Tour de France 2017 live stream: Time, TV schedule, and route for Stage 12

If only Tour de France riders and organizers had agreed to rest the last two days and hand Marcel Kittel his inevitable stage victories, they would have spared themselves a lot of kilometers and the rest of us some rather dull racing.

Thankfully, Stage 12 reintroduces mountains to the Tour after three days of inaction. Day 1 of the Pyrenees isn’t too difficult by the Tour’s standards, but it’s an uphill finish nonetheless, and it should shake up the general classification standings, if not as significantly as Stage 9 did.

Stage 12 will begin in Pau at approximately 5:10 a.m. ET, and finish 214.5 kilometers later in Peyragudes. NBCSN will begin broadcasting the stage at 7:30 a.m. The stage can be streamed through NBCSports.com or the NBC Sports app at the same time. Or for the true diehards, NBC Sports Gold will begin broadcasting at 4:50 a.m., giving you every pedal stroke and some nice live tracking features as part of a subscription.

The action will ramp up (very literally) midway through the stage, beginning with a Category 1 climb up the Col de Menté. Of the final 85 kilometers, only 15 are relatively flat, leading up to an Hors Catégorie climb up to Port de Balès, from which riders will descend, then immediately begin a Category 1 climb up the Col de Peyresourde. The final notch — a 2.4-kilometer Category 2 before the finish line — features gradients over 10 percent.

Port de Balès and Peyresourde have been featured in years past and haven’t been decisive, so there’s a chance that Thursday’s action will be relatively mute. It could be another chance for a breakaway to finish a stage, too, especially with so many pre-Tour general classification contenders struggling. Perhaps Alberto Contador gives us one glorious ride to make up for his snakebitten Tour.

Right now, the only riders who seem to have a puncher’s chance of taking Chris Froome’s yellow jersey are Fabio Aru, Romain Bardet, and Rigoberto Uran, and they will likely save their powder for bigger stages in which the potential rewards are greater. Everyone else in the field may be game to gamble their energy for one-day glory.

And that’s just fine. Stage 12 may not be the most important of the Tour, but thank god it will feature some honest racing.

Stage route

Stage profile

Images courtesy of the Tour’s official site.

Start time: 5:10 a.m. ET (approx.)

Route: 214.5 kilometers from Pau to Peyragudes

TV: NBCSN, beginning at 7:30 a.m.

Streaming: NBCSports.com and NBC Sports app beginning at 7:30 a.m. NBC Sports Gold beginning at 4:50 a.m. (separate subscription required).