle downhill run past the fort that dominates the town. A right turn with 450m to go leads onto the finishing straight which bends gently and so the arch isnt visible until 280m to go.The Contenders: a good day for the breakaway, no sprinters can cope with the final climb, the teams with GC ambitions will hope to save energy here and theres no tale of revenge involving Tadej Pogaar and Belfort. So everyone else will want to crowd into the move and ideally a team identifies a winner to go in the move and sends a rouleur with them in support to help pull the break and close gaps later on.If Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost) can get in the move hell be hard to contain on the Ballon dAlsace, and if not he can try tomorrow and leave team mates like Ben Healy, Alex Baudin and Georg Steinhauser to go for it.Movistar have numbers for the breakaway too, Raul Garcia Pierna, Pablo Castrillo and Javier Romo fit the bill on paper but even combined dont have the palmars seemingly required to land a stage win in this Tour.Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) isnt a climber but go to Lombardia and he can handle 20 minute climbs well but go back to Stage 12 and see the efforts he was making.The climb today should be too long for Romain Grgoire (Groupama-FDJ) but if its not raced hard and means hes facing a 10 minute effort then hes got a chance.Luke Plapp (Jayco) has a great 20 minute power on tap, especially when theres no climb before but today will involve a lot of work and racecraft to make the break. Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarch) is going well. Netcompany-Ineoss most suitable rider is probably Kvin Vauquelin but one factor that makes them harder to pick is the amount of punctures theyre having, from memory race radio announced three alone yesterday.Carapaz, PlappHealy, Grgoire, Baudin, Simmons, Romo, Tejada, Van Eetvelt, VauquelinWeather: sunshine and showers and a cooler 23C. The wind will blow from the west at 15km/h and could gust to 40km/h meaning a three-quarters tailwind for much of the stage. This wind direction is often the liveliest to split up the field as it whips the riders along and spreads them across the road.TV: KM0 is at 1.20pm and the finish is forecast for 5.25pm CEST.The post Tour de France Stage 13 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Tadej Pogacar emerged safely from the chaotic finale to stage 12 of the 2026 Tour de France, but the yellow jersey was left concerned after former UAE Team Emirates teammate Fernando Gaviria crashed heavily inside the final kilometre. Pogacar retained his 3:36 advantage over Jonas Vingegaard as Tim...

The 2026 Tour de France classifications will shift across three weeks of racing, from the Grand Dpart in Barcelona on 4 July to the final stage in Paris on 26 July. Across time trials, sprint stages, breakaway opportunities and the high mountains, each day can alter the shape of the race for yellow...

How many microphones are there here? asks Baptiste Veistroffer, sipping from a can of Fanta. One, two, three, four, he begins to count, but his Lotto Intermarch team bus is waiting and the tally is taking longer than he thought. Lets say around 15.As recently as a week ago, the Frenchman had never known such intense media attention. He was, with the utmost respect, a bit of a nobody a modest second-year pro, riding his debut Grand Tour. The UCI rankings placed him as the 1,266th best rider in the world. Journalists had had no reason to speak to him. But now, with a swarm of microphones closing in on him in the post-stage mixed zone, he seems surprisingly at ease. These huddles are now part of his daily routine. On stage 12, for the third time at this years Tour de France, Veistroffer pulled off his party trick; he went solo in the breakaway, won the combativity prize, and rolled across the line in the bunch, this time finishing a nondescript 161st. I didnt even mean to end up alone, he laughed to the TV cameras mid-stage. But such is the lure of adventure, the pull of panache, he couldnt resist going up the road once more. Its my game to give it a go, he told the reporters. I gave it my all again today. Unfortunately, it wasnt quite enough, but I hope itll pay off one day.(Image credit: Getty Images)Behind the media zone fence in Chalon-sur-Sane, a group of children bellowed the Lotto riders name Baptiste! Baptiste! hoping to draw his attention.Veistroffer's team bus has been mobbed by fans ever since his 144km solo foray on stage five into Pau. Its unlikely many of those chanting his name had heard of him prior to this years Tour; Google searches for Baptiste Veistroffer were basically nonexistent before July, save for a tiny blip when he won a stage of the Tour of Oman in February, his only pro victory to date. Over the last week, though, the searches have ballooned more than 5,000%. What does he make of his newfound popularity? Its crazy, he said, but thats the magic of the Tour.For the uninitiated, then, a short recap of Baptiste Veistroffer's life: born in Brittany, the 26-year-old grew up competing in triathlon, and only committed to cycling in 2020 during the Covid pandemic. He has a degree in climate engineering, used to work building ships for the French navy, and joined Decathlon CMA CGMs development team in 2023. Two years later, he moved to Lotto, where he has now become a cult figure. His nickname is the Wild Boar of Fouesnant, due to his strong build and attacking style. In fact, no other rider has dared to go in more breakaways than Veistroffer this season; hes the only one to surpass 2,000km up the road. The next closest rider has tallied 500km fewer.Its an enormous opportunity and an enormous pride to do that in front of the French fans, he said after stage five. I wanted to enjoy myself, and thats what I did right from the start, at kilometre zero. I thought about it, and then I just went for it. (Image credit: Getty Images)Ahead of Thursdays twelfth stage, EF Education-EasyPosts Alex Baudin passed Veistroffer a hand-written note. See you in the breakaway Wild Boar, it read. Try not to push me too hard. In the end, Baudin never managed to bridge across. The four that did only spent an hour or so in the Frenchman's company, then dropped back to the peloton and left him to his own devices again.It was a bit of a shame, but whatever, Veistroffer shrugged afterwards. Weve all got different strategies, different sports directors. [At Lotto] weve got sports directors whove got more of an attacking vision and try [to win]. But voil, Im on the podium and theyre not, he added with a cheeky smile. Its that attitude that has helped Veistroffer become the unlikely hero of this years Tour, the plucky antidote to a GC contest already bulldozed by Tadej Pogaar. The Frenchmans efforts haven't gone unnoticed, either. Ahead of Mondays rest day, he was presented with the race's Best Teammate award, thanks to his role in shepherding the unwell Arnaud De Lie through the opening stages. Lotto, its clear, feel lucky to have him. Hes really fun guy to work with. He's always motivated, said the team's sports director, Mario Aerts, in a Velon documentary about Veistroffers first week heroics. I worked with Thomas De Gendt for years, so I know everything is possible, Aerts added. So what is possible for Veistroffer on his Tour debut? Since De Lies abandon on stage three, the road has been open for him to attack, and hes wasted few opportunities. Some wonder if he's plotting a bid for the race's overall combativity award. I dont know much about how its voted on. Id prefer to get a stage win, he smiled. Stage 17 from Chambry to Voiron could be interesting.My legs still feel good. At worst, if I pay the price for it later, Ill have discovered a new limit for my body.Whether that stage win comes or his muscles pack in, Veistroffers race has already been a success. France has a new cycling sweetheart. The peloton has a new breakaway pest. They wont stop me as long as Im here, he vowed on Thursday. Expect to see the Wild Boar on the run again.

The tenth stage of 2026 Tour de France witnessed yet another great performance of Tadej Pogacar, but also multiple crashes in the group of favourites. Those caused notable problems for top-10 contender Tom Pidcock who not only crashed himself, but also lost crucial teammate Chris Harper who hit the...

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