Check out the photos from Stage 12 of the Tour de France.

By Chris Brewer
It was no surprise to anyone that there was a strong final battle on the steep climb to Mende.  But there were a couple of interesting tactics on the way to the finish line, and the second one will have tongues wagging probably till Stage 14.
The first card played was done really well by Teams RadioShack, Astana, and Garmin-Transitions.  By putting Klöden (good to see him with some good legs!), Vinokourov, and Hesjedal in the big break it forced Saxo Bank to do the bulk of the pace work today.  Then when that trio of riders with Kiryienka along took off, that really forced the peloton into action as they contained the kind of horsepower that could win the stage.  The downside to this kind of talent up the road was that they were never going to be given much of a time gap, Hesjedal at 5’42” and Vino 6’15” down on GC, and so the group stayed at a very manageable three minutes throughout much of the day.  Still, a good game played early on.

Check out "Behind the Lines" at stage twelve of the Tour de France.

Tour de France
Stage 12:  Bourg-de-Péage to Mende, 210.5km/131mi
By Cathy Mehl
It was a fast and furious stage on Friday as the peloton of 177 riders rode a difficult route at almost 3000 feet for much of the day on an undulating course that offered a steep category two climb to Mende for the finish.   At an average of 10%, the snappy climb made a perfect launching pad for defending Tour champion Alberto Contador (Astana) who rode away from race leader Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) and gained a valuable ten seconds to put him within 31-seconds of the lead.  The stage was won by Joaquin Rodriguez (Team Katusha) in his first time riding the Tour and his fourth season win.  Second and third went to teammates Contador and Alexander Vinokourov.  Team RadioShack’s Andreas Klöden put himself in the day-long break, earning seventh place for the day.  Teammate Levi Leipheimer performed well, too, taking 11th on the day.  For the classification Schleck spent a third day in the yellow jersey but lost ten seconds on a tough climb, with the high mountains of the Pyrenees still to come. Team RadioShack took over the lead in the classification for Teams and lead in that competition by 21-seconds.

Hilly Stage
Fri, July 16—starts at 1145 local time

About Stage 12
By Chris Brewer
A tough day today, a more difficult up-and-down day than stage 4 was.  “Unrelenting” is a good word to describe the day as each uphill leads right into a downhill, repeated at least six times non-stop to the tough Cat 2 finale with only 1500m to the line after the summit.