Intro:

Joaquim Rodriguez won the 12th stage of the Tour de France on Thursday (16th July) while Chris Froome came out of the toughest Pyrenees stage with his lead comfortably intact.

Script:

Joaquim Rodriguez won his second stage of this year's Tour de France as leader Chris Froome held off attacks from his yellow jersey rivals on stage 12.

The Spaniard overhauled Michal Kwiatkowski in driving rain late on to win the 195km route from Lannemezan.

It was the second stage win of the Tour for the Rodriguez, after he triumphed up the sharp climb of the Mur de Huy in Belgium on stage three.

Meanwhile, Team Sky's Chris Froome faced close attention from Vincenzo Nibali, Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana on the gruelling climb up Plateau de Beille.

But he didn't succumb to the pressure and remains in yellow and top of the King of the Mountains classification

And with the Tour now past halfway, time is starting to run out for rivals to try to rein back in. He's still 2 minutes, 52 seconds ahead of BMC rider Tejay van Garderen.