Lidl-Trek had a plan to disrupt the finale of stage 12: 'Fun to watch, right?'

On paper, Stage 12 of the Tour de France looked like it would be just another bunch sprint, but in the end, that sprint wasn’t so ordinary after all. Lidl-Trek surprised everyone in the final stretch and pushed hard. Although their effort ultimately proved unsuccessful, team manager Kim Andersen was quite satisfied afterward, as reported by IDL Pro Cycling, among others. Here’s the story from Lidl-Trek.

Let’s start at the beginning, because Lidl-Trek made its presence felt right from the opening phase. “Ideally, we wanted to form a breakaway, but we knew it was going to be tough,” team manager Andersen told Eurosport. So they had to change tactics. “At the very least, we wanted to try something, rather than just wait for the sprint.”

Is it that simple? “Why not?” replied the Dane, said about why his team was pushing so hard in the final stretch. “Why not? We were trying something. We won’t win the sprint if we let the sprint teams control the race right up to the sprint,” he said with a big smile on his face.

It didn't all go smoothly. “We had a clear plan. It was a bit unfortunate that Philipsen got a flat tire, so we had to wait for him to rejoin the peloton,” Andersen said. It would ultimately be in vain, but was the lack of smooth cooperation the reason for that?

"I think Ganna worked well with us; that was great to see," said the team director. "Other riders were also eager for a chance; there were a few small climbs. Those last forty kilometers were great." He added: “We’d hoped we could really give it a shot, but we knew it would be tough. It was fun to watch, wasn’t it?”

Andersen was still standing there with a big smile on his face. The Dane had really enjoyed playing with his team. “We already had this plan last night; that’s when we talked it over. The sprints hadn’t gone the way we wanted over the past few days. So we thought: okay, let’s try something different,” he said.

And so Pedersen’s battle for the green jersey also continues to unfold slowly. “It’s not too bad. It’s going to be a long battle, but we’re in the lead and there aren’t any more stages worth 70 points. I think we can be pretty happy,” Andersen added.