finish in Boulogne-sur-Mer, and was sent flying into safety barriers, but was unharmed and was given the same finishing time as the winner, Peter Sagan of . On stage seven finishing atop the Category 1 climb to La Planche des Belles Filles, he protected his leader Wiggins and was part of a small group that came in sight of the finish line. Cadel Evans () attacked, Froome jumped on his wheel and won the stage with an advantage of two seconds over his leader and Evans. Froome took the lead in the mountains classification. With that operation, he took the polka dot jersey, but lost it to Fredrik Kessiakoff of the very next day. Froome finished second to Wiggins on stage nine, an individual time trial, and moved up to third overall. On stage eleven to La Toussuire, Froome attacked the remaining group on the last climb, before the finish line. He subsequently received the order from his team manager to hold back and wait for yellow jersey Wiggins. He finished third on the stage. For his efforts in assisting Wiggins, Froome was lauded in the media as a super-domestique. On stage seventeen, Froome and Wiggins finished second and third respectively on the final mountain stage to further cement their general classification positions, although Froome repeatedly waited for Wiggins on the final climb, costing him the chance of winning the stage. On stage nineteen, a time trial, Froome finished second to Wiggins, mirroring the overall standings. Wiggins went on to win the tour with Froome second, becoming the first two British riders to make the podium of the Tour de France in its 109-year history. Froome, along with Sky teammates Wiggins, Cavendish and Ian Stannard, as well as Millar () were selected for Team GB's road race at the Olympic Games. Froome and Wiggins also contested in the time trial. Froome won bronze in the time trial, with teammate Wiggins taking gold. Froome was selected as Team Sky's leader for the Vuelta a España, where he aimed to go one better than 2011 and win his first Grand Tour. He lay third after the first mountain finish on stage three, and moved up to second on stage four after leader Alejandro Valverde crashed, losing 55 seconds to the chasing group. Froome moved down to third during the stage-eleven time trial sixteen seconds off leader Rodriguez. He lost another twenty-three seconds