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Swiss rider Marc Hirschi elated after maiden Tour de France stage win

Swiss rider Marc Hirschi has claimed his first ever Tour de France stage win.

The Team Sunweb cyclist crossed the line at the end of stage 12 alone after a gutsy late move.

Hirschi broke away with 28km to go and never looked back for his maiden victory.

The Swiss had come close to winning previous and was relieved to make it to the top of the stage 12 podium.

"It's unbelievable, I was twice really close and actually today I never believed that I could make it," said the 22-year-old.

"I went full gas. It's super nice. Actually I was always doubting, I had the picture in my mind of the last two stages. My first victory as a professional, it's incredible. I know I'm strong. It just gave me extra power, it was now or never."

There was no change to the overall leaderboard with Jumbo-Visma's Primoz Roglic maintaining his 21 second advantage over defending champion Egal Bernal.

The Slovenian is weary though of tomorrow's 191.5km stage 13 from Chatel-Guyon to Puy Mary.

"I think it looks like a really hard stage, it's going to be a nice challenge, we can expect some battle in the end," Roglic told reporters.

"We need to focus on ourselves and do our job but in the end a lot of things can happen."

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