These were the individual stages of the 2009 Tour de France, with Stage 12 on 16 July and Stage 21 on 26 July.
Stages s.t. indicates that the rider crossed the finish line in the same group as the one receiving the time above him, and was therefore credited with the same finishing time.
Stage 12 16 July 2009 – Tonnerre to Vittel, 200 km
This was considered a flat stage, but had six hills that contributed points towards the climbers' competition. After some unsuccessful attempts at breakaways early in the stage, after 64 km Laurent Lefèvre started a breakaway. He was followed by the leader in the polka dot jersey category, Egoi Martínez, and the third-placed rider in that category, Franco Pellizotti, along with Sylvain Calzati, Markus Fothen, and Rémi Pauriol. Ten km later, they were joined by Nicki Sørensen.
The peloton was led by Nocentini's team, with no effort made by the teams of the sprinters to chase down the escape group. The lead held by the escape group increased over the last 40 km, from less than four minutes to over six. With 22 km remaining, Sørensen launched an attack with only Calzati joining him. At 5.5 km, he again attacked, dropping Calzati and remaining clear to win the stage by 48 seconds.
Mark Cavendish had said that he was interested in earning stage wins rather than pursuing the points jersey. However, he increased his lead in that competition by taking points at the first intermediate sprint of the day and leading the peloton home.
Potential GC contenders Levi Leipheimer and Cadel Evans were involved in a fall in the closing stages of the race, but as the incident was within the last 3 km they were credited with the same time as the rest of the peloton. But before stage 13, Leipheimer would abandon the race due to a broken wrist.
Stage 12 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 4h 52' 24" 2 + 48" DSQ s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 + 1' 33" 7 + 5' 58" 8 s.t. 9 s.t.General classification after stage 12 Rank Rider Team Time 1 48h 27' 21" 2 + 6" DSQ + 8" 4 + 39" 5 + 46" 6 + 54" 7 + 1' 00" 8 + 1' 24" 9 + 1' 49" 10 + 1' 54"
Stage 13 17 July 2009 – Vittel to Colmar, 200 km
This was a medium-mountain stage, with five categorized climbs, including one first category mountain, the Col du Platzerwasel. Christophe Moreau launched an attack after just 3 km, and was joined by Juan Manuel Gárate, Jens Voigt, Rigoberto Urán, Heinrich Haussler, Sylvain Chavanel and Rubén Pérez. These last three moved away from the rest of the escape on the descent from the first climb, and while the rest of the escapees returned to the peloton, the lead trio gained an advantage of 9'10" on the second climb. Pérez was dropped on the climb of the day's highest mountain, and Haussler dropped Chavanel on its descent, and rode the last 50 km alone to win the stage more than 6½ minutes ahead of the peloton. A late attack by Amets Txurruka and Brice Feillu allowed the former to gain several minutes on the peloton, but Feillu, only 4'26" behind the yellow jersey at the start of the day failed to keep pace with his fellow escaper, and once it was clear that he would not make a serious challenge to the overall leadership, the peloton eased its chase, and riders who had become detached from the elite group were able to rejoin the peloton, including Thor Hushovd who took enough points in the final placings to regain the green jersey. Franco Pellizotti took points on three of the five climbs, thus gaining enough points to assume leadership of the King of the Mountains classification. Simon Špilak finished the stage alone more than ¾ hour behind Haussler, but the Tour officials acknowledged that he had been delayed by errors in re-opening the roads to the public earlier than should have been done, and that this contributed to his late finish, and so he was not eliminated. Óscar Freire and Julian Dean were both hit by pellets fired from an air gun during the stage, but were able to continue on the Tour.
Stage 13 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 4h 56' 26" 2 + 4' 11" 3 + 6' 13" 4 + 6' 31" 5 + 6' 43" 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General classification after stage 13 Rank Rider Team Time 1 53h 30' 30" 2 + 6" DSQ + 8" 4 + 46" 5 + 54" 6 + 1' 00" 7 + 1' 24" 8 + 1' 49" 9 + 1' 54" 10 + 2' 16"
Stage 14 18 July 2009 – Colmar to Besançon, 199 km
This was a relatively flat stage, with a category 3 climb either side of the halfway point. A woman was killed and two other spectators injured when they were hit by a police motorcycle in Wittelsheim, the first fatality connected to the Tour since 2002.
A fourteen-man break, initiated after 14 km, by Martijn Maaskant dominated the day's racing. The group was reduced to 12 as Mark Cavendish made a tactical decision to return to the peloton, and Jens Voigt had a puncture inefficiently repaired by the neutral service vehicle, but otherwise remained clear, with a lead that reached nearly nine minutes. Among the escapees were George Hincapie, who started the day in 28th place, 5'25" behind the leader, and Christophe Le Mével, two places and 38 seconds further back. The team of the yellow jersey wearer Rinaldo Nocentini seemed to be unwilling or unable to defend his overall lead, and the pace of the peloton was dictated for most of the stage by , and in the latter stages by . As it became clear that day's winner would come from among the group, there were several attacks, of which the effort by Sergei Ivanov with 11 km remaining was decisive. He won the stage by 16 seconds, with the peloton recovering enough time to preserve Nocentini's tenure of the yellow jersey by 5 seconds. It was suggested that Garmin's role in preventing Hincapie gaining the overall lead was influenced by their rivalry with his , but this was denied.
Green jersey rivals Mark Cavendish and Thor Hushovd were in a hotly contested sprint at the head of the peloton, and although Cavendish finished ahead, he was later relegated to the last position in the peloton for "irregular sprinting", specifically maneuvering Hushovd toward a barricade in the final 300 meters, with a net loss of 14 points to his Norwegian rival.
Stage 14 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 4h 37' 46" 2 + 16" 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 + 22"General classification after stage 14 Rank Rider Team Time 1 58h 13' 52" 2 + 5" 3 + 6" DSQ + 8" 5 + 43" 6 + 46" 7 + 54" 8 + 1' 00" 9 + 1' 24" 10 + 1' 49"
Stage 15
19 July 2009 – Pontarlier to Verbier (Switzerland), 207 km
The Tour reached the Alps, with four third category climbs in the first half of the stage, and the second half featuring the second category climb on the Col des Mosses (1,445 m elevation) and the race's second mountaintop finish at Verbier in Switzerland, at about the same elevation. Tom Boonen did not start the stage, and Vladimir Efimkin, who started in the top 20 overall, withdrew about halfway through the stage. Several early attacks failed to get any lasting gap ahead of the peloton, although they did allow Franco Pellizotti to increase his lead in the climbers' competition. The longest lasting escape of the day took place after 40 km, and had a number of changes of personnel before it settled to a body of ten riders, including Mikel Astarloza who was 18th overall, 3'02" behind the leader, at the beginning of the day, and who was "virtual leader" until the last 40 km. Rinaldo Nocentini's team made little effort to defend his position as overall leader, and the and teams dominated the chase to the bottom of the climb to Verbier. The breakaway was overhauled by most of the contenders for a high overall placing, with Denis Menchov the most notable absentee from the selection, Simon Špilak having survived for longest. As on the climb to Arcalis, Alberto Contador made a telling attack on the elite group, this time with 6 km remaining, and only Andy Schleck went in pursuit. Contador continued to increase his lead all the way to the line, winning both the stage and the yellow jersey. Andy Schleck came in second and took over the white jersey from Tony Martin after 13 stages.
Stage 15 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 5h 03' 58" 2 + 43" 3 + 1' 03" 4 + 1' 06" 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 + 1' 26" 8 + 1' 29" DSQ + 1' 35" 9 + 1' 55"General classification after stage 15 Rank Rider Team Time 1 63h 17' 56" DSQ + 1' 37" 3 + 1' 46" 4 + 2' 17" 5 + 2' 26" 6 + 2' 30" 7 + 2' 51" 8 + 3' 07" 9 + 3' 09" 10 + 3' 25"
Rest day 20 July 2009 – Verbier (Switzerland)
The second rest day took place where the previous day's stage ended.
Stage 16 21 July 2009 – Martigny (Switzerland) to Bourg-Saint-Maurice, 160 km
The return to racing after the second rest day featured two long climbs and their descents: the Col du Grand-Saint-Bernard, the highest point in this year's Tour at 2,473 meters, and the Col du Petit Saint-Bernard, at which stage the race returned to France. An early break initiated by Maxime Bouet grew to 26 members, and mountains classifications challengers Franco Pellizotti and Egoi Martínez, along with Vladimir Karpets moved clear of the group as they approached the first climb. Martínez could not stay with the other two escapees, and Pellizotti took maximum points over the pass. In the long flat passage between both passes, the two leaders were caught by the large group and together started the last climb. Just before the top of this second climb, Pellizotti and Jurgen Van den Broeck who had been leading the climb, were joined by Mikel Astarloza and Amaël Moinard. Four further escapees also remained ahead of the favourites, but among that group an attack by Andy Schleck caused an elite group in which he was joined by his brother Fränk Schleck, Alberto Contador, Bradley Wiggins, Vincenzo Nibali and Andreas Klöden. Lance Armstrong led a response, and there was no lasting split among the GC contenders apart from Cadel Evans, who failed to stay with the yellow jersey group. Pellizotti again led over the top of the climb, and in the approach to the finishing town, Astarloza broke clear with 2 km remaining to win the stage, as the four chasers caught the remnants of the lead group. Jens Voigt fell hard while descending the col du Petit-Saint-Bernard with the group of the yellow jersey, he fractured his right cheekbone and suffered a concussion, and had to abandon the Tour. However, five days after the Tour finished the UCI announced that the initial stage winner Mikel Astarloza tested positive for EPO in an out-of-competition test on June 26, eight days before the race started. Astarloza was removed from the results, and the stage win transferred to Sandy Casar.
Stage 16 result Rank Rider Team Time DSQ 1 4h 14' 26" 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. DSQ + 5" 7 s.t. 8 + 54" 9 s.t.General classification after stage 16 Rank Rider Team Time 1 67h 33' 15" DSQ + 1' 37" 3 + 1' 46" 4 + 2' 17" 5 + 2' 26" 6 + 2' 51" 7 + 3' 09" 8 + 3' 25" 9 + 3' 52" 10 + 3' 59"
Stage 17 22 July 2009 – Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Le Grand-Bornand, 169 km