Three kilometres before the summit of the Col de l'Iseran during stage 19 at the Tour de France, word began to filter through the ASO grapevine that hail and mudslides had led to blocked roads between the penultimate climb and the summit finish in Tignes. Snippets of information crackled through race radio, Christian Prudhomme held council with his trusted advisers and, within a matter of minutes, the decision was announced that the times on the summit of the Iseran would be taken between the lone leader Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) and his pursuers. The rest of the stage would be nullified, but, as the news began to sweep through the peloton, some could hardly believe it.
The final confirmation that the times on the Iseran would be used to dictate the new GC standings were made by ASO roughly four kilometres into the descent when Prudhomme, course designer Thierry Gouvenou and the president of commissaires agreed on their course of action. In truth, their options were limited, to begin with. A dusty rule book somewhere in Paris may have decreed that their primary choices were to either cancel the stage or re-run it twenty-four hours later but sense and practicalities won out eventually.
Stopping the clock on the Iseran may not have been the perfect resolution for all the riders involved, but the organisers, like the road to Tignes, were left with an impassable situation. As the race ground to an almost eery halt in the valley, and tongues wagged and shoulders shrugged, there was talk as to whether the stage finish could have been moved. But in reality that was never on the cards. Such a notion may have merit in some quarters, but not if accurate timing was a requirement for the biggest sporting event on the planet.
In the end, there would be no stage winner, but Egan Bernal's attack roughly 5km from the summit of the Iseran would become the defining act in this year's unpredictable Tour de France, and by the time the race collected its breath and the riders bussed their way up to Tignes, it was almost forgotten that the home nation's darling Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) had quit the race in tears.
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Had the race not been affected by blocked roads, the stage could have unfolded in several different ways. Bernal could have faded in the valley or on the final climb itself; Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) could have rallied before eventually losing even more time on the last ascent; perhaps the Jumbo-Visma and Bora-Hansgrohe alliance could have turned the screw on Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) and dramatically altered the podium places with two stages remaining; Simon Yates could have won Mitchelton-Scott's umpteenth stage. Or Bernal could have laid down a seminal moment with a dramatic stage win.
All ifs, all buts, yet few could argue that no matter the permutation, the strongest rider is now in control. Had Thomas, Mikel Landa (Movistar), Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma), or anyone else for that matter, had designs or desires of winning the race, then they would have gone with Bernal. The sight of Thomas and Kruijswijk cancelling each other out was another indictment of Bernal's position of strength and their destined battle for the minor podium positions.
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