Tour De France 2013 Stage 12 Results: Winner, Leaderboard and Highlights

In a thrilling finish, Marcel Kittel somehow caught and passed a sprinting Mark Cavendish and held off Peter Sagan to win the 12th stage at the Tour de France.

It was Kittel's third stage win. Meanwhile, Christopher Froome held onto the yellow jersey, maintaining a three-minute, 45-second lead over Alejandro Valverde. 

From BBC:

It was a surprise to see a world-class sprinter like Cavendish get caught from behind, especially with 45 crucial points on the line. A day after having urine thrown on him by a spectator, Cavendish had to deal with the disappointment of seeing the stage stolen from him by Kittel.

Sagan's comfortable lead in the points competition remained intact, as he secured 38 points on the day and now leads Cavendish by 96 points. 

The breakaway on the day consisted of five riders—Romain Sicard, Francesco Gavazzi, Anthony Delaplace, Manuele Mori and Juan Antonio Flecha—though Sicard was swallowed by the peloton at the 47-kilometer mark. 

Gavazzi won the intermediate sprint and secured 20 points.

Flecha put on an impressive performance, holding off the pack until about five kilometers remained in the race. It was a heroic if somewhat doomed effort.

With the teams racing toward the finish, crashes became a theme. Simon Gerrans hit a roundabout with too much speed and wiped himself out atop the peloton, while a large group of riders took a spill with about three kilometers to go, which appeared to take down Andre Greipel.

There was a bit of animosity early in the race as well, as Sagan was clearly displeased with Danny van Poppel after the Vacansoleil rider blocked Sagan as the intermediate sprint neared. 

Sagan obviously got over the spat, however, and kept himself in the driver's seat to win the points competition.

Stage 12 Standings (via LeTour.com)

RANK	RIDER	TEAM	TIMES	GAP
1.	KITTEL Marcel	TEAM ARGOS-SHIMANO	04h 49' 49''
2.	CAVENDISH Mark	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP	04h 49' 49''	+ 00' 00''
3.	SAGAN Peter	CANNONDALE	04h 49' 49''	+ 00' 00''
4.	KRISTOFF Alexander	KATUSHA TEAM	04h 49' 49''	+ 00' 00''
5.	FERRARI Roberto	LAMPRE - MERIDA	04h 49' 49''	+ 00' 00''
6.	IMPEY Daryl	ORICA GREENEDGE	04h 49' 49''	+ 00' 00''
7.	ROJAS José Joaquin	MOVISTAR TEAM	04h 49' 49''	+ 00' 00''
8.	GENE Yohann	TEAM EUROPCAR	04h 49' 49''	+ 00' 00''
9.	LOBATO DEL VALLE Juan José	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	04h 49' 49''	+ 00' 00''
10.	DUMOULIN Samuel	AG2R LA MONDIALE	04h 49' 49''	+ 00' 00''
11.	LAGUTIN Sergey	VACANSOLEIL-DCM	04h 49' 49''	+ 00' 00''
12.	STEEGMANS Gert	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP	04h 49' 49''	+ 00' 00''
13.	SIMON Julien	SOJASUN	04h 49' 49''	+ 00' 00''
14.	FROOME Christopher	SKY PROCYCLING	04h 49' 49''	+ 00' 00''
15.	GARCIA ECHEGUIBEL Egoitz	COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS	04h 49' 49''	+ 00' 00''
16.	KWIATKOWSKI Michal	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP	04h 49' 49''	+ 00' 00''

Overall Standings (via LeTour.com)

RANK	RIDER	TEAM	TIMES	GAP
1.	FROOME Christopher	SKY PROCYCLING	47h 19' 13''
2.	VALVERDE Alejandro	MOVISTAR TEAM	47h 22' 38''	+ 03' 25''
3.	MOLLEMA Bauke	BELKIN PRO CYCLING	47h 22' 50''	+ 03' 37''
4.	CONTADOR Alberto	TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF	47h 23' 07''	+ 03' 54''
5.	KREUZIGER Roman	TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF	47h 23' 10''	+ 03' 57''
6.	TEN DAM Laurens	BELKIN PRO CYCLING	47h 23' 23''	+ 04' 10''
7.	KWIATKOWSKI Michal	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP	47h 23' 57''	+ 04' 44''
8.	QUINTANA ROJAS Nairo Alexander	MOVISTAR TEAM	47h 24' 31''	+ 05' 18''
9.	COSTA Rui Alberto	MOVISTAR TEAM	47h 24' 50''	+ 05' 37''
10.	PÉRAUD Jean-Christophe	AG2R LA MONDIALE	47h 24' 52''	+ 05' 39''