Bernal sets up Tour triumph by a landslide

AFTER Thibaut Pinot abandoned the race in tears and Julian Alaphilippe lost the yellow jersey on the brutal ascent of the highest paved pass in Europe, the dramatic landslide that brought yesterday’s stage to a premature end felt like the wrath of the French cycling gods. It was an intervention on an biblical scale: an ice storm less than 24 hours after riders had been complaining of 40-degree heat. Hailstones so big and plentiful they needed the ski resort snow ploughs from Tignes and Val d’Isere to clear the roads were followed by a deluge of mud and rubble off the mountainside that had spectators fleeing for safety. It was the safety of the riders, of course, that forced organisers to stop them descending any further off the Col de l’Iseran but the decision to declare the end of the race at a summit only the leading riders had crossed felt most unsatisfactory, even if the man who is probably most deserving of the yellow jersey, and the man who reached the top of the Iseran first, starts the penultimate stage in a commanding lead. For the first time a stage winner was not declared because of the weather. But for the first time in this extraordinary race it is possible to predict the winner, given Egan Bernal’s 45second lead and the strength he has displayed in the Alps. Just as we can probably now assume that Team Ineos are about to celebrate their seventh Tour victory in eight years with a fourth different rider, who is not British but Colombian. That 37km of racing and a final bruising climb up to Tignes remained before the stage was abandoned will nag at many. In fairness to Bernal, he has been the strongest rider in the third week and if he does now reach Val Thorens this evening as the race leader it would be harsh for anyone to suggest the hugely talented Bogota rider does not deserve to ride into Paris tomorrow in yellow. ‘Fortune favours the brave,’ was how Sir Dave Brailsford put it, explaining that they had always considered ‘the highest point of the Tour’ the most important climb. In terms of strategy, he said it had gone like clockwork. ‘We decided this morning that we didn’t want to come second and third. We wanted to win and that meant making that 37 minutes of climbing hard for Alaphilippe. We decided we would rather finish 102nd and 103rd than second and third, so we gave it everything.’ Geraint Thomas said he would indeed work for the team. ‘Egan’s in yellow so the main thing is he finishes the job,’ he said. ‘We’ll fully support him now.’