BERNAL ON VERGE OF TOUR WIN HAIL STORM CUTS SHORT ALPS STAGE
Egan Bernal snatched the overall lead on the Tour de France on Friday after stage 19 was abandoned in a massive hail storm with the Team Ineos rider now poised to become the first Colombian to win cycling’s greatest prize.
The stage will have no official winner, but the yellow jersey goes to Bernal as he crossed the day’s penultimate summit first and was racing downhill with Simon Yates when the pair were told of the danger ahead. The road to Tignes was buried in hail and rubble from a landslide.
“It’s a big day tomorrow and I haven’t won the Tour yet. I need to concentrate and fight to keep the lead,” said Bernal, who led atop the Col de l’Iseran in the Alps where the race times were taken when the stage was halted.
The 22-year-old will become the first Colombian to win the race should he hold on over the 33km climb to Saturday’s summit finish in the Alps with just Sunday’s procession into Paris to follow.
His job on Saturday appeared straightforward late on Friday night when organizers cut the penultimate stage by over half its distance due to reports of more mudslides. Overnight leader Julian Alaphilippe was a further minute adrift when Friday’s stage was halted and was disconsolate after the race.
“I don’t think I can win the yellow jersey back,” said Alaphilippe who is 48 seconds off the overall lead. “I was beaten by something stronger than me.”
Alaphilippe wore the yellow jersey for 14 days, carrying the hopes of a public eager to see a French winner for the first time since Bernard Hinault in 1985 and defying pundits who felt he would wilt in the Pyrenees.
With the isolated Alaphilippe struggling for breath towards the summit of the highest point of the Tour, Bernal attacked 5km short of the peak, scampering away with ease.
Earlier, France’s other yellow jersey hope Thibaut Pinot was also ruled out.
Trailing behind the peloton in tears, Pinot pulled out an hour into the race, still suffering from the thigh injury picked up in a crash two days ago.