page_title: 2012 Team Sky season
section_title: Tour de France
hierarchical_section_title: 2012 Team Sky season / Grand Tours / Tour de France
caption_attribution_description: Bradley Wiggins en route to winning the Stage 19 Time trial, confirming his victory in the 2012 Tour de France
context_page_description: The 2012 season for Team Sky began in January at the Tour Down Under and ended in October at the Tour of Beijing. As a UCI ProTeam, they were automatically invited and obliged to send a squad to every event in the UCI World Tour. The team took a total of 47 victories in the season with the most notable being Bradley Wiggins' overall victory in the Tour de France. Wiggins, Mark Cavendish and Chris Froome also took stage victories in the event, with Froome finishing second to Wiggins in the overall standings.
context_section_description: Bradley Wiggins led Sky at the Tour de France, and was considered the favourite for overall by victory by many, following his victories in Paris-Nice, the Tour de Romandie and the Criterium du Dauphine. He would be supported in the mountains by Chris Froome, Michael Rogers, Richie Porte, Konstantin Sivtsov, Christian Knees and Edvald Boasson Hagen, whilst World Champion Mark Cavendish and Bernhard Eisel were also selected to challenge in the sprints. The race got off to an ideal start for Sky and Wiggins, as he finished second to Fabian Cancellara in the Prologue, meaning he took time out of all his GC rivals, without the team having to defend the Yellow Jersey from the start. Boasson Hagen also placed fifth in the Prologue. On Stage 1, Boasson Hagen finished third after bridging across to a late attack by Cancellara and Peter Sagan, only for Sagan to outsprint the pair. Chris Froome meanwhile suffered a flat tyre in the closing stages and lost over a minute to Sagan. Stage 2 saw the first bunch sprint of the race, and Cavendish took a thrilling victory, edging out André Greipel, despite the lack of a lead out train. Stage 3 saw a hill top finish in Boulogne-sur-Mer, and Boasson Hagen finished second to Sagan. The team lost Sivtsov on the stage however, as he crashed out with a broken leg. Cavendish looked to be in contention for another sprint victory on Stage 4, but he and Eisel were taken out in a crash inside the last 3 km. The pair were lucky to sustain only minor injuries, and started the following Stage, where Cavendish placed fifth. Sky were avoided disaster on Stage 6, with most of the team not being caught up in a crash which delayed most of the field, although Cavendish and Boasson Hagen lost time. The crash effectively removed Fränk Schleck, Alejandro Valverde, Pierre Rolland, and the entire Rabobank and Garmin teams from contention for overall victory.
  Stage 7 saw the first summit finish of the Tour, on La Planche des Belles Filles. After Boasson Hagen, Rogers and Porte successively drove a hard tempo on the climb, only Cadel Evans, Vincenzo Nibali and Rein Taaramäe remained with Wiggins and Froome on the climb. Froome outsprinted Evans to take victory on the Stage, whilst Wiggins came in third to take the race lead. Stage 9 was a 41.5 km individual time trial, which Wiggins won by 35 seconds over Froome, who came second. Wiggins now led the race by 1 minute, 53 seconds over Evans, with Froome now sitting third overall a further 14 seconds back, ahead of Nibali in fourth. On Stage 10, Nibali attacked on a descent with help from teammate Sagan, but was brought back by the efforts of Sky, and in particular Porte.
  The second summit finish of the race came on Stage 11, to La Toussuire. On the stage, Evans and teammate Tejay van Garderen attempted a long range attack on the Col de la Croix de Fer, but could not gain a lead of more than 30 seconds over the Sky led peloton, before being brought back by Rogers. As the peloton reached the final climb, Nibali and Jurgen Van Den Broeck launched several attacks, the second of which Froome was forced to work hard to bring back, and appeared to be in difficulty at one stage, leaving Wiggins to set the pace, although Froome recovered. The pair rejoined Nibali and Jurgen Van Den Broeck, only for Froome to immediately attack, putting Wiggins in difficulty. He subsequently received the order from his team manager to hold back and wait for yellow jersey Wiggins, and the group remained together for the rest of the climb, with the exception of Evans who cracked and lost time, meaning Froome moved up to second overall, two minutes and five seconds behind Wiggins.
  Boasson Hagen took third on Stage 13 after a surprising lead out by Wiggins. During stage 14, a mountain stage, a spectator threw carpet tacks onto the narrow road at the top of the Mur de Péguère climb.[156] Several riders suffered punctures, including Evans, who lost approximately two minutes while his team repaired his bicycle. Wiggins and his fellow members of Team Sky emerged without a puncture. Believing that a pun
caption: Bradley Wiggins on his way to victory on Stage 19 of the Tour de France
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