page_title: 2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10
section_title: Stage 1
hierarchical_section_title: 2012 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10 / Stage 1
caption_attribution_description: English: 99th Tour de France stage 1 in Hotton (Belgium) Fabian Cancellara in the yellow shirt
context_page_description: The 2012 Tour de France began on 30 June, and stage 10 occurred on 11 July. The 2012 edition began with a prologue – a short individual time trial stage – where each member of the starting peloton of 198 riders competed against the clock – in Liège, Belgium with two more stages held in the country before moving back into France. The race resumed in Orchies for the start of the third stage; also during the first half of the race, the peloton visited Switzerland for the finish to the eighth stage in Porrentruy, and contested another individual time trial stage – having returned to France – the following day.
  Fabian Cancellara held the lead of the race throughout its opening Belgian leg; having won the race-commencing prologue, Cancellara defended it on the following two stages before the race returned to France. Cancellara maintained his overall lead for the rest of the race's first week, before eventually losing time on the first true mountain stage of the race – stage seven – as he was dropped on the closing climb to La Planche des Belles Filles. As a result, Bradley Wiggins assumed the maillot jaune, becoming the first British rider to wear the jersey since 2000.
context_section_description: 1 July 2012 — Liège (Belgium) to Seraing (Belgium), 198 km (123.0 mi)
  The Tour remained in Belgium for the first full day's racing with a stage through the rolling countryside of the Ardennes. After four Category 4 climbs en route, the race finished at Seraing, a municipality just outside Liège. The finish was at the top of a long and fairly steep drag – the Côte de Seraing – rising for 2.4 km (1.5 mi) at an average of 4.7%, which was expected to suit the race's puncheurs such as BMC Racing Team rider Philippe Gilbert, who won a similar finish in the opening stage of the 2011 Tour at Mont des Alouettes.
  Six riders – Yohann Gène (Team Europcar), Euskaltel–Euskadi rider Pablo Urtasun, Ag2r–La Mondiale's Maxime Bouet, Nicolas Edet of Cofidis, Anthony Delaplace (Saur–Sojasun) and Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank rider Michael Mørkøv – advanced clear of the main field in the early running of the stage; the sextet managed to extend their advantage to a maximum of almost five minutes around a quarter of the way through the stage. By this point, Mørkøv and Urtasun had both scored a point towards the mountains classification, having led over the Côte de Cokaifagne and the Côte de Francorchamps respectively. Overall leader Fabian Cancellara was being paced by his RadioShack–Nissan teammates, and help to stabilise the gap to the leaders at around three minutes. Mørkøv then proceeded to win the two remaining climbs on the day, to take the race's first polka-dot jersey, becoming only the third Danish rider to have held the lead of that classification.
  The breakaway also scored the major points at the stage's intermediate sprint point in Érezée, where Gène took the honours ahead of Urtasun and Edet, while in the main field, Orica–GreenEDGE's Matthew Goss out-sprinted his former teammates Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) and André Greipel (Lotto–Belisol) for seventh place. RadioShack–Nissan were joined by Gilbert's BMC Racing Team squad in order to reduce the lead advantage; it was cut to around a minute with 30 km (18.6 mi) to go, and the break was eventually caught inside of 10 km (6.2 mi) remaining. The field remained together onto the Côte de Seraing, but halfway up the climb, Cancellara attacked and only Peter Sagan (Liquigas–Cannondale) could hold pace with him. Team Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen later bridged up to the duo, and it was left to the three riders to fight it out for the stage win, with the reduced peloton chasing behind. Cancellara attacked first, but Sagan came around the outside and freewheeled to his fourteenth victory of 2012, ahead of Cancellara – who maintained his overall lead – and Boasson Hagen. Gilbert led home the peloton in fourth, as 22-year-old Sagan became the youngest rider to win a Tour stage since Lance Armstrong in 1993.
caption: The peloton passing through Hotton, Belgium, in the first stage. Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack–Nissan) can be seen wearing the race leader's yellow jersey.
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