When the uninitiated watch bike races, the question they always ask is "why do they not simply attack, ride off the front?" Sometimes, bike racing is that easy. A frantic stage 12 of the Tour de France showed why those instances are so rare.
Just like on stage 10, Thursday's breakaway took a long time, and dozens of attacks, to properly form. Riders who were attempting things as soon as the flag was dropped were still attacking over an hour later, trying to escape from a tense peloton. It was not easy.
