Tour de France: Bernal takes yellow on shortened stage 19

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Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) was the big winner during a shortened stage 19 of the Tour de France. Although the jury ruled there would be no official stage winner, Bernal took the yellow jersey after the race was cancelled on the descent of the Col d’Iseran. Hail and ice in Tignes, as well as a landslide blocking the road between Val d'Isère and Tignes, made the final kilometres of the stage impossible to pass by bike.

The Colombian had attacked midway up the Iseran, launching after teammate Geraint Thomas put yellow jersey Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) into major trouble on the 2770-metre mountain.

Bernal caught and passed the remains of the break in the final kilometres of the climb, gaining a minute on Thomas, Steven Krujswijk (Jumbo-Visma) and Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), and two minutes on Alaphilippe.

Amid a shroud of confusion, general classification times were taken at the summit of the Iseran, meaning Bernal takes over the race lead, with Alaphilippe set to lose over two minutes to the 22-year-old.

The chaos marked the end of a frantic stage of racing, officially 126.5km long but cut to 88.5km due to the weather. Almost forgotten amidst the stage cancellation chaos was Groupama-FDJ leader Thibaut Pinot's abandon. The Frenchman, who lay fifth overall at the start of the day, left the race after suffering through the opening 40km with what turned out to be a torn thigh muscle.

How it unfolded

The Tour de France's high Alpine adventure continued with the 126.5km stage 19, with the 'roof of the Tour', the Col d'Iseran and Montée de Tignes (2089 metres) on the menu for the penultimate mountain stage of the race.

The two big climbs of the day were to come after the third-category Côte de Saint-André after 25km, the second-category Montée d'Aussois after 38km and the third-category Col de la Madeleine after 63.5km. The big tests of the day came with the HC-rated Iseran (12.9km at 7.5 per cent) and first-category Tignes (7.4km at 7 per cent), which would – of course – end up not being raced.

A number of big names joined in the attacking at the start of the stage, with Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) and Pello Bilbao (Astana) among the early attackers.

The hectic start to the stage saw more riders make it across, with Rigoberto Urán (EF Education First) and world champion Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) two men from the top ten to get away. Other notable names included king of the mountains challenger Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Merida), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) and Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic).

Meanwhile, Team Ineos, Jumbo-Visma and Movistar placed helpers in the break with Dylan Van Baarle, Laurens De Plus and Andrey Amador going up the road. On such a short and pivotal stage, the break would never take more than two minutes on the peloton.

The first major drama of the day unfolded 30km into the stage when Groupama-FDJ leader Thibaut Pinot dropped back to the medical car for attention to his left leg. The Frenchman was bandaged up but struggled to put power through the pedals and lost contact with the peloton.

It soon became clear that the man in fifth overall had a serious injury, with teammates passing by offering him pats on the back. On the Montée d'Aussois, he hugged teammate Matthieu Ladagnous before rolling to a halt and climbing into the team car, his Tour over.

Up the road, Caruso picked up seven points over Aussois and Madeleine to edge closer to mountain classification leader Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), who had tried but failed to make the break.

On the Iseran, Van Baarle dropped back to help Wout Poels push the pace for Ineos at the front of the rapidly-thinning GC group. As stage 18 winner Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and race leader Julian Alaphilippe's key helper Enric Mas dropped 7km from the top, the group lay just 30 seconds behind the break.

The action kicked off as Poels pulled off 6km from the top, triggering an attack by Thomas, which in turn forced the other GC contenders chase. Ineos teammate Bernal sat on the struggling Alaphilippe before launching himself a kilometre later.

The young Colombian quickly joined up with Nibali, Urán, Yates and Barguil at the head of the race, while Thomas had Jumbo-Visma duo De Plus and Kruijswijk, plus Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe). Alaphilippe, meanwhile, had Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) for company.

One by one, Bernal's companions dropped away, with Yates the last man on his wheel as he rode into the virtual lead. At the top, he took the 8-second bonus alone, with the Thomas group a minute down and Alaphilippe two minutes in arrears.

As Bernal started the descent, helicopter images and Twitter reports from team cars showed heavy hailstorms and ice covering the road in Tignes before the final climb. Reports also showed a landslide blocking the road at one point, after a storm on the Iseran washed mud and rocks onto the road.

Race officials made the decision to halt the stage shortly afterwards, with Tour director Christian Prudhomme leaning out of the lead car to explain what was happening to Bernal and Yates. Confusion reigned further back, with Urán and Alaphilippe among the more animated riders as news filtered through.

But the decision was made, the roads impassable as the second-shortest stage of the race was shortened even further. At the end of it all, for the first time in almost two weeks, Alaphilippe was out of yellow.

Full Results

Stage results nullified, times for GC taken atop Col de l'Iseran: