World champion takes fourth straight Champs-Elysées victory as Wiggins is officially first British victory
Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) confirmed his status as the best sprinter ever to appear at the Tour de France with his fourth straight victory on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, in Paris, to take his 23rd career stage win. The World champion was launched towards the line with 200 metres to go by teammate, Norwegian champion Edvald Boasson Hagen, and managed to hold off the attentions of his sprint rivals as they fought to come alongside him.
As well as becoming the only rider ever to take four victories on cycling’s most famous finishing straight, Cavendish also became the first rider ever to do so while dressed in the rainbow jersey.
Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) came closest to getting on terms with Cavendish, as he was the only one of the Manxman’s rivals to be able to follow as Boasson Hagen led across the Place de la Concorde for the final time, but the Australian was passed on the line by Slovakian champion Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale), dressed in the green points jersey.
“After getting first and second on GC, winning five stages – or, whatever... how many was it before today – it wasn't going to be an unsuccessful Tour by any means,” said the World champion afterwards. “I'm just happy to get that final win today. We had the whole team on the front and it was an incredible sight.
“I'm very ready for the Olympics now,” he continued. “Between four of the five guys who are in the Olympic Games squad, there are seven stage wins at the Tour de France so we're going to have an incredibly strong team and we're not just going to the Games to see how it goes. We're fully excited about it and we'll just wait for next Saturday.
“My legs are really good,” he explained. “You've seen my sprint is really good and I just like getting to the finish. I've got an incredible team to try and do that in London four out of five of us have won stages here... between us we have one out of every three stages of this year's Tour. As a nation in the cycling world, there's nothing better than that.
“It was great for British cycling fans to see what they saw today: guys who are first and second on GC in the Tour de France controlling the peloton and the yellow jersey leading it out at the last kilometre... and me winning for a fourth time here. I'm incredibly proud of an incredible three weeks that came to a close today.
“It was a sea of blue, white and red flags and it's incredible to see that in Paris.”
Cavendish had been, as promised, led into the final kilometre by race leader Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky), who crossed the line shortly after the World champion to officially become the first ever British winner of the race.
“It's hard to take in as it happens,” said Wiggins afterwards. “Every lap of the Champs-Elysées was goosepimple stuff. We had a job to do with Mark today and we were all motivated to do that so it made it go a lot quicker. The concentration was high and for Mark to finish it off like that... well, it couldn't get any better.”
Despite traditionally being a sprinter’s stage, a bunch finish was far from certain until midway through the last of eight 6km laps, as Jens Voigt (RadioShack-Nissan), Rui Costa (Movistar) and Sébastien Minard (AG2R La Mondiale) were holding out ahead of a fierce chase from the combined efforts of Team Sky, Liquigas-Cannondale and Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank.
The three fugitives had been part of an eleven-man group, which began to form on the end of lap three. With them were Lars Bak (Lotto-Belisol) Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Anders Lund (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) and Jean-Marc Marino (Saur-Sojasun), Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana) Aliaksandr Kuchynshi (Katusha) Bram Tankink (Rabobank) and Marcus Burghardt (BMC Racing), and they were 30 seconds clear with four laps to go.
As the peloton began to close them down however, Voigt, Costa and Minard broke away of the others with just two laps to go; they managed to resist for another lap and a half before being finally caught.
Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank led out of the Louvre Tunnel for the last time, but Wiggins himself took over on the Rue de Rivoli just before the final kilometre. Boasson Hagen took over across the Place de la Concorde, before launching Cavendish onto the Champs-Élysées.
Goss managed to follow the World champion’s wheel, but was unable to come around him as Sagan pulled past him to take second place on the line behind the jubilant Cavendish.
One final turn before the fat lady sings
After 3368km around France, all that faced the peloton was one final, 120km dash to the famous finish line on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. As usual, the first half of the stage was expected to give way to end-of-race celebrations, before the fast-paced cobbled critérium around the streets of Paris.
To add a little interest to the route into the capital, from the château town of Rambouillet, the race organisation had inserted two 4th category climbs in the opening 40km, but it was unlikely to add any competition before the peloton reached the final circuit.
As has become traditional, the first half of the stage was ridden as a slow, mobile celebration, as the peloton enjoyed the last day of term atmosphere of the race’s final kilometres. The festivities, where riders posed for pictures along the route and chatted amongst each other, meant that the peloton covered just 31.7km in the first hour.
Dressed from head to toe in polka-dots, mountains jersey winner Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) rolled over the top of the Côte de Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse after 36.5km, but it was Ruben Plaza (Movistar) that led over the Côte de Châteaufort - the Stèle Jacques Anquetil - after 40.5km.
Shortly afterwards there was an ‘attack’ from Costa and Alejandro Valverde (both Movistar), Baden Cooke and Stuart O'Grady (both Orica-GreenEdge), Sergio Paulinho (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) and Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale), but it was all in good fun as the six riders giggled together about having escaped the peloton before driting back again.
Team Sky’s Christian Knees led the peloton under the Louvre Tunnel, and onto the Rue de Rivoli for the first time, but George Hincapie (BMC Racing) - who was completing his last, and record-equalling sixteenth Tour de France - was allowed to ride ahead of the peloton, and he, and compatriot Chris Horner (RadioShack-Nissan) led across the finish line for the first time.
The party’s over so let the race begin
Andriy Grivko (Astana) decided that the festivities were over, and it was time for the race to begin, but the first rider to break clear was Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s Jérôme Pineau, and the Frenchman led the race around the top of the Champs for the first time.
Pineau was caught on the descent however, as a six-rider group broke clear briefly, before being pulled back in before they could get to the Place de la Concorde.
Lanterne rouge Jimmy Engoulvent (Saur-Sojasun) tried to escape on the Rue de Rivoli for the second time, but it was Voigt and Danilo Hondo (Lampre-ISD) that actually managed to get away, and they were around 100 metres clear as they crossed the line.
Several riders tried to bridge across to the two riders, and a group, which included Bak, Pineau (FDJ-BigMat), Patrick Gretsch (Argos-Shimano), Rubén Pérez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Johan Vansummeren (Garmin-Sharp), Manuel Quinziato (BMC Racing) and Kevin De Weert (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) was between them and the peloton - which was nine seconds behind them - as they crossed the line at the end of lap two.
Hondo led Voigt across the intermediate sprint line at the Haut des Champs with 35.5km to go and, as they turned around at the top of the boulevard, they were joined by Bak.
On the way down towards la Place de la Concorde though, Team Sky began to close the group down. Voigt and Bak were not surrendering however, and he were joined by Edet, Minard, Lund and Marino.
At the end of lap three, the six man group was a few seconds ahead of a counter attacking group of Costa, Iglinskiy, Kuchynshi, Tankink and Burghardt, with Team Sky still leading the peloton a few more seconds behind them. As they neared the top of the road the two groups came together to form an eleven-man break.
Liquigas-Cannondale came forward to help Team Sky with the chase, but the end of lap four the break was 30 seconds clear. Cavendish was tucked in safely on the wheel of Wiggins, with Sagan right behind him, and Greipel right behind the Slovakian green jersey.
Despite the hard chase from Liquigas-Cannondale and Team Sky, the eleven-man group was holding on to its lead, and was still 30 seconds clear as they exited the Louvre tunnel, but it had come down a little to 25 seconds as they crossed the line with three laps to go.
In the course of the lap though, the two teams increased the pace and began to close it down; up ahead, with the gap closing, the group split up under the impetus of Voigt, and he moved clear with Costa and Minard. The trio was 18 seconds ahead of the peloton as they began the penultimate lap, with the rest of the shattered group scattered in between.
The breakaway almost spoils the sprinters’ party
The three riders managed to open their lead again, to 24 seconds as they turned at the top of the Champs, which was only whittled down by a few seconds as they descended the other side of the road.
At the bell, with just one six kilometre lap to go, the gap had closed to 15 seconds however, as Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank surged forward to take over the pace. As they turned under the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe, Voigt, Costa and Minard were just ten seconds clear, and it continued to come down on the way down the other side.
There was a small crash in the peloton on the way down the cobbled boulevard, as Hondo touched a wheel in front of him and came down, bringing AG2R La Mondiale’s Mickaël Cherel. Despite happening near the front of the peloton though, there were no other fallers.
Voigt, Costa and Minard were finally caught as they crossed the Place de la Concorde; there were several further escaped attempts in the seconds that followed, but Team Sky took over the peloton, with Michael Rogers leading Wiggins, Boasson Hagen and Cavendish towards the tunnel.
Liquigas-Cannondale’s Daniel Oss was lurking just behind the World champion, with Sagan on his wheel, but as they rounded the corner to pass under the Jardin de Tuileries for one last time, Lotto-Belisol took over.
Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank led the peloton out of the tunnel, but Wiggins himself took over with just over a kilometre to go. He handed over to Boasson Hagen as they crossed la Place de la Concorde, who released Cavendish on the final corner with 350 metres to go.
Goss managed to take the World champion’s wheel, but was unable to come past. Having sprinted for so long, Cavendish began to fade a little, but kicked again just before the line, as Sagan lunged past Goss behind him.
53 riders behind the World champion Wiggins, having sat up, crossed the line to officially win the 2012 Tour de France.