The 1st stage of the Tour de France 2012 took place on July 1st, 2012. It ran entirely on Belgian territory and led from Liège over 198 km to Seraing . In the course of the stage there were five mountain classifications in the fourth category and one sprint classification. This means that the first stage after the prologue counts as a flat stage. All 198 registered drivers started.
The neutralized start was in the city center of Liège at the Parc d'Avry; A small opening ceremony took place on the Place Saint-Lambert in front of the Prince-Bishop's Palace. Outside of the city center, the race was released. The drivers mastered sections of the route in Wallonia that are known from the various classics. The race led in a wide arc through the provinces of Liège and Luxembourg . The drivers passed, among other things, the Baraque de Fraiture , one of the highest points in Belgium, where the refreshment station was also located. In Seraing, the goal was at the end of a moderately difficult climb, so a sprint finish was not to be expected.
Race course
Immediately after the race was opened, a group of six drivers pulled away from the field. It consisted of the French Maxime Bouet , Anthony Delaplace , Nicolas Edet and Yohann Gène , the Spaniard Pablo Urtasun and the Danish Michael Mørkøv . Already at kilometer 10 they had a lead of more than two minutes. Although they lost around a minute due to a closed railway barrier, they were able to continuously expand their lead to almost five minutes. Mørkøv won three of the four following mountain ratings, a Urtasun. Gène won the intermediate sprint in Érezée . Halfway through the race, the lead was a little more than three minutes and then fell continuously.
Eight kilometers from the finish, the six breakaways were finally caught by the field, which was moving at a high pace. At the beginning of the final ascent in Seraing, the most frequently mentioned favorites for the day's victory were at the top. The Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel tried to break away, but was soon caught up by his pursuers. Halfway up the climb, the Swiss Fabian Cancellara , the winner of the prologue, attacked and was able to pull away easily. Only the Slovak Peter Sagan and the Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen could catch up with him. Sagan put on the sprint and won ahead of Cancellara and Hagen; the split field could barely catch up with the first three.
