Millar in leading pack

Cyclist David Millar was in the early break on the longest day of the 99th Tour de France, led by Britons Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome.

The 226-kilometre 12th stage from Saint-Jean de Maurienne to Annonay-Davezieux was likely to favour an escape, with two category one climbs early on and a category three ascent in the final 20km as the peloton headed south.

There were 11 riders in the lead after 60km of racing and having negotiated the first category ascent of the Col du Grand Cucheron, with Millar (Garmin-Sharp) among them.

The best-placed overall was Robert Kiserlovski (Astana), who began the day 28 minutes 43 seconds behind Wiggins, who started the day 2mins 5secs ahead of second-placed Froome, his Team Sky colleague. Edvald Boasson Hagen led the peloton, Wiggins was in the yellow jersey three places behind and Froome was one place behind him.

Millar, who was the most recent Briton to lead the Tour before Wiggins, was fourth over the day's second first category climb, the Col du Granier, and attacked on the descent as a group of five leaders formed.

The Scot was joined by Kiserlovski, Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r La Mondiale) and Cyril Gautier (Europcar).

Points classification leader Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) attacked, too, with the day's intermediate sprint to take place on the long run-in towards the final ascent of the day, a short, sharp category three climb of the Cote d'Ardoix, the summit of which came less than 20km from the finish.

The five leaders established a lead of more than 11 minutes with 86km of the stage remaining as world champion Mark Cavendish, among the riders dropped earlier on when ascending the major peaks, returned to the peloton.