Stage 11 of the 2012 Tour de France was contested on 12 July and the race concluded with Stage 20 on 22 July. The second half of the race was situated entirely within France; starting with a mountain stage from Albertville to La Toussuire-Les Sybelles – incorporating two hors catégorie climbs during the stage – before the customary race-concluding stage finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
Following his victory in the ninth stage individual time trial, rider Bradley Wiggins held the lead into the second half of the race. He maintained his race lead throughout the second half of the race, holding a lead of 2 minutes and 5 seconds – transpiring from stage 9 – until the race's final individual time trial, held on the penultimate day of the race. Wiggins won the stage by 1 minute and 16 seconds ahead of his team-mate Chris Froome, and Wiggins ultimately held his lead into Paris the following day to win the race overall by 3 minutes and 21 seconds, to become the first rider from Great Britain to win a Grand Tour race. Froome finished second, while the final podium was completed by former Vuelta a España winner Vincenzo Nibali, riding for the team, who was the only other rider to finish within 10 minutes of Wiggins' final overall time.
Only Wiggins' team-mate Mark Cavendish was able to win more than one stage during the second half of the race, winning two of the final three stages including a fourth consecutive final stage victory in Paris. This victory allowed him to become the most prolific sprinter at the Tour de France with 23 stage victories, surpassing the record of 22 which had been held for 48 years by France's André Darrigade. Three French riders – Pierre Rolland, Pierrick Fédrigo and Thomas Voeckler – each took a stage victory during the second half of the race, with Voeckler's victory in the queen stage helping in part for him to become the eventual winner of the mountains classification. Other stage victories were taken by David Millar, André Greipel, Luis León Sánchez and Alejandro Valverde.
During the fourteenth stage of the race, Wiggins neutralised the peloton on the descent from the Mur de Péguère climb, after carpet tacks were found to be responsible for around thirty punctures on the climb itself. Among those delayed was the defending champion Cadel Evans, who suffered three punctures on the climb and had lost around two minutes before Wiggins called a truce in the main field, allowing the breakaway to finish the stage over eighteen minutes clear of the pack. Following the raid of the team hotel during the first rest day, the second rest day was marked by a positive drugs test by rider Fränk Schleck, the third-placed rider from the 2011 race. Schleck quit the race after traces of xipamide, a banned sulfonamide diuretic drug, were found in the A-sample of his urine, and was later confirmed by the B-sample.
Classification standings
Legend Denotes the leader of the general classification Denotes the leader of the points classification Denotes the leader of the mountains classification Denotes the leader of the young rider classification Denotes the leader of the team classification Denotes the winner of the combativity award
Stage 11
12 July 2012 — Albertville to La Toussuire-Les Sybelles,
The stage was spent entirely in the Alps with two hors catégorie climbs – the Col de la Madeleine after and the Col de la Croix de Fer after ; both of which had summits at or higher – before the finish at La Toussuire-Les Sybelles. The Col de la Croix de Fer was the highest point reached in the Alps in the 2012 Tour, so the leader across the summit would win the Souvenir Henri Desgrange. The finish was a first-category climb of at an average gradient of 6.1%. Much like the previous day, a large breakaway was formed after several different groups advanced clear of the main field as they approached the first climb of the day, at the Col de la Madeleine.
In total, there were 28 riders in the group at one point; at the top of the climb, the pace picked up and the group splintered into several mini-groups as 's Peter Velits scored the maximum points on offer for the climb, followed closely by rider Fredrik Kessiakoff. Velits and Kessiakoff pulled out a 45-second advantage on the descent, but eight riders eventually bridged the gap and rejoined the duo before the Col de la Croix de Fer. had two riders in the group, with Christophe Kern setting the pace for team-mate Pierre Rolland, and the tempo was again splitting the group up. Back in the peloton, young rider classification leader Tejay van Garderen () attacked on the climb, as the benchmark for a later move by his team-mate Cadel Evans. They acquired a 30-second lead at one point before brought Bradley Wiggins back up to them. Kessiakoff just bettered Rolland for the mountains points atop the Col de la Croix de Fer, with the peloton around two minutes behind.
The group containing Wiggins and other overall contenders dropped a minute further back on the early parts of the Col du Mollard, where the breakaway consisted of Velits, Rolland, 's Chris Anker Sørensen and Robert Kišerlovski of , with 's Vasil Kiryienka later joining up. Rolland crashed on the descent from the climb, having taken first place points over the summit, while Sørensen was in difficulty to stay with the lead. rider Vincenzo Nibali tried to breach the peloton on two occasions on the final climb, catching up with 's Jurgen Van den Broeck who had escaped with eighth stage winner, 's Thibaut Pinot. Evans cracked on the climb, losing time to Wiggins, team-mate Chris Froome and other contenders. Froome put Wiggins into difficulty at one point, but backed the pace down via his team radio. Up front, Rolland was the last remaining rider of the breakaway, and soloed to his second Tour stage win, and his team's second stage win in a row. Pinot led the yellow jersey group across the line almost a minute down, while Evans lost almost 90 seconds on Wiggins, Froome and Nibali, who filled the top three places overall at the conclusion of the stage.
+ Stage 11 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 55" 3 + 55" 4 + 57" 5 + 57" 6 + 57" 7 + 1' 08" 8 + 1' 58" 9 + 2' 13" 10 + 2' 23"+ General classification after stage 11 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 2' 05" 3 + 2' 23" 4 + 3' 19" 5 + 4' 48" 6 + 6' 15" 7 + 6' 57" 8 + 7' 30" 9 + 8' 31" 10 + 8' 51"
Stage 12
13 July 2012 — Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Annonay–Davézieux,
With a parcours of , the twelfth stage was the longest of the Tour; the race left the Alps but only after a pair of first-category climbs – the Col du Grand Cucheron and the Col du Granier – in the first , although there was also a third-category climb of the Côte d'Ardoix within the final , before the finish in Annonay-Davézieux. As had been the case in the previous two stages, there was another large breakaway group that set the tempo outside of the peloton in the early running. At its maximum, the group contained nineteen riders, but it had been reduced to eleven by the time the group reached the foot of the opening climb, the Col du Grand Cucheron.
Robert Kišerlovski of took the maximum points on offer for the climb, to help protect the lead of the classification, held by team-mate Fredrik Kessiakoff. rider David Moncoutié tried to bridge the gap to reach the lead group, but crashed heavily on the descent from the climb. He had to abandon the race with abrasions. Kišerlovski also took maximum points on the Col du Granier, which made Kessiakoff's lead safe for another day. After reaching the mid-stage feeding zone in Saint-Joseph-de-Rivière, the lead group split and five riders – David Millar of , rider Jean-Christophe Péraud, 's Egoi Martínez, Kišerlovski and Cyril Gautier, looking to give a third win in a row – accelerated away to a near 13-minute lead at its maximum. With none of the riders being in overall contention, the peloton let the group go and decided not to chase them down before the finish.
None of the quintet attacked each other, and they remained as one into the final of the stage. Kišerlovski played his hand first, launching an attack with remaining, but Péraud closed down the move almost immediately; a secondary move took Martínez and Gautier out of the equation for the stage victory. Péraud accelerated again and Millar latched onto his wheel with Kišerlovski unable to follow the pair. Millar took the front inside the final , but Péraud remained on his wheel until just before to go; he launched his attack, but Millar beat him to the line for his fourth individual stage victory at the Tour – his first since 2003 – and the fourth different British rider to take a stage win at the 2012 Tour. The peloton was led across the line almost eight minutes down by the top two in the points classification, 's Matthew Goss and 's Peter Sagan. Sagan protested the sprint finish of Goss, feeling that he had impeded him in the closing metres. Race officials agreed with Sagan and demoted Goss to seventh – helped in part by a one-second time gap between them and the rest of the field – and penalised him 30 points in the classification, and 30 seconds overall.
+ Stage 12 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 0" 3 + 5" 4 + 5" 5 + 5" 6 + 7' 53" 7 + 7' 53" 8 + 7' 54" 9 + 7' 54" 10 + 7' 54"+ General classification after stage 12 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 2' 05" 3 + 2' 23" 4 + 3' 19" 5 + 4' 48" 6 + 6' 15" 7 + 6' 57" 8 + 7' 30" 9 + 8' 31" 10 + 8' 51"
Stage 13
14 July 2012 — Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Cap d'Agde,
This transitional stage took the Tour to the Mediterranean. The day's only categorised climb over Mont-Saint-Clair at Sète and the wind off the sea were two potential disruptions to the race in the final of the stage. For the celebration of Bastille Day, the breakaway had extensive French representation, with five of the eight-rider move – rider Samuel Dumoulin, 's Mathieu Ladagnous, Jimmy Engoulvent of , Maxime Bouet () and Jérôme Pineau, representing the team – from the country. The group was rounded out by Pablo Urtasun of , 's Michael Mørkøv and rider Roy Curvers.
The octet made their escape in the opening of the stage, and their advantage eventually stemmed to a maximum of almost 10 minutes at the mark, before sent riders forward to the front of the peloton in order to bring the gap down. Urtasun led the group across the line at the stage's intermediate sprint point in Mas-de-Londres, but behind, points classification leader Peter Sagan () was able to launch his sprint for the line before 's sprinter Matthew Goss did so, and extended his lead in the standings as a result. Pineau looked to go clear with to go, but his move was anticipated by Mørkøv, before he attacked of his own accord. Mørkøv held a one-minute advantage over his former breakaway companions all the way to the foot of the Mont-Saint-Clair, but the peloton were able to close the advantage to them all before the summit of the climb.
's Cadel Evans and rider Jurgen Van den Broeck both attacked on the Mont-Saint-Clair, and their accelerated pace ripped the peloton apart, with many riders falling off the back of the peloton. Around 25 riders remained in the lead group, with only Sagan and Van Den Broeck's team-mate André Greipel out of the sprinters making the group. Further moves came from rider Alexander Vinokourov, Michael Albasini of , and 's Luis León Sánchez, but they were closed down by – looking after Greipel for the finish – and for race leader Bradley Wiggins. Wiggins led out team-mate Edvald Boasson Hagen for the sprint, but Greipel launched his own off his wheel and managed to fend off a quick-finishing Sagan to take his third stage win of the Tour by half a wheel, the first such feat by a German rider since Erik Zabel in 2001.