Tour de France Stage 12: Tim Merlier Completes Hat Trick in Crash-Marred Danger Sprint

Tim Merlier won stage 12 to complete the fast-man hat trick at the Tour de France in a crash-marred bunch sprint on Thursday.

Several riders crashed in the second line and totally blocked the road. Fernando Gaviria (Caja Rural) and stage 11 winner Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X) were among the first to fall after a rider crossed the Colombian’s front wheel.

Dorian Godon (Netcompany-Ineos), Pavel Bittner (Team Picnic PostNL), and Liam Slock and Jenno Berckmoes (both Lotto-Intermarché) also went down hard that left bikes and bodies banged up in one of the worst crashes so far in the 2026 Tour.

Olav Kooij (Decathlon-CMA CGM) was ahead of the chaos and crossed the line second, with Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) in third unable to finish off a strong leadoff in the final 150 meters.

“I was really focused on guys who didn’t move yesterday, that was the reason why I was boxed in,” Merlier said. “So today I tried all the time to stay in front of them, and I found some space. I just needed to calm down and then launch again. I knew it was a kind of a finish that suits me.”

The overall GC didn’t change and the yellow jersey favorites are already looking ahead to the weekend and three straight climbing stages across the Vosges and the Tour’s first touch with the Alps on Sunday.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates-XRG) avoided the chaos to finish safely behind the crash to carry the yellow jersey into three decisive climbing stages across the Vosges and the Tour’s first touch with the Alps on Sunday.

Chasing the last sprint

In what could be the last chance for the sprinters until next week, the 179km stage 12 from Circuit Nevers Magny-Cours to Chalon-sur-Saône was no cake walk.

The stage saw some mid-race showers to cool things down and a punchy finale added some sparks.

There was a bit of drama around the day’s intermediate sprint early in the stage. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) moved across the road as he sprinted to defend green and there was some question that he might have been relegated, but the jury didn’t press the issue.

An early four-rider move was neutralized a pair of late climb. Quinn Simmons lit up Lidl-Trek’s aggressive tactics in the closing 35km, with several riders going on flares to try to snap the elastic to the sprinter teams.

Pogačar survived unscathed and carries yellow into this weekend sounding confident.

“Tomorrow’s stage is a bit of a weird one, but we will have to go through it,” Pogačar said. “Then Saturday and Sunday are more nice stages. I did some recons with Isaac. I know those roads quite well, and we will see. So I am looking forward to it.”

Alpecin-Premier Tech put legs on the front to keep things in order to set up the mass gallop.

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) was forced to swap bikes with about 50km to go, but the GC favorites did their best to get out of the way of the fast finishers in the bunch.

Matteo Jorgenson, who crashed earlier this week and was suffering with illness, struggled off the back with the searing pace over the closing climbs.

What’s next: Ballon d’Alsace

The 2026 Tour continues Friday with the 205.8km 13th stage from Dole to Belfort.

This one should be for the breakaway artists, with a pair of climbs stacked up late to give them rope.

A third-category climb leads to the day’s main obstacle at the Cat. 1 Ballon d’Alsace
(9.1km at 6.9%) that should fracture the race at all ends of the peloton.

The breakaway will need a head start to fend off any attacks from the likes of Pogačar and the other podium contenders who won’t want to pass up on the opportunity to move.