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German successfully attacks final breakaway on stage 12
Mark Cavendish takes things easy on largely uneventful day

Nils Politt, one of cycling’s accomplished breakaway experts, took his first Grand Tour stage win in Nîmes, on stage 12 of the Tour de France. The German rouleur, racing for the Bora Hansgrohe team, attacked his final breakaway companions, Harrison Sweeny of Lotto Soudal and Imanol Erviti of Movistar, to finally lay the ghost of his many near-misses.
The 27-year-old from Cologne has a string of top-five results in races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders, but had never before won a stage in one of Europe’s Grand Tours of Italy, France or Spain. After the abandonment of his team leader, Peter Sagan, before the stage start due to an injured knee, Politt rode hard to distance his pursuers in the larger group behind, which contained the world road race champion, Julian Alaphilippe, and the veteran German sprinter André Greipel, of Israel Start Up Nation. Continue reading...