Mother Nature Gets Involved - Le Tour in the Alps

Friday's day in the Alps started as predicted - the front-runners riding a "safe" race, the climbers attempting to out-do each other, and everyone chasing each other because, it is a race after all. Then, as most of the riders were approaching the top of the Col d'Ilseran, and a few were ahead of the pack almost ready to start the final climb, Mother Nature decided to get involved and the Tour was turned upside-down. 

A sudden freak storm dumped massive hail and rain, causing standing
water and mudslides onto the course. It was determined to be
unsafe for the riders and the race was stopped with the crest of
the previous mountain as the new finish line. The standings
were blown to pieces with this! 

In my years of watching Le Tour de France, I've seen snowflakes, torrential rains, blazing heat and massive gusts of wind. I've seen riders fall off mountains, ride into walls, go into the water or ride off the pavement edges at high speed. I've never seen anything like yesterday's flash storm and I doubt many, if any, of the riders ever had too. 

Check out the You Tube video above for a quick 

look at the hail and mudslide conditions that 

caused yesterday's race to be stopped. 

Hail - hail and wind and a blow-down of massive rain and water followed by a mudslide, all within ten minutes (probably much less). By the end of this short temper snit on the mountainside, the roadway was impassable, the snow plows were out trying to clean up the mess, and the Tour Director had called the Race for the day. Yes, that's right. The Tour de France was cancelled for that day with the times now calculated from the crest of the next-to-last peak instead of the official finish line at the top of the final upslope. What did that mean? Well, it meant a major shake-up in the standings. 

The official blurb for the sudden stoppage was: 

Because of a sudden storm, the road was impassable at km 112 in the downhill leading to Tignes. Huge amounts of hail and mass of rubble made it impossible for the race to continue. The times were taken at col d’Iseran. Therefore, Bernal who crested it first 2’07’’ before Alaphilipe is the new leader of the Tour de France with two days to go with an advantage of 45’’ over the Frenchman and 1’3’’ over Thomas. There is no stage winner for stage 19.

Since the new finish line was the crest of the Col d'Ilseran, and many of the favorites were hanging back to make their big push on the final climb, a new winner wore yellow. The Peloton standings were shaken up. We also have a new Tour today - a shortened route because of more landslide and weather issues. The Powers-That-Be have shortened today's course by 71 km because of landslides and weather warnings, leaving today's course a mere 59 km in length. So ... who is in the lead after yesterday's storms? 

This is the revised stage profile for today's Stage 20 course. Originally
there were supposed to be three mountain peaks, but organizers
have clipped 71 km from today's stage, leaving a minor climb
and a course of only 59/5 km. 

At the top, in the Yellow, is Egan Bernal (Team Ineos), a rider who had consistently been winning the "Best Young Rider" award. Peter Sagan retains the Green (sprinters don't like to climb, so they were all behind the climbing leaders). Romain Bardet (Ag2R La Mondiale) is again in the Polka Dots, and even though Egan Bernal also qualifies as the Best Young Rider, since he can't be awarded both the Yellow and the White, the White goes to the second place rider, David Gaudu (Groupana - FDJ). 

Today's official blurb for the revised course is as follows: 

Stage 19 was shortened but Egan Bernal took the lead with one mountain stage remaining. It’s another short one starting in the Tarentaise valley where he won the Tour de l’Avenir two years ago. It’s only 59,5km long as landslides and threatening weather forecast led to another change of the course. It uphill to Val-Thorens that has been featured on the map of the Tour de France only once before with the victory of Nelson “Cacaito” Rodriguez in 1994. Colombian cycling enthusiasts are ready for another big party and possibly their biggest one ever.

Where are the former leaders ranking now? No riders were awarded Stage win awards since the race was shortened. Alaphillipe is down 48 seconds to Bernal and Geraint Thomas is in third, down almost two minutes (1' 58"). Given that today is a shortened route and tomorrow is the ride into Paris, Geraint may well be unable to move ahead in the rankings and might be standing lower on the Podium in Paris than he had planned, if he makes it at all. Peter Sagan has the Green wrapped up, almost 100 points ahead of the second-place rider, Bardet will probably pull off the win for the Polka Dot. Egan Bernal might well end up in the Yellow at the top step of the podium, and Columbia will go crazy with celebration. I'm not sure if he can also win the White. If not, David Gaudu will probably be awarded the White. Team award will likely go to Movistar. 

There you have it - it's been a crazy and rather freaky Tour de France this year - one that fans of the sport won't forget. What a way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Yellow Jersey! Have a great weekend and I'll be back on Monday as life returns to normal in my household.