The 11th stage of the Tour de France 2012 took place on July 12, 2012 and led from Albertville to La Toussuire . It ended with the second mountain arrival of this year's event. With a length of 148 kilometers there were two mountain classifications in the Hors Catégorie and one each in the 1st and 2nd category. The winner of the mountain classification on the Col de la Croix de Fer won the special souvenir Henri Desgrange prize .
From Albertville ( 345 m ) the stage headed south to the La Toussuire ski resort ( 1705 m ), which is part of the Les Sybelles ski network . The route ran entirely in the Savoie department . After 14.5 kilometers started in Feissons-sur-Isère ( 414 m , the first rise in the Hors Category) Col de la Madeleine ( 1993 m ). After 70 kilometers, the intermediate sprint was taken before the ascent to the Col de la Croix de Fer ( 2067 m ) in Saint-Étienne-de-Cuines ( 472 m ). On the descent from the Col de la Croix de Fer, the Col du Mollard ( 1638 m , 2nd category) had to be climbed as a counter-climb . Then the descent to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne ( 604 m ) was continued down. There the route to the mountain arrival in La Toussuire rose.
Race course
Shortly after the start, two breakaway groups formed, which after about five kilometers merged into a group of 31 drivers. At the beginning of the ascent to Col de la Madeleine, the field was around a minute behind; while some drivers fell behind from the leading group, others caught up with her. The 28-strong top group ultimately included Pierre Rolland , Michele Scarponi , Ivan Basso , Alejandro Valverde , Wassil Kiryjenka , Fredrik Kessiakoff , Chris Anker Sørensen , Alexander Winokurow , Levi Leipheimer and Peter Velits . Velits won the first mountain classification of the Hors Catégorie ahead of Kessiakoff. The field with the overall first followed with 2:55 back.
Velits and Kessiakoff, who had sprinted for the mountain classification, led in the descent with a lead of around 50 seconds on the other outliers. In the subsequent flat section in the valley, Rolland, Scarponi, Valverde, Juri Trofimow and Robert Kišerlovski caught up with them. Kessiakoff won the intermediate sprint ahead of Velits. At the beginning of the ascent to the Col de la Croix de Fer, a group of 15 riders formed at the top. In the ascent, some riders fell out of this group, which had a lead of 4:15 minutes on the main field, which was also getting smaller. From this Cadel Evans tried to tear away, but he did not get away decisively because the Sky team around Bradley Wiggins ensured a consistently high pace. Evans was caught again five kilometers before the pass. Kessiakoff was the first to cross the pass, followed by Rolland.
In the ascent to Col du Mollard, a top three group formed, consisting of Rolland, Kišerlovski and Kiryjenka. It was Rolland who was the first to cross the top of the pass. A few kilometers later, Sørensen caught up with the leading group again. About twelve kilometers from the finish, Rolland attacked and left his companions behind, whereupon he was able to continuously expand his lead. At the beginning of the final ascent, the group around overall leader Wiggins was about three minutes behind. Vincenzo Nibali tried twice in vain to tear away from this group . An increase in the pace of Wiggins and his teammate Chris Froome caused Evans to lose touch and fall back.
Another attack by Froome four and a half kilometers from the finish meant that Wiggins could not keep up for a short time, whereupon Froome reduced his pace to let the team captain catch up again. Nevertheless, this group was able to gradually catch up with the remaining outliers - with the exception of Rolland, who secured the stage victory solo. While Wiggins' group crossed the finish line 55 seconds behind, Evans lost 2:23 minutes to the winner. In the overall standings Froome and Nibali moved up one place at Evans' expense. Fredrik Kessiakoff, who crossed the finish line more than 13 minutes behind, regained the lead in the mountain price classification, which he temporarily had to give up to Thomas Voeckler .
