The young Swiss Marc Hirschi, 22, ended up touching the goal in the 12th stage of the Tour de France which he won alone, Thursday, September 10 in Sarran, in Corrèze.
The Slovenian Primoz Roglic (Jumbo) kept the yellow jersey after this hilly stage but without consequence on the top of the classification.
Hirschi, who is racing the Tour for the first time in the jersey of the Sunweb team, beat the Frenchman Pierre Rolland by around 50 seconds, in the vanguard of a pursuit group set by the Dane Soeren Kragh Andersen, a teammate of the Swiss, who takes third place.
Having come close to victory twice since the start from Nice, Hirschi won this time by attacking 28 kilometers from the finish, in the ascent of Suc au May, a severe hill that overlooks the Monédières massif.
🏆 🇨🇭 @MarcHirschi third time's a charm!
🏆
🏆 The third time is the right one for 🇨🇭 @MarcHirschi!
🏆 # TDF2020 #TDFunited pic.twitter.com/zyzRUSP2M8
- Tour de France ™ (@LeTour) September 10, 2020
2018 world champion, the Swiss lost to Julian Alaphilippe at the finish of the second stage in Nice.
He had also come close to success last Sunday in the second Pyrenean stage, in Laruns, where he had been caught as he approached the finish (3rd).
The last success of a Swiss rider in the Tour was in 2012, when Fabian Cancellara, a neighbor of Hirschi, won the opening time trial in Liège (Belgium).
The longest stage of the
2020 Tour
In this stage, the longest of the competition with 218 kilometers, the breakaway, formed during a first hour carried out with beating pace, brought together six riders (Erviti, LL Sanchez, Politt, Walscheid joined by Asgreen and Burgaudeau ).
But team Bora's pursuit limited the gap to two minutes until the junction 42 kilometers from the finish, followed by a flurry of attacks.
One group (Soler, Schachmann, Pacher, Benoot, K. Andersen, Hirschi) ended up emerging on the penultimate hill of the course.
But the decision was made in the wall of Suc au May, on the start of Hirschi who forced the pace, including the descent.
Behind him, Julian Alaphilippe, finally delayed by a mechanical problem near the finish, struggled in a group which remained at about fifty seconds.
The peloton, with the favorites, arrived more than two minutes late.
Friday, the 13th stage, between Châtel-Guyon (Puy-de-Dôme) and Puy Mary (Cantal), presents the most important difference in height of this edition, 4,400 meters, over 191.5 kilometers.
Seven climbs appear on the route which ends with the climb to Pas de Peyrol, very steep in its final part and classified in the first category.
🎙️🇨🇭 @MarcHirschi
"It's incredible. I didn't think I could do it because it was difficult. I was in
full swing
. It's my first professional victory, and it's on the Tour ... Without Laruns , I would never have attacked in this hill, it gave me more confidence. "# TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/ZVO6LqkCDx
- Tour de France ™ (@LeTour) September 10, 2020
With AFP
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