Tour de France Stage 12 LIVE - Pidcock wins on Alpe d'Huez as Vinegaard and Pogacar mark each other out

We've just heard that the manager of UAE Team Emirates, Joxean Fdez. Matxin has tested positive for Covid-19 and is out of the race. The team has already lost two riders - Vegard Stake Laengen and George Bennett - with Covid, while a third - Rafal Majka - has it but is not contagious. This latest positive on the team will do little to stop tongues wagging about the possible explanations for Tadek Pogacar's performance yesterday. Whatever happens, it would be very sad to bid farewell to the two-time champion when the GC battle is so finely poised.

Tom Pidcock sat up to lighten the load, so to speak, on the side of the road as the seven chasers drew near to him and his American colleague after the descent. There's a regrouping and we now have nine riders in this breakaway, leading a chasing duo of Warren Barguil and Nils Politt by 4'15" and the main peloton by 4'45". Our leaders are: Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Kobe Goossens and Louis Meintjes (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Guilio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech) and Sebastian Schonberger (B&B Hotels-KTM). And here's that descending masterclass from Pidcock earlier...

The British rider is putting on a descending masterclass here for us armchair viewers at home. He zipped clear in pursuit of the American, who then struggled to keep up with the youngster when he surged past. They're back together now after coming to the valley road ahead of the next climb. They have 15 seconds on the other escapees and 4'30" on the peloton.

Watching the two British chasers on this descent is like watching the Premier League on one screen and the Vauxhall Conference (is that still a thing?) on the other. Pidcock must save around 100watts on every corner compared to his elder companion - but no matter, they're both now in the day's break. Neilson Powless, however, has just gone up the road - a stick of carrot for Pidcock, perhaps.

The British duo are just 10 seconds away from the seven leaders: Oliveira, Perez, Goossens, Meintjes, Powless, Ciccone and Schonberger. They will catch them just after they crest the summit of this uphill dig before the next phase of the descent. Jumbo-Visma seem very happy with the composition of the riders out ahead and they have allowed the gap to grow to 3'30". Meanwhile, yesterday's stage was the best moment of his three Tours on the back of a motorbike...

The breakaway has just gone through Valloire and are now onto the short ascent of the Telegraph ahead of the next phase of this long downhill to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne. Froome and Pidcock are still riding in a British tandem around 40 seconds down on the leaders. Froome is twice a winner on Bastille Day - in 2013 and 2015 - and he's twice finished a stage in Alpe d'Huez in yellow, but has never won there before. Could that change today?

The two Britons are riding together after Pidcock soared past Matis Louvel on the outside on a sweeping bend and then joined his compatriot. They're just 1'10" down on the four leaders - Perez, Mientjes, Powless and Ciccone - with three others somewhere in between: Oliveira, Goossens and Schonberger. The peloton is another minute back, so Pidcock has managed to put in an entire minute already on the yellow/green/white/polka dot jersey group. Daredevil stuff.

The British debutant came home 9'55" down yesterday to drop out of the top 10. But with two Ineos Grenadiers teammates - Geraint Thomas and Adam Yates - still in the GC mix, the 22-year-old can still play a large role in this Tour. He's now showcasing his extreme downhill skills with a heart-in-mouth descent of the Galibier towards the uphill kicker of the Col du Telegraph two-thirds down.

The Frenchman pockets 20pts as he goes over the top with a 20-second gap on his pursuers. Ciccone was second, Meintjes third, Powless fourth and Oliveira fifth. Chris Froome goes over 1'40" down and around 15 seconds ahead of the peloton, which is still being led by the green jersey Wout van Aert, the double-stage winning dependable domestique of the yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard. There was a little dig from Pierre Latour near the summit as he zipped clear of the pack in pursuit of Froome...

Those 20pts put Perez into fifth place in the KOM standings currently led by his German teammate Simon Geschke, who has 43pts. Latour is second on 35pts ahead of Vingegaard and Warren Barguil, both on 30pts.

And isn't that a sight to behold - the four-time Tour champion spinning a high gear with his elbows out, starring invariably at the stem and up the road as he accelerates clear of the peloton in pursuit of the unknown. Many riders would have given up after such a terrible injury and being reduced to a bit-part rider after being the best in the business - it's a measure of Froome's professionalism, passion and love of his sport that the 36-year-old is keeping going. What an achievement a victory on Alpe d'Huez would be today...

Frenchman Anthony Perez has his heart set on cresting the Galibier in pole position ahead of the race - not just to help protect Cofidis teammate Simon Geschke's lead in the KOM standings, but for the prestige of doing so on the French national holiday on the 14th July. He quickly opens up a 20-second gap over Oliveira, Goossens, Powless, Louvel and Schonberger, who have been caught by both Ciccone and Meintjes.

The first moves come on the Galibier from Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Guy Niv (Israel-Premier Tech). Pinot is 35 minutes down on GC but would love a win on Alpe d'Huez to save his race and give the French some cheer on Bastille Day. His acceleration has sparked a response from numerous riders, including Tom Pidcock of Ineos Grenadiers and Steven Kruijswijk of Jumbo-Visma. It looks like Aleksandr Vlasov, Simon Geschke and Chris Froome are also in the mix.

We're now onto the Col du Galibier proper after the riders have come to the top of the Lautaret after the gradual grind up from Briancon. The ascent will take on a different dynamic now with narrower roads, hairpin bends, steeper gradients and some spectacular views on the way up to the summit at 2,642m. The six leaders have 45 seconds on Ciccone, 1'00" on Meintjes and Zimmermann, and 2'00" on the Jumbo-led peloton.

You can't help but love Tadej Pogacar. Despite losing the yellow jersey yesterday, the two-time champion was smiling to the cameras ahead of the final climb of the Granon, he then congratulated Vingegaard at the finish, and then was all smiles when receiving the white jersey on the podium at the end of what must have been his hardest ever day on the Tour. He lost over three minutes to his Danish rival yesterday and dropped to third place in the standings. But this race is far from over - as the 23-year-old said this morning before the start of today's queen stage.

Louis Meintjes was involved in that earlier counter attack and the little South African is now having another pop, this time with the help of his Intermarche teammate Georg Zimmermann. The duo zip clear of the main pack in pursuit of Ciccone. Remember, they also have teammate Kobe Goossens in the six man move on the front alongside Oliveira, Perez, Powless, Louvel and Schonberger. 10km to go until the summit of this climb.

That large group which briefly formed around the polka dot jersey Simon Geschke has been brought to heel with Jumbo-Visma increasing the tempo on the front of the pack with their man in green, Van Aert, right on the nose. With the gap of the six leaders down to 1'30", Italy's Guilio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) decides to try his luck bridging over. Ciccone hasn't had a very good Tour so far, but he won a stage in the Giro and is far enough down on GC to be given a lot of leeway today. But does he have the legs? Unlikely. Today is going to be another day where the winner is one of the main favourites.

We can take what Adam says with a pinch of salt, given he was never one who exactly enjoying riding uphill, but he's probably not wrong in his assessment of the challenges on the horizon today...

For the first time in his short but illustrious Tour career, Tadej Pogacar now knows what it’s like to have the yellow jersey torn emphatically from his shoulders with the world watching. With the help of his exceptional Jumbo-Visma team, Jonas Vingegaard did to Pogacar what the Slovenian sensation did to his compatriot Primoz Roglic on La Planche des Belles Filles two years ago – but with just one major difference: where Roglic ran out of road to bounce back, Pogacar has another nine stages to inflict his revenge. Starting straight away with today's rendez-vous with the legendary Alpe d’Huez. Click below to read full article...