{"id":5098,"date":"2026-07-16T22:34:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=5098"},"modified":"2026-07-16T22:34:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:34:57","slug":"tim-merlier-wins-crash-marred-12th-stage-of-the-tour-de-france-pogacar-retains-overall-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=5098","title":{"rendered":"Tim Merlier wins crash-marred 12th stage of the Tour de France, Pogacar retains overall lead"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<p><span>CHALON-SUR-SAONE, France \u2014 Belgian rider Tim Merlier earned another stage win at the Tour de France, while several riders fell as they sprinted to the line Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=5096\">White House faces stiff pushback on subjecting grants to political review<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>Defending champion Tadej Pogacar avoided the crash and kept his significant overall lead over second-place Jonas Vingegaard after 12 stages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It was Merlier\u2019s third stage win on this year\u2019s Tour, and sixth of his career. Dutch rider Olav Kooij finished second and Jasper Philipsen of Belgium was third.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><span>With riders fighting for position on the home straight, Colombian Fernando Gaviria went down after clipping the wheel of another cyclist and fell to his left, bringing Norwegian rider Soeren Waerenskjold \u2014 Wednesday\u2019s stage winner \u2014 down with him. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Just behind them, four other riders had no room to swerve around them and flew over their handlebars. None of the riders appeared seriously injured, and Gaviria eventually crossed the line with the help of a teammate.<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><span>Get Starting Point<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><label>Enter Email<\/label><\/p>\n<div><button>Sign Up<\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>Later Thursday, the Caja Rural-Seguros RGA team said the 31-year-old Gaviria sustained a fractured left collarbone and had pulled out of the race.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThere was a lot of chaos and a mix of teams at the front of the peloton,\u201d teammate Stefano Oldani said, describing the crash. \u201cI saw him lying on the road next to two Lotto (team) riders, and I realized straight away that he\u2019d taken a nasty hit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><span>Four-time Tour champion Pogacar remains 3 minutes, 36 seconds ahead of two-time champion Vingegaard, and 4:06 ahead of Remco Evenepoel in third place. Pogacar had extended his overall lead Tuesday after another trademark attack in the 10th stage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=5094\">Baseball\u2019s hardest throwers still look up to Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>Stage 12 was a mostly flat 111-mile route starting from the Magny-Cours track, which once hosted Formula 1 races, and ending in Chalon-sur-Sa\u00f4ne in eastern France.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Frenchman Baptiste Veistroffer forged ahead on his own until he was caught by a group of 14 riders heading into the last 18\u00bd miles. They were caught by the hard-chasing peloton soon after, and just before the third of three minor climbs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>With teams looking to place their sprinters into the best position to attack it was a nervy approach to the finish line.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Philipsen\u2019s Alpecin-Premier Tech team put three riders at the front to help him but they attacked too soon, as they did in previous stages, and Philipsen is still looking for his first victory at this year\u2019s race.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Merlier said having his wife and young son at the race \u201cgave me a lot of motivation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWinning for them is special,\u201d Merlier said. \u201cI managed to find the opening, I had to stay calm and wait. It was a finale and a finish that suited me very well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Friday\u2019s 13th stage is the longest of this year\u2019s race at 128 miles and features a sharp Category 1 climb \u2014 the second-hardest category in the Tour \u2014 toward the end.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=5093\">\u2018Simple but incredibly meaningful\u2019: Mass. Senate wants to allow for more duplexes in bid to ease housing crunch<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>The race concludes with its traditional finish in Paris on July 26.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pogacar avoided the sprint-to-the-line crash and kept his significant overall lead over second-place Jonas Vingegaard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tim Merlier wins crash-marred 12th stage of the Tour de France, Pogacar retains overall lead - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=5098\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tim Merlier wins crash-marred 12th stage of the Tour de France, Pogacar retains overall lead - 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