Nicki Sorensen
/ AP Photo/Laurent Rebours
VITTEL, France (AP) — Nicki Sorensen won the 12th stage of the Tour de France on Thursday by breaking away and finishing well ahead of Laurent Lefevre, and Rinaldo Nocentini of Italy kept the yellow jersey.
Sorensen was part of a small group of seven riders that finished several minutes ahead of the main pack after foraging ahead unchallenged during the 211.5-kilometer (131.4-mile) trek from Tonnerre to Vittel, which featured six small hills.
The Dane earned his first career stage win at the Tour, and finished 48 seconds ahead of Lefevre.
The chasing pack, including Nocentini, seven-time champion Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador, finished nearly six minutes behind. Contador remained in second place overall, with Armstrong in third.
"We let the breakaway go after four minutes," Nocentini said. "It's a tough stage tomorrow but I'm already really happy and I will do my best to keep the yellow jersey tomorrow."
Seven riders managed to get away after about 65 kilometers (40.3 miles), including Egoi Martinez, Franco Pellizotti, Remi Pauriol, Sylvain Calzati and Markus Fothen.
The main pack sat up and let the breakaway go, with Mark Cavendish's Team Columbia-Highroad teammates not chasing. Cavendish has been the best sprinter at this year's Tour with four stage wins, including on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Calzati and Sorensen worked together to build a lead of 15 seconds with about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) remaining, but Sorensen attacked with about 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) to go and the others could not follow.
Armstrong looked to be in trouble after about 60 kilometers (37 miles) when he had to pull over to let his Astana team repair a puncture in his back wheel. However, after just a few moments, four of Armstrong's teammates helped him catch up with the main pack again.
Armstrong said before the stage that his main objective was to avoid any major incidents. Wednesday's stage was marred by several crashes and 19 riders were slightly injured.
"Yesterday, there was no way to avoid that crash. If you were just behind it, you were going down," Armstrong said. "So that is something which keeps you up at night. You have to constantly pay attention. I try to give myself a bit of space from people in front of me so I have a bit of time to brake."
Also Thursday, the International Cycling Union said in a statement that an earpiece ban set for Friday's 13th stage from Vittel to Colmar has been overturned, and riders will be able to race with electronic radio equipment as normal.
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AP Sports Writer Samuel Petrequin contributed to this report.
