breakaway riders, while Vanmarcke and Edet were joined by rider Pierre Rolland, who had escaped the confines of the main group itself. Another three-rider move went forwards from the peloton as Rolland's team-mate Cyril Gautier, 's Luis León Sánchez and rider Philippe Gilbert got clear by several seconds. Irizar held a slim advantage, but overshot a corner and was eventually caught with around to go. As Irizar was caught, Jérôme Coppel of counter-attacked, and was eventually joined by Cadel Evans – a team-mate of Gilbert at – and 's Andrey Kashechkin, who finished third in the race in 2007. The trio managed to hold off the closing peloton into the finish, where Evans managed to fend off the advances of Coppel and Kashechkin to take the stage win. rider Nacer Bouhanni led home the peloton just four seconds in arrears, and with race leader Luke Durbridge () not featuring in the split peloton, Bradley Wiggins assumed the race lead for ; Evans moved up to second, one second behind Wiggins. Stage 2 5 June 2012 — Lamastre to Saint-Félicien, Just like the previous day's stage, the second stage of the race also comprised six categorised climbs, packed into the route through the Ardèche region, with the highest point coming at the summit of the second-category Col de Montivernoux. The finish in Saint-Félicien came at the end of a climb, which would more or less rule out the sprinters more obviously than the first stage parcours. rider Rémi Pauriol and 's Maxime Méderel broke clear of the peloton in the opening stages, and they were subsequently joined by a group which contained a number of overall race contenders including maillot jaune et bleu wearer Bradley Wiggins (), Vincenzo Nibali of and rider Sylvain Chavanel. The group was eventually reabsorbed back into the main group after around of racing. After a period of stability within the main group, a four-rider move consisting of three French riders – David Moncoutié representing , Blel Kadri of and 's Christophe Kern, who won a stage during the 2011 race – as well as Colombia's Cayetano Sarmiento, riding for the team, advanced clear of the field and quickly established an advantage over them; of those, Kadri was best-placed at just eleven seconds behind Wiggins prior to the stage. marshalled the front of the peloton as a result, not letting the gap over four minutes at any