text: 2012 tour de france , prologue to stage 10 the 2012 tour de france began on 30 june , and stage 10 occurred on 11 july . the 2012 edition began with a prologue – a short individual time trial stage – where each member of the starting peloton of 198 riders competed against the clock – in liège , belgium with two more stages held in the country before moving back into france . the race resumed in orchies for the start of the third stage ; also during the first half of the race , the peloton visited switzerland for the finish to the eighth stage in porrentruy , and contested another individual time trial stage – having returned to france – the following day . fabian cancellara held the lead of the race throughout its opening belgian leg ; having won the race - commencing prologue , cancellara defended it on the following two stages before the race returned to france . cancellara maintained his overall lead for the rest of the race 's first week , before eventually losing time on the first true mountain stage of the race – stage seven – as he was dropped on the closing climb to la planche des belles filles . as a result , bradley wiggins assumed the maillot jaune , becoming the first british rider to wear the jersey since 2000 . wiggins maintained the lead for the following three stages , including his first victory at the tour during the ninth stage individual time trial in besançon . wiggins held a lead of almost two minutes in the overall standings with the more mountainous second half of the tour still to race . two riders won multiple stages during the first half of the race ; peter sagan , in his first tour de france , won three stages and also held the lead of the points classification , while andré greipel took back - to - back stage victories on the fourth and fifth stages . world champion mark cavendish achieved one stage victory , while french riders thibaut pinot and thomas voeckler each took breakaway victories . the race was also marked by several large crashes , most notably on the sixth stage , when the majority of the field crashed with around 25 km ( 15 . 5 mi ) remaining . in total , twelve riders had to abandon the race due to injuries suffered during the crash . during the race 's first rest day – held after the ninth stage individual time trial – the team hotel of the cofidis squad , in bourg - en - bresse , was searched by french police and gendarmerie . one of team 's riders in the tour , rémy di gregorio , was arrested in relation to an ongoing anti - doping case , and was immediately suspended by the french team ; although the case had been open since 2011 , when di gregorio was a member of the astana team . classification standings prologue 30 june 2012 — liège ( belgium ) , 6 . 4 km ( 4 . 0 mi ) , ( itt ) the prologue was a short and fairly flat circuit around liège , with expected stage times to be about eight minutes . the start ramp was located at avenue rogier next to the parc d 'avroy ; the riders then headed north by the boulevard d 'avroy and boulevard de la . they then followed the quai roosevelt , along the meuse , until the midway point when they returned on the opposite carriageway , before turning right towards place saint - lambert , in front of the palais des princes - . from there , the riders rejoined the original route on the opposite carriageway of boulevard de la before the finish line located on boulevard d 'avroy on the opposite side of the parc d 'avroy from the start . with several tight corners , the prologue was expected to favour riders with good bike handling skills . the first rider to leave the start house in liège was argos – shimano 's tom veelers , with most of the general classification contenders going towards the end of the starting order , as rain was not scheduled to disrupt the race . veelers set a time of 7 ' 47 " for the course – which was near - identical to the 2004 prologue held in the city , won by then - fassa bortolo rider fabian cancellara , over a 6 . 1 km ( 3 . 8 mi ) parcours – but this was immediately beaten by orica – greenedge rider simon gerrans , who went five seconds quicker around the course . gerrans ' lead was also not to last for long , as ukrainian national champion andriy hryvko ( astana ) bettered his mark by 14 seconds ; the time was ultimately good enough for tenth place in the stage results . hryvko held the lead for over an hour , as no other rider could get within three seconds of his time at that point . it was not until gerrans ' teammate brett lancaster , a former prologue winner at the giro d 'italia , that hryvko 's time was beaten ; lancaster recorded a time four seconds quicker , crossing the line at 7 ' 24 " . team sky rider edvald boasson hagen marginally bettered lancaster 's time to assume the lead for a time , but french champion sylvain chavanel ( omega pharma – quick - step ) set a mark of 7 ' 20 " for the course . his time held until the final ten riders to take to the course ; bradley wiggins ( team sky ) trailed chavanel by six seconds at the intermediate time - check – coming around halfway through the test – but paced the second half better to negate the deficit , and beat the time of chavanel by around half a second . cancellara , the pre - stage favourite , recorded the fastest time of 3 ' 35 " to the intermediate point , and extended his eventual stage - winning margin to seven seconds by the finish ; in the process , cancellara won his fifth tour prologue stage , a record . of other overall contenders , defending champion cadel evans ( bmc racing team ) , liquigas – cannondale 's vincenzo nibali and garmin – sharp rider ryder hesjedal , the winner of may 's giro d 'italia , all placing solidly inside the top twenty riders . nibali 's teammate peter sagan and world time trial champion tony martin ( omega pharma – quick - step ) , who both had been tipped as favourites to win the stage , both encountered difficulties on the course during their respective runs . sagan lost time after he overshot one of the 180 - degree hairpin bends and had to clip out of the pedals , while martin – who had set a similar time to teammate chavanel at the intermediate time - check – suffered a puncture , and ultimately finished 23 seconds down on cancellara 's time . stage 1 1 july 2012 — liège ( belgium ) to seraing ( belgium ) , 198 km ( 123 . 0 mi ) the tour remained in belgium for the first full day 's racing with a stage through the rolling countryside of the ardennes . after four category 4 climbs en route , the race finished at seraing , a municipality just outside liège . the finish was at the top of a long and fairly steep drag – the côte de seraing – rising for 2 . 4 km ( 1 . 5 mi ) at an average of 4 . 7 % , which was expected to suit the race 's puncheurs such as bmc racing team rider philippe gilbert , who won a similar finish in the opening stage of the 2011 tour at mont des alouettes . six riders – gène ( team europcar ) , euskaltel – euskadi rider pablo urtasun , ag2r – la mondiale 's maxime bouet , nicolas edet of cofidis , anthony delaplace ( saur – sojasun ) and saxo bank – tinkoff bank rider michael mørkøv – advanced clear of the main field in the early running of the stage ; the sextet managed to extend their advantage to a maximum of almost five minutes around a quarter of the way through the stage . by this point , mørkøv and urtasun had both scored a point towards the mountains classification , having led over the côte de and the côte de francorchamps respectively . overall leader fabian cancellara was being paced by his radioshack – nissan teammates , and help to stabilise the gap to the leaders at around three minutes . mørkøv then proceeded to win the two remaining climbs on the day , to take the race 's first polka - dot jersey , becoming only the third danish rider to have held the lead of that classification . the breakaway also scored the major points at the stage 's intermediate sprint point in , where gène took the honours ahead of urtasun and edet , while in the main field , orica – greenedge 's matthew goss out - sprinted his former teammates mark cavendish ( team sky ) and andré greipel ( lotto – belisol ) for seventh place . radioshack – nissan were joined by gilbert 's bmc racing team squad in order to reduce the lead advantage ; it was cut to around a minute with 30 km ( 18 . 6 mi ) to go , and the break was eventually caught inside of 10 km ( 6 . 2 mi ) remaining . the field remained together onto the côte de seraing , but halfway up the climb , cancellara attacked and only peter sagan ( liquigas – cannondale ) could hold pace with him . team sky 's edvald boasson hagen later bridged up to the duo , and it was left to the three riders to fight it out for the stage win , with the reduced peloton chasing behind . cancellara attacked first , but sagan came around the outside and to his fourteenth victory of 2012 , ahead of cancellara – who maintained his overall lead – and boasson hagen . gilbert led home the peloton in fourth , as 22 - year - old sagan became the youngest rider to win a tour stage since lance armstrong in 1993 . stage 2 2 july 2012 — visé ( belgium ) to tournai ( belgium ) , 207 . 5 km ( 128 . 9 mi ) the race remained in belgium for one more day with a flat course heading almost due west from visé . there was one fourth - category climb of the côte de la citadelle de namur during the stage , but it was expected to ultimately result in a sprint finish in tournai . three riders – french pairing anthony roux of fdj – bigmat and team europcar rider christophe kern , along with michael mørkøv ( saxo bank – tinkoff bank ) , wearing the polka - dot jersey as mountains classification leader following his part in the breakaway on the first stage – went clear around 25 km ( 15 . 5 mi ) after the start of the stage , making the early breakaway from the field , and the trio managed to extend their advantage over the main field to around eight minutes , around 20 km ( 12 . 4 mi ) later . radioshack – nissan took up duties at the front of the peloton in order to reduce the gap that the leaders had held ; although by the time that mørkøv scored the point for crossing the summit of the côte de la citadelle de namur first , around 40 km ( 24 . 9 mi ) later , the lead had only been reduced to around six - and - a - half minutes . again , the breakaway took top points on offer at the intermediate sprint point in , with kern taking maximum points for team europcar for the second successive day . none of the trio elected to contest the sprint , while back in the main field , matthew goss ( orica – greenedge ) again won the sprint contest for fourth place ahead of rabobank rider mark renshaw , mark cavendish of team sky and the previous day 's stage winner , liquigas – cannondale 's peter sagan . with around 30 km ( 18 . 6 mi ) remaining of the stage , roux attacked his two fellow breakaway companions , going off on his own as mørkøv and kern allowed themselves to fall back into the confines of the main field . roux managed to gain an advantage of almost a minute , but he too was brought back by the main field inside the final 15 km ( 9 . 3 mi ) of the stage . orica – greenedge , omega pharma – quick - step and lotto – belisol held the front with argos – shimano sprinter marcel kittel falling off the back of the field , as he was suffering from stomach problems ; instead their focus would be left with his lead - out man tom veelers . the field remained together for the sprint finish in tournai ; lotto – belisol led it out for greipel , with sagan just behind . cavendish moved up the order , behind two other riders – orica – greenedge 's daryl impey and team katusha rider óscar freire – and slid in behind greipel with around 300 m ( 980 ft ) to go . cavendish launched his sprint off greipel 's wheel with 200 m ( 660 ft ) left , and got the better of him by half a wheel to take his 21st tour stage victory , moving out of a tie with luxembourg 's nicolas frantz for sixth place on the all - time tour stage wins list . greipel , goss , veelers and lampre – isd 's alessandro petacchi completed the top five on the stage , with sagan taking the points classification lead , and the green jersey , from radioshack – nissan 's fabian cancellara with sixth place . cancellara maintained his seven - second overall lead over cavendish 's teammate bradley wiggins . stage 3 3 july 2012 — orchies to boulogne - sur - mer , 197 km ( 122 . 4 mi ) following its three - day opening salvo in belgium , the tour moved back to france , starting in orchies – where the fifth stage team time trial of the 1982 race was abandoned in progress due to industrial action – before heading west towards boulogne - sur - mer . there were six climbs within the closing 65 km ( 40 . 4 mi ) of the parcours – all 1 . 7 km ( 1 . 1 mi ) long or shorter – including the final 700 m ( 2 , 300 ft ) long climb up to the finish , with an average gradient of 7 . 4 % . like the first stage , the course was ideally favoured towards the puncheurs . there was a fast - paced start to the stage with several short and punchy attacks , but were closed down immediately . however , a five - rider move was allowed to be initiated after 8 km ( 5 . 0 mi ) , with ag2r – la mondiale 's sébastien minard , rubén pérez of euskaltel – euskadi , andriy hryvko representing the astana team , saxo bank – tinkoff bank rider michael mørkøv – continuing his run of being in the breakaway in each of the road stages so far – and giovanni bernaudeau of team europcar all breaking free , quickly gaining a lead of around two minutes . their lead eventually reached a maximum of over five - and - a - half minutes before radioshack – nissan and liquigas – cannondale made their presence at the front of the peloton , for their respective classification leaders fabian cancellara ( overall ) and peter sagan ( points ) . the breakaway again scored the major points at the intermediate sprint point in ; team sky rider mark cavendish won the bunch sprint for sixth place , despite being boxed in by vacansoleil – dcm 's kenny van hummel , with the two riders later exchanging words . mørkøv extended his mountains lead by crossing each of the first two climbs ahead of his rivals , while behind , several large crashes in the peloton took down a number of riders . two riders suffered fractures and had to abandon on the route : team sky 's kanstantsin sivtsov ( tibia ) and movistar team 's josé joaquín rojas ( collarbone ) . mørkøv and hryvko dropped their breakaway companions , and managed to hold off until 10 km ( 6 . 2 mi ) to go when mørkøv cracked on the côte du mont lambert . hryvko held off until the top of the climb , where he was then caught himself . omega pharma – quick - step 's sylvain chavanel attacked with 5 . 5 km ( 3 . 4 mi ) to go , and at one point , put fifteen seconds between himself and the field , but he was caught 450 m ( 1 , 480 ft ) before the finish by the bmc racing team - led field . sagan comfortably took the sprint for the line , holding enough of a lead to free - wheel the closing metres and performing a " running man " salute akin to tom hanks 's character in 1994 film forrest gump . a one - second time difference between sagan and the field – led home by team sky 's edvald boasson hagen , peter velits ( omega pharma – quick - step ) and cancellara – was announced by the organisers , with all riders that were delayed in a crash in the closing metres , given the same time as boasson hagen et al . stage 4 4 july 2012 — abbeville to rouen , 214 . 5 km ( 133 . 3 mi ) the first half of the stage followed the coast of picardy and normandy along the english channel through dieppe to the intermediate sprint point of fécamp , before turning inland towards the finish at rouen , with four fourth - category climbs during the 214 . 5 km ( 133 . 3 mi ) parcours . the wind on the coast was expected to have an influence on the race , while the two tight turns to get over the guillaume le conquérant bridge with 1 km ( 0 . 6 mi ) to go , were potentially disruptive for the lead - outs ahead of an expected sprint finish along the quayside in rouen . a three - rider breakaway was formed in the early kilometres of the stage , with the riders all representing french - licensed professional continental teams . home riders david moncoutié ( cofidis ) and anthony delaplace ( saur – sojasun ) were joined by japan 's yukiya arashiro representing team europcar , as they set about gaining an advantage of over eight - and - a - half minutes from the main field . on the day , moncoutié and delaplace would ultimately share the four categorised climbs between them , each scoring two points towards the mountains classification ; while arashiro , the best sprinter among the trio , took maximum points at fécamp . the now - customary bunch sprint for the minor points was again taken by team sky 's mark cavendish , after launching his sprint off the rear wheel of orica – greenedge 's matthew goss . rabobank 's mark renshaw just edged out points leader peter sagan of liquigas – cannondale for sixth place points . a light rain shower hit the race with around 50 km ( 31 . 1 mi ) remaining , before the first crash of the day with saxo bank – tinkoff bank 's jonathan cantwell and sagan 's teammate vincenzo nibali among those delayed , but both would later rejoin the main field . the lead gap continued to dwindle as the race wore on , with delaplace eventually leaving his breakaway companions behind with 10 km ( 6 . 2 mi ) to go . six more riders looked to join the leading trio but all riders were eventually brought back 3 . 5 km ( 2 . 2 mi ) ahead of the finish . inside the final 3 km ( 1 . 9 mi ) , another crash took down a number of riders including cavendish and lead - out man bernhard eisel , as well as the garmin – sharp duo robert hunter and tyler farrar . the final sprint was between the sprint trains of lotto – belisol , argos – shimano and orica – greenedge ; jürgen roelandts , marcel sieberg and greg henderson set the tempo for andré greipel to lead it out from the front , and greipel achieved a stage victory at the tour for the second consecutive year , the first such occurrence for a german rider since erik zabel . alessandro petacchi ( lampre – isd ) beat argos – shimano 's tom veelers to the line for second , with goss and sagan – the latter despite being delayed by the late - stage crash – rounding out the top five . stage 5 5 july 2012 — rouen to saint - quentin , 196 . 5 km ( 122 . 1 mi ) this was a very flat day 's racing heading in a north - easterly direction with no rated climbs , with a wide straight finish in the champs - élysées park . as a result , the stage was expected to favour the sprinters . almost immediately after the peloton rolled out of the start in rouen , fdj – bigmat 's mathieu ladagnous , was the first rider to break the confines of the main field and was allowed to go clear without resistance . he was joined by three more riders over the next few kilometres , as pablo urtasun of euskaltel – euskadi , saur – sojasun 's julien simon and cofidis rider jan ghyselinck provided assistance , and soon the quartet held an advantage of 5 ' 30 " after 40 km ( 24 . 9 mi ) of the stage . it was at that point that marcel kittel , argos – shimano 's main sprinter , abandoned the race due to his ongoing gastroenteritis . the leaders held an advantage of around three minutes as they approached the intermediate sprint point in breteuil , coming after 107 . 5 km ( 66 . 8 mi ) of the parcours . ladagnous took the maximum points on offer , as the four leaders rolled through the line without competition . as it was the previous day , mark cavendish ( team sky ) led the main field across the line , ahead of orica – greenedge 's matthew goss and rabobank rider mark renshaw . the gap remained around the three - minute mark until 40 km ( 24 . 9 mi ) to go , when it was gradually brought back by the peloton . at 3 km ( 1 . 9 mi ) , the lead quartet held a lead of 20 seconds , while in the peloton , another big crash occurred ; among those hitting the tarmac were points leader peter sagan ( liquigas – cannondale ) and garmin – sharp 's tyler farrar . farrar , suffering his fourth crash of the race , fell after a clash of elbows with argos – shimano rider tom veelers ; after the stage , an angered farrar tried to board the argos – shimano team bus to voice his feelings towards veelers , but was escorted away by garmin – sharp staff , including general manager jonathan vaughters . ghyselinck attacked with just 1 . 1 km ( 0 . 7 mi ) remaining , gaining some space from his three breakaway companions . he faded on the finishing incline , as urtasun and ladagnous both passed him ; urtasun was ultimately passed by the sprinters with 200 m ( 660 ft ) to go . goss launched his sprint first , with ghyselinck 's teammate samuel dumoulin on his wheel ; but for the second stage running , it was andré greipel ( lotto – belisol ) who took victory ahead of goss , saxo bank – tinkoff bank 's juan josé haedo , dumoulin and cavendish . radioshack – nissan 's fabian cancellara maintained the yellow jersey – earning the 27th of his career – which set a record for a rider not to have won the tour , surpassing france 's rené . stage 6 6 july 2012 — épernay to metz , 207 . 5 km ( 128 . 9 mi ) this was the last flat stage before the race entered the mountains ; during the 207 . 5 km ( 128 . 9 mi ) parcours , there was one fourth - category climb of the côte de , around 10 km ( 6 . 2 mi ) after the intermediate sprint point , coming at 135 . 5 km ( 84 . 2 mi ) in the commune of saint - mihiel . the race finished near the centre pompidou where another bunch sprint was expected . once again , it was a four - rider breakaway that was allowed to be instigated in the early kilometres . david zabriskie ( garmin – sharp ) was the first rider to go off the front , and he was later bolstered by team europcar 's davide malacarne , cofidis rider romain and saxo bank – tinkoff bank 's karsten kroon , who joined him after around 10 km ( 6 . 2 mi ) of racing . they later established a maximum lead of around six - and - a - half minutes early in the stage . around 35 km ( 21 . 7 mi ) into the stage , there was a minor crash involving the winner of the previous two stages , andré greipel ( lotto – belisol ) , and overall contenders robert gesink ( rabobank ) and alejandro valverde ( movistar team ) amongst others . greipel suffered a dislocated shoulder in the crash , although all riders would later rejoin the main field ; greipel did not contest the intermediate sprint for points , where kroon led over the line in the breakaway , while behind , it was orica – greenedge 's matthew goss that took the most available points from the main field – eleven for fifth – ahead of team sky 's mark cavendish and points leader peter sagan of liquigas – cannondale . zabriskie crossed the summit of the côte de first to claim the point on offer for the mountains classification , while in the peloton , there was another minor crash ; greipel was involved again , as were his teammate jelle vanendert and rabobank 's bauke mollema . again , the peloton splintered due to the crashes , but due to a reduction in pace , those delayed were able to rejoin the main field . with 25 km ( 15 . 5 mi ) of the day 's stage remaining , a much larger crash delayed the majority of the field . according to lampre – isd 's danilo hondo , the crash was caused by his teammate davide viganò while adjusting his jersey and fell into a ditch , causing other riders to stack up behind . amongst the riders that were delayed by the crash were fränk schleck ( radioshack – nissan ) , steven kruijswijk ( rabobank ) , gesink , mollema , valverde , vanendert , lampre – isd 's michele scarponi , team europcar 's pierre rolland and the entire garmin – sharp team with the exception of zabriskie . cavendish was also delayed , but although he was able to avoid the crash , he picked up a puncture in the process . four riders abandoned the race on the route due to injuries suffered ; garmin – sharp 's tom danielson – who had already been racing with a separated shoulder – suffered trauma to his other shoulder , hip and arm , and was sent to hospital ; he was joined there by viganò ( damaged shoulder ) , euskaltel – euskadi 's mikel ( dislocated elbow ) , and vacansoleil – dcm 's wout poels , who tried to ride on for 10 km ( 6 . 2 mi ) but eventually had to abandon ; he was later diagnosed with a ruptured spleen and kidney , as well as three broken ribs and bruised lungs . after completing the stage , team katusha 's óscar freire ( broken rib and punctured lung ) , imanol erviti of the movistar team ( " loss of muscle mass " ) , and maarten wynants of rabobank ( broken ribs and punctured lung ) had to withdraw as well . after the crash , the race had split into many distinct groups ; the breakaway still held a minute 's lead over a reduced peloton of around sixty riders , with those delayed in several more groups a few minutes and more behind . with nearly all of their riders able to get through the chaos , orica – greenedge took up pace - making on the front of the peloton , in the hopes of getting goss the stage victory . the breakaway held a 15 - second lead with 10 km ( 6 . 2 mi ) to go , but it took until the final 2 . 5 km ( 1 . 6 mi ) to catch them , with zabriskie holding off to 1 . 3 km ( 0 . 8 mi ) remaining . this set up the sprint , with goss going first , while sagan was nearly boxed in by vacansoleil – dcm 's kris as he suffered a snapped chain with 400 m ( 1 , 300 ft ) to go ; he made it round him and soon passed greipel , who faded in the closing stages , and he picked up his third stage victory of his début tour , becoming the fifteenth rider to do so . with edvald boasson hagen ( team sky ) and ryder hesjedal ( garmin – sharp ) among those delayed , sagan moved into the top ten overall along with maxime monfort ( radioshack – nissan ) , as monfort 's teammate fabian cancellara maintained the overall lead once again . stage 7 7 july 2012 — to la planche des belles filles , 199 km ( 123 . 7 mi ) the race entered the high mountains with a first - time finish at 1 , 035 m ( 3 , 396 ft ) at the ski resort of la planche des belles filles in the vosges . after two third - category climbs , the final climb was 5 . 9 km ( 3 . 7 mi ) long and averaged 8 . 5 % with places of the climbs reaching 14 – 20 % in the closing stages . following on from the crash the previous day , five more riders abandoned the race prior to the stage ; giro d 'italia winner ryder hesjedal of garmin – sharp ( hip and leg ) , was joined on the sidelines by teammate robert hunter ( vertebrae ) , ag2r – la mondiale 's hubert dupont ( sprained ankle , fractures to vertebrae and radius ) , movistar team 's iván gutiérrez ( knee ) , and euskaltel – euskadi 's , who fractured his collarbone . an initial breakaway of nineteen riders went clear after 11 km ( 6 . 8 mi ) , but it was eventually reduced to seven riders , representing seven different teams , by the time the race reached the 20 km ( 12 . 4 mi ) mark . they eventually established a lead of nearly six minutes around a third of the way through the stage ; by the intermediate sprint point in , it had been reduced by a minute , as cyril gautier ( team europcar ) took the twenty points for first over the line , and peter sagan ( liquigas – cannondale ) extended his points lead by one , as he beat matthew goss ( orica – greenedge ) in the main field sprint , for eighth place . saxo bank – tinkoff bank 's chris anker sørensen crossed both of the third - category climbs first ahead of rabobank 's luis león sánchez , but the peloton started reducing their advantage by each passing kilometre . astana 's dmitry fofonov launched an attack at the front , which dislodged gautier from the lead group ; the peloton remained a minute in arrears , with team sky holding station and setting the tempo , protecting bradley wiggins from any danger . jurgen van den broeck of lotto – belisol , movistar team rider alejandro valverde , and rabobank 's robert gesink encountered difficulties at this point , and would lose over a minute by the end of the day . sørensen and orica – greenedge 's michael albasini were the last of the leaders to be caught , with just over 5 km ( 3 . 1 mi ) remaining . team sky continued to break the peloton apart , and by the time the leaders had reached the flamme rouge , only five riders remained at the front – wiggins and his teammate chris froome , bmc racing team 's cadel evans , liquigas – cannondale rider vincenzo nibali and rein taaramäe of cofidis – for the closing kilometre . evans hit the final corner first , but froome looked strongest on the steepest part of the climb , and he eventually went past him and wiggins , accelerating away to a two - second time gap over his rivals . with radioshack – nissan 's fabian cancellara losing almost two minutes on the day , he surrendered the yellow jersey to wiggins , who became the fifth british rider to wear the jersey , and first since david millar in 2000 . froome assumed the polka - dot jersey thanks to the stage victory , while taaramäe took the white jersey from evans ' teammate tejay van garderen . stage 8 8 july 2012 — belfort to porrentruy ( switzerland ) , 157 . 5 km ( 97 . 9 mi ) the race entered switzerland after 65 km ( 40 . 4 mi ) of the parcours , going through the jura mountains with a total of seven rated climbs including the first - category col de la croix – the summit of which was at 789 m ( 2 , 589 ft ) after a 3 . 7 km ( 2 . 3 mi ) , 9 . 2 % average gradient climb – 16 km ( 9 . 9 mi ) before the finish in porrentruy . ten riders made the immediate breakaway from the peloton , but the gap that they had achieved was closed down by the astana team ahead of the day 's first climb , the côte de . jens voigt of radioshack – nissan attacked off the front of the lead group to take the point on offer for the mountains classification , and was joined by several more riders on the descent ; however , the group only held a gap of twenty seconds at the 50 km ( 31 . 1 mi ) mark . jérémy roy attacked from the peloton for fdj – bigmat , and soon caught and passed voigt on the road ; while in the peloton , samuel sánchez ( euskaltel – euskadi ) had to abandon the race , after crashing with teammate jorge and movistar team 's alejandro valverde , and suffered a fractured metacarpal in his left hand . roy was joined by astana rider fredrik kessiakoff on the day 's fourth climb , the côte de , while a 22 - rider chase group formed behind the duo . steven kruijswijk ( rabobank ) and omega pharma – quick - step 's kevin de weert left that group , and soon joined up with the two leaders on the côte de , before kessiakoff left them behind , after attacking once again . he held a lead of 1 ' 45 " over the dwindling chase group on the penultimate climb , the côte de la , and eventually the group had reduced to just french pairing tony gallopin ( radioshack – nissan ) and roy 's teammate thibaut pinot , the youngest rider in the tour . gallopin lost ground to pinot on the final climb , and soon pinot was chasing after kessiakoff on the climb itself ; he ultimately caught him towards the summit of the climb . kessiakoff could not stick with pinot on the climb , with pinot crossing the summit with a 12 - second advantage over kessiakoff . the group of overall contenders had also been reduced , with lotto – belisol 's jelle vanendert setting the tempo for teammate jurgen van den broeck , around a minute - and - a - half behind pinot . with boisterous support from his team manager marc madiot , pinot maintained an advantage of a minute into the final 5 km ( 3 . 1 mi ) , as kessiakoff was swept up by the small chasing group . van den broeck and cadel evans ( bmc racing team ) looked to go clear in the closing stages , but they were brought back ; while at the front , pinot soloed to a 26 - second margin of victory , ahead of evans , gallopin and the rest of the group . kessiakoff took the polka - dot jersey from chris froome ( team sky ) , as froome 's teammate bradley wiggins maintained the overall lead into the following day 's individual time trial . stage 9 9 july 2012 — arc - et - to besançon , 41 . 5 km ( 25 . 8 mi ) , ( itt ) the first of two lengthy individual time trial stages was fairly flat with rolling hills in the early kilometres before the parcours entered the valley of the river doubs at . it was expected that the main contenders for the general classification were to emerge after this stage . as was customary of time trial stages , the riders set off in reverse order from where they were ranked in the general classification at the end of the previous stage . thus , brice feillu of saur – sojasun , who , in 178th place , trailed overall leader bradley wiggins ( team sky ) by one hour , eleven minutes and thirty - nine seconds , was the first rider to set off on the stage . feillu ultimately recorded a time of 57 ' 33 " for the course , which was not bettered until the thirteenth rider to complete the course , vacansoleil – dcm rider gustav larsson , who recorded a time over three minutes quicker than feillu . he completed the course in a time of 54 ' 19 " , and his time held for around an hour before his teammate lieuwe westra assumed top spot ; despite being ten seconds down on larsson at the second intermediate time point , westra completed the final portion of the course some twenty seconds quicker , and recorded a time of 54 ' 09 " . omega pharma – quick - step 's tony martin , the world champion , was the next rider to assume the top spot , setting the first time underneath 54 minutes ; he set a time of 53 ' 40 " , despite riding with a fractured scaphoid bone in his left wrist and suffering a flat tyre in the opening 5 km ( 3 . 1 mi ) of the stage . fabian cancellara of radioshack – nissan improved the quickest time benchmark ; he set the fastest time at each of the two intermediate time points on the stage , and having passed the rider who started three minutes before him on the road , rabobank 's bauke mollema , cancellara established a time for the course of 52 ' 21 " , beating martin 's time by 1 ' 19 " . his time was threatened by bmc racing team rider tejay van garderen , as he went beneath the time of cancellara at each of the intermediate time checks , but faded towards the end and fell nine seconds outside of his target . ultimately , only two riders beat cancellara 's time , both riding for team sky . chris froome improved upon van garderen 's times at the splits , but maintained his pace until the end , setting a time half a second inside 52 minutes , beating cancellara 's time by 22 seconds . wiggins went even quicker and by the time he had finished , he had put 35 seconds into his teammate with a time of 51 ' 24 " , winning his first tour stage . wiggins also put substantial time into his major general classification rivals , as the margin on the day ranged between 1 ' 43 " for cadel evans ( bmc racing team ) who finished sixth on the stage , and 3 ' 29 " for cofidis rider rein taaramäe , who was 28th and lost the white jersey as leader of the young rider classification to van garderen . stage 10 11 july 2012 — mâcon to bellegarde - sur - valserine , 194 . 5 km ( 120 . 9 mi ) after a rest day , the tour remained in the jura mountains , with much of the day 's route the same as that followed on stage five of the 2012 critérium du dauphiné , including the tour 's first passage over the hors catégorie climb of the col du grand colombier ; a 17 . 4 km ( 10 . 8 mi ) long climb , reaching an altitude of 1 , 501 m ( 4 , 925 ft ) at an average gradient of 7 . 1 % , but with sections in excess of 12 % . the tour then passed over the 1 , 051 m ( 3 , 448 ft ) col de richemond , 20 . 5 km ( 12 . 7 mi ) before the finish ; the race descended towards before a gradual uphill finish in bellegarde - sur - valserine . several small attacks occurred in the early kilometres of the stage , and the peloton allowed the riders to establish an advantage off the front of the main field . it eventually amounted to some twenty - five riders in the breakaway , including lampre – isd rider michele scarponi – the highest - placed rider in the group , some ten minutes in arrears of race leader bradley wiggins ( team sky ) – and the top two riders in the points classification , liquigas – cannondale 's peter sagan and matthew goss of orica – greenedge . after saxo bank – tinkoff bank 's michael mørkøv took maximum points over the first climb of the day , the côte de , the next focus was on the intermediate sprint point at ; sagan launched his sprint first but was beaten to the line by both goss and fdj – bigmat 's , with goss reducing sagan 's lead in the standings to 27 points . the breakaway group split apart on the col du grand colombier ; only scarponi , team europcar 's thomas voeckler , rabobank rider luis león sánchez and dries devenyns of omega pharma – quick - step remained at the front . voeckler crossed the summit of the climb first , taking the 25 points on offer for the hors catégorie climb . the peloton crossed five - and - a - half minutes later . voeckler also took maximum points at the col de richemond , and as a result , took the polka - dot jersey for the mountains classification lead from astana rider fredrik kessiakoff . sagan had dropped back to aid his teammate vincenzo nibali , who had attacked on the descent of the col du grand colombier , but both riders were not to stay in front ahead of the team sky - led peloton . radioshack – nissan 's jens voigt made up a minute on the lead quartet to join them , with around 10 km ( 6 . 2 mi ) remaining ; devenyns looked to go clear in the closing stages , but voeckler had kept most in hand to take his third career tour stage victory , three seconds ahead of scarponi and seven ahead of voigt . wiggins remained on the wheel of his closest rival , cadel evans of the bmc racing team , to maintain his 1 ' 53 " lead in the general classification into the alps .