In the morning, Peter Sagan got out of the 108th Tour de France. In the afternoon, Nils Politt took the twelfth stage
This is how it works: Nils Politt had a lot of time to celebrate
One Mont Ventoux is enough, two times in one day is too much for some: seven men gave up on Wednesday, Ineos' Road Captain Luke Rowe did not make it to the finish line within the time limit – and Peter Sagan also left 108 on Thursday morning Tour de France.
The road world champion in 2015, 2016 and 2017 had knee problems in his fall on the third stage, on Thursday “I couldn't get out of bed on my own. The knee is very swollen, I can only take a break now and wait. “
Waiting is also the motto when asked about the future of the 31-year-old Slovak, who is associated with the French team Total, but an extension at Bora-hansgrohe cannot be ruled out.
The beginning of the long end: Peter Sagan's fall on the third stage
Bad luck for the record hunter
It was nothing on Thursday on the 159.4 kilometers from Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Nîmes with Mark Cavendish's 34th stage win and thus equalizing Eddy Merckx's record. No sooner had the twelfth stage been released than a 13-man breakaway group pulled away and extended the lead over the main field around overall leader Tadej Pogacar to more than 14 minutes.
40 kilometers from the finish, a quartet from the escape group attacked – Imanol Erviti (ESP / Movistar), Stefan Küng (SUI / Groupama-FDJ), Nils Politt (GER / Bora-hansgrohe) and Harry Sweeny (AUS / Lotto Soudal) – and increased the lead over the remaining outliers to more than a minute.
Perfect attack
In a small ascent 13 kilometers from the finish, Küng had to let go, one kilometer later Politt attacked and flew away his remaining two comrades with his mouth wide open.
Somewhat stunned, Politt drove solo towards the goal, at the 1,000 meter mark, the 27-year-old from Cologne hit his helmet and then secured the greatest success of his career to date – and his team the first stage success on this tour. At the finish he lifted his bike.
“It's incredible, it really is a dream,” said Politt. “When we found out in the morning that Peter Sagan was leaving the tour, we had to change our tactics a little. There were a few sprinters in our group that we had to get rid of. So I attacked once, and then again on the last wave. Cycling is my passion, my whole family is in there. So it's all the more great that I have now achieved this success. “
Old Boy Erviti (37) won the sprint for second place ahead of Sweeny (22). In the overall standings, 22-year-old Slovene Tadej Pogacar remains number one; at the end of a leisurely stage, the peloton was 15:53 minutes behind.
On Friday, 219.9 flat kilometers follow from Nîmes to Carcassonne – and thus Mark Cavendish's next chance to win.
