PARIS, July 18 -- British rider Simon Yates claimed his first stage win in Tour de France by triumphing the 12th stage thanks to strong sprint on Thursday, while Australia's Rohan Dennis made a shocking withdrawal halfway through the stage.

Riders began to embrace tough competitions in the Pyrenees in Thursday's stage covering 209.5km from Toulouse to Bagneres-de-Bigorre.

Yates, the 2018 La Vuelta overall winner, outclassed Pello Bilbao and Gregor Muhlberger in the final 500-meter sprint for his career breakthrough, registering stage wins in all Grand Tours after the Giro d'Italia and La Vuelta.

"I wasn't very confident in beating them. I didn't know how fast these two riders were but my sport director told me to take the last corner in first position and I'm glad it works out well," said Yates, adding that having a stage win at all three Grand Tours makes him very proud.

The overall leader Julian Alaphilippe and defending champion Geraint Thomas didn't see any change in their gap of one minute and 12 seconds as top two contenders, both finishing the race in the main pack.

The individual time trial stage in Pau on Friday offers a golden chance for Thomas to overtake Alaphilippe.

For Alaphilippe, "I'm very happy to lead the Tour de France. It motivates me to hurt myself even more than usual. I'll push my limits."

Without seeing any apparent shuffling in overall standings, the mountain stage, however, witnessed bizarre withdrawal by Dennis.

The time trial world champion quit the race with around 80km remaining, without any injury or giving his explanation for the withdrawal.

"Our priority is the welfare of all our riders so will launch an immediate investigation but will not be commenting further until we have established what has happened to Rohan Dennis," his Bahrain-Merida team tweeted.

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