Egan Bernal took the yellow jersey of the Tour de France from Julian Alaphilippe in bizarre circumstances as a hailstorm and reported landslides forced stage 19 to be stopped before the final climb into Tignes.
Commissaires ruled that times would be taken at the top of the Col de l’Iseran – which will give Bernal the yellow jersey. The Colombian was leading the stage after attacking on the penultimate climb of the 126.5km stage from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, but race organisers subsequently announced no official stage winner would be declared. The provisional general classification shows Bernal leading Alaphilippe by 45 seconds with Geraint Thomas third, a further 18 seconds adrift.
Alaphilippe had been distanced by a series of successful attacks from his rivals, with Bernal cresting the Iseran climb alone. The Frenchman looked frustrated as he climbed into a Deceuninck-Quick Step car. He would have hoped to have taken time back on the long descent, though it will never be known if he could have avoided further losses on the final climb up to Tignes.
Bernal is now the favourite to be on the top of the podium in Paris after cresting the Iseran around 50 seconds ahead of a group containing Thomas and Steven Kruijswijk, and more than two minutes ahead of Alaphilippe, whose fairytale run in yellow is over.