13 riders in the lead
191 riders started stage 12 in Montpellier. 14 of them managed to go clear off the peloton after three kilometers of racing. After Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 18) had a flat tyre, Bertjan Lindeman and Sep Vanmarcke (Lotto-Jumbo), Stef Clement (IAM), Serge Pauwels and Daniel Teklehaimanot (DiData), André Greipel and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Bryan Coquard and Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie), Iljo Keisse (Etixx-Quick Step), Chris Anker Sørensen (Fortuneo-Vital Concept), Dani Navarro and Cyril Lemoine (Cofidis) formed the front group. A chasing group of five with Diego Rosa (Astana), Cyril Gautier (AG2R-La Mondiale), Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale-Drapac), Georg Preidler (Giant-Alpecin) and Voss couldn't make it across. The maximum lead of the 13 escapees over the peloton was 18.45 at km 70 while the highest ranked of the breakaway riders on GC was Navarro with a deficit of more than half an hour.
Simon Gerrans and Team Sky crash with 35km to go
Etixx-Quick Step put the hammer down after half way into the race. It split the bunch. Most of the GC contenders stayed in the first part but not Peter Sagan (Tinkoff), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Louis Meintjes (Lampre-Merida) and Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin). Simon Gerrans (Orica-BikeExchange) was leading the chase when he crashed 39km before the end while the deficit was down to 7.50. Three riders from Team Sky also crashed behind him. Chris Froome asked the whole group to slow down. Therefore, the dropped riders managed to come across and the peloton was regrouped but Sagan and Pinot were dropped again and the breakaway riders could race for the stage victory.
Porte, Mollema and Froome on the ground
Greipel attacked at the front with 14km remaining. 8.5km before the end, Lindeman, Navarro, De Gendt and Pauwels formed the reduced leading group. Chavanel briefly joined them but surrendered together with Lindeman. De Gendt attacked with 4km to go. Pauwels reacted. It took much longer to Navarro to make it back. The trio was reunited in the last kilometer. De Gendt outsprinted Pauwels and Navarro in that order for the stage win at Chalet-Reynard.
In the yellow jersey group, Froome accelerated with 3.5km to go. Only Richie Porte managed to follow him. Nairo Quintana didn't but Bauke Mollema made it across. Porte, Mollema and Froome hit a motorbike. Mollema managed to go back on his bike quickly but Porte and Froome couldn't. Froome started running to the finish line, got a spare bike and a second spare bike to complete the course with a deficit of one and half minute over his main rivals. Eventually the classification was reviewed so nobody was penalized by the incident.
