Colombian Egan Bernal took over the yellow jersey on a shortened stage 19 of the Tour de France in Tignes today.
With snow in the valley before the final Montée de Tignes climb causing dangerous conditions, race organisers decided to take the general classification times and stop the stage at the top of the Col d’Iseran, which was the second last climb of the day.
It was later confirmed that the issue was not just the ice, but also a mudslide between the base of Iseran and the climb to Tignes.
The race organisers also stated that there would be no official stage winner.
They made right call on neutralizing finish — no way they could race safely in these conditions; road flooded with water, ice, hail, slush pic.twitter.com/MtVJEjMREO
— Andrew Hood (@EuroHoody) July 26, 2019
This was bad news for previous overall leader Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), who would have hoped to gain time on Bernal on the descent.
“I gave everything, I was beaten by stronger riders,” said Alaphilippe.
“It was a dream to wear the yellow jersey. It was longer than I could have imagined. I gave the maximum.
“I didn’t dream that I would go on to win the Tour but I fought to the summit and on the descent too. I was carried along by the craziness of the yellow jersey. The result doesn’t matter much, I gave everything.”
Bernal and Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) were the leading duo on the descent, before race director Christian Prudhomme pulled up alongside them to explain the situation.
Bernal moved from fifth to second overall on yesterday’s stage.
Other news from today’s stage was that Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), who was fifth overall, had to withdraw. The Frenchman suffers from a muscular lesion in his left thigh.
Egan Bernal won a shortened stage 19 of the Tour de France and took over the yellow jersey in Tignes today. Photo: A.S.O./Alex Broadway
