Tour de France 2021 Route stage 12: Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux - Nîmes

Thursday 8 July - The Tour de France moves through the stunning Gorges de l’Ardèche during stage 12. At 159.4 kilometres, the race is an undulating test between Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux and Nîmes.

Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux hosts the fourth start of a Tour de France stage in the last decade, but the village of 8,000 has never seen a finish.

The race to Nîmes is predominantly played out on flat to rolling roads. The route follows the broad valley of the lower Rhône, which obviously suits the fast men. However, strong winds could be a factor on the wide and open roads leading to Nîmes.

KOM contenders have only one opportunity to add points to their collection. The Côte du belvédère de Tharaux - 4.4 kilometres at 4.6% - peaks out just after the midway marker.

The last decade saw two Tour de France stage finishes in Nîmes. In 2014, breakaway rider Jack Bauer was caught in the dying metres of the race before Alexander Kristoff sprinted to victory. Two editions ago the sprint was much more straightforward. Caleb Ewan outperformed Elia Viviani and Dylan Groenewegen.

The finale of this edition is similar to the one of 2019.

The first three riders on the line gain time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds.

Another interesting read: results report 12th stage 2021 Tour de France.