Tour de France 2025 live: Stage 12 route and updates today with fireworks imminent on Pyrenean road to Hautacam – UK Times

There are four categorised climbs today, and the first hors categorie climb of the race: Hautacam, atop which the finish line awaits.

Jonas Vingegaard won here en route to overall victory in 2022, and Vincenzo Nibali did likewise in 2014.

Whoever wins today’s race will have to conquer this brute of a climb, which is steep from the get-go and ratchets up above 10% gradient in the second half.

135km to go: The huge breakaway is being held at around two minutes, with the GC group happy to keep the race in this state for now.

150km to go: An interesting dynamic has developed early in this stage, with a giant breakaway featuring almost 50 riders up the road from Pogacar, Vingegaard, Healy and the rest of the top GC riders.

The breakaway includes Van der Poel, Benoot, Teuns, Buchmann, O’Connor, Arensman, Wright and plenty more notable names.

Carlos Rodriguez is the highest placed rider in the GC among them, more than five minutes back from the yellow jersey at the start of the day.

This breakaway already has two minutes on the peloton, and the gap is growing.

We’re into the Pyrenean loop of this Tour de France, with the Alps still to come. Here’s a stage-by-stage look at the race:

160km to go: So they’re away, and the first mini-breakaway – featuring Eenkhorn, Delettre, Haller and Lutsenko – is swallowed up by a high-paced peloton.

Today is all about the climbing: the first climb comes 86km into the 180km stage, with the next two beginning with 58km and 39km to go respectively. The monster of the day, Hautacam, starts with 13.5km to go and, you guessed it, goes all the way to the summit finish.

There’s also an intermediate sprint just after the day’s first climb, at Benejacq, which the sprinters may cling on long enough for before dropping back.

• cat-four Cote de Labatmale (1.3km at 6.3%)
• cat-one Col du Soulor (11.8km at 7.3%)
• cat-two Col des Borderes (3.1km at 7.7%)
• HC Hautacam (13.5km at 7.8%)

There was no movement in the general classification standings on stage 11 as a breakaway contested the win in Toulouse, with Jonas Abrahamsen taking his maiden grand tour victory having been up the road from kilometre zero, but Tadej Pogacar suffered a late crash and mechanical, jeopardising his second-place – until his rivals sportingly waited for him to return to the peloton.

Full standings in every classification here:

The riders are off for the neutralised start in Auch, with racing set to get underway properly in around 10 minutes.

How will Tadej Pogacar’s crash affect him today? At the end of stage 10 I took a look at how the opening week of racing played out.

It largely went as expected in terms of how the GC is shaping up – but there are worrying signs for Pogacar, and if he’s not at his best following yesterday’s crash, Visma-Lease a Bike will surely punish him in the Pyrenees this week.

“I’m quite okay. I’m a bit beaten up, but we’ve been through worse days,” Pogacar said after his late crash on the approach to Toulouse.

“Unfortunately one rider decided to follow from left to right side of the road, and he didn’t see me, and he just completely cut me off, my front wheel. Luckily I just have a little bit of skin off. I was scared when I saw the sidewalk that I was going with my head directly to the sidewalk, but luckily my skin is tough and stopped me.

“Tomorrow is a big day coming. We’ll see how I recover. Normally the day after a crash you’re never at the best, but I will give my best tomorrow and we’ll see. I think we’re ready as a team for Hautacam.”