This year's Tour de France was arguably the most thrilling Grande Boucle since Greg LeMond snatched victory from Laurent Fignon by just eight seconds in 1989, with a series of twists and turns creating three weeks of ever changing and entertaining racing.
In the absence of Chris Froome, and with his Team Ineos squad no longer able to dominate the peloton and steamroll up the climbs, there was often anarchy in the peloton, with Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) leading a French renaissance that captured the hearts of the nation as they dreamed a French rider could finally end their 34-year wait for a home winner.
Mother Nature would eventually step in, with hailstorms and landslides shortening stage 19 to Tignes and stage 20 to Val Thorens, but still allowerd Egan Bernal to use his innate high-altitude climbing ability to conquer the 2,770-metre-high Col de l'Iseran and, in doing so, become the first Colombian to win the Tour de France.
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Along the way, Bernal's Ineos teammate – and the defending Tour champion – Geraint Thomas crashed and faltered, but ultimately came good, lending his support to Bernal taking the second step on the final podium, while Jumbo-Visma performed time and again, with Steven Kruijswijk's eventual third place in Paris their crowning glory.
Here are eight flash-points – in stage form – where this year's vintage edition of the Tour de France was made.
Stage 2, Brussels TTT: Jumbo-Visma storm to victory as Porte, Bardet, Landa and Quintana lose a minute
With just 54.8km of time trials on this year's Tour de France route, the 27.6km team time trial around Brussels on stage 2 was always going to create some significant time gaps and indicate who would, and who wouldn't, have a chance of overall victory.
Stage 3, Binche – Epernay: Alaphilippe's champagne supernova attack changes everything
Stage 6, Mulhouse – La Planche des Belles Filles: Thomas fights back
Stage 10, Saint-Flour – Albi: Pinot rages after losing time in the echelons
Stage 13, Pau individual TT: Alaphilippe wins in yellow on the 100th anniversary of the maillot jaune
Stage 14, Tarbes – Col du Tourmalet: Pinot fights back into overall contention
Stage 19, Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne – Tignes: Bernal storms into the yellow jersey
Stage 21, Rambouillet – Paris: The start of the Bernal era as Ewan wins again
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/the-8-stages-that-shook-up-the-2019-tour-de-france
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