With stage winner Tom Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers) up the road the nearest threat to the yellow jersey, but still 11 minutes down, Jumbo-Visma were content to set the pace on the front of the peloton for the majority of the stage. There were no moves from UAE Team Emirates and previous leader Tadej Pogačar to attack Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) from afar.
And so the anticipation grew and grew for the final climb, where the massive crowds would get to witness another epic battle amongst the contenders, sure to feature a revenge attack from Pogačar after his bad day yesterday.
Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) led the peloton into the base of the climb, the pace beginning to quicken as he swung off with teammates Steven Kruijswijk, Primoz Roglic and Sepp Kuss all waiting in the wings to continue applying pressure.
The pressure began to take its toll on the group as Alexander Vlasov (BORA-Hansgrohe, 8th overall), Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic, 5th overall) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ, 7th overall) were all dropped with half the climb still left to conquer.
Then in more bad news for the French on Bastille day, Romain Bardet (Team DSM) was the next rider to crack inside the last five kilometres of the stage, heartbreaking for him after a fantastic ride yesterday to go into second overall.
From there, it was just Vingegaard, Pogačar, Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers) and Enric Mas (Movistar) left from the peloton with Adam Yates (INEOS Grenadiers) slightly off the back as the contenders moved into the final four kilometres.
The long anticipated moment came just before the flamme rouge as Pogačar found space through the frenetic crowds to launch his attack, Vingegaard the only one to follow in another example of the two best riders in the race taking each other on.
As much as he tried, the Slovenian couldn't rid his wheel of the Dane and the group was brought back together into the finish, Pogačar launching again but gaining no time on Vingegaard or Thomas.
Through twelve stages of the race, it seems the best three riders are now on the podium, Thomas riding a great Tour but not able to make that leap to Vingegaard and Pogačar in first and second respectively.
Tour de France Standings
The Tour de France continues with a less mountainous, but still hilly route, to St. Etienne for Stage 13. Watch from 8.55pm AEST on the SBS SKODA Tour Tracker and on SBS and SBS On Demand from 9.30pm AEST.
