Tour de France result: Simon Yates wins stage 12 as Julian Alaphilippe keeps the yellow jersey

For Yates, who came into this Tour with the main task of trying to help his twin brother Adam challenge in the general classification, it completed the set of stage wins at cycling’s three Grand Tours

There can only ever be one man in the yellow jersey but there are myriad ways of making a success of the Tour de France, whether it be as a dedicated domestique, a chest-beating sprinter or simply a dashing mountain climber in polka dots.

Britain’s Simon Yates is not in contention to win the Tour, having put so much into his failed bid at the Giro d’Italia in May, but he made sure that this was another race to remember as he claimed his first ever Tour de France stage win in supremely composed style.

Yates came into the final 20km in a trio of riders who attacked over the final climb, along with Astana’s Spanish rider Pello Bilbao and Bora-Hansgrohe’s Austrian rider Gregor Muhlberger, and after they had worked in sync to make sure they would not be caught reaching the flamme rouge, a game of cat and mouse began.

Bilbao, an accomplished rider and winner of two stages at the Giro, and the young Muhlberger both waited for Yates to make his move but couldn’t keep with him even though they knew it was coming. Yates seared around the outside of the final corner and held off his rivals to clinch Team Mitchelton-Scott’s second win of this Tour, after South African Daryl Impey took stage nine.

For Yates, who came into this Tour with the main task of trying to help his twin brother Adam challenge in the general classification, it completed the set of stage wins at cycling’s three Grand Tours in Italy, Spain and France.

“I’ve been saving energy for the mountains,” he said afterwards. “This was my first chance to try something and I grabbed it with both hands. I wasn’t very confident, I didn’t know how fast the other two are, but my director just told me I needed to be in front going around the final corner.

“My main priority is to help Adam. Today was just one of my chances to get up the road. We’re having a fantastic Tour. Long may it continue.”

For the GC riders like Ineos's Geraint Thomas and the man in the yellow jersey, Julian Alaphilippe, it was the uneventful day they hoped for. They allowed the breakaway to go up the road knowing there was no one involved who could come near them in the standings, and finished in a large group around nine minutes after Yates and company.

That will have suited all involved. For Alaphilippe, he ensured another day in the yellow jersey. For Thomas, he knows that he has a perfect opportunity to eat into the Frenchman's lead of more than a minute in Friday's individual time-trial around Pau.