THE 20TH AND penultimate stage of the Tour de France on Saturday has been curtailed due to fears over landslides in worsening weather conditions, organisers said today.
The stage from Albertville to Val Thorens in the French Alps will now be raced over just 59km rather than the scheduled 130km.
“Following difficult weather and landslides forecast for tomorrow, the route of the 20th stage of the Tour de France has been modified,” said a statement by the organisers.
The decision means that the first two climbs have been cut from the schedule and the peloton goes straight to Val Torrens.
“Three mudslides occurred in the descent at Cormet de Roselend,” Tour Director Christian Prudhomme told AFP in reference to the opening section of Saturday’s planned route.
“One of them has damaged the road conditions and we cannot go there. It’s the only possible decision.”
He added: “Fresh mudslides are possible — we must take the direct route.”
Friday’s 19th stage also fell foul of the weather when a hailstorm and a landslide forced an early finish to the run from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Tignes.
That was good news for Egan Bernal who took over the yellow jersey and is tantalisingly close to becoming the first Colombian to win the race.
Right call. Safety first.
@Michael Jerseys: no Bernal is first mick! Safety is 10th.
@Michael Jerseys: oh lord, will someone pleaaase think of the children brigade are out again! Funny too that most of them are cyclists, hardly a conicidence, I’d say they all clamp cars and work for the garda traffic core, inland revenue or dept of social welfare fraud!
@Dino Baggio: Garda traffic “corps” or Garda National Roads Policing Bureau (GNRPB) by its proper title
It was building up to be the best last 2 days of the tour in decades and it’s been taken out of the riders hands to some degree. It’s a shame Bernal will win like this but it looks like he could be just starting a great career and will be top GC contender in grand tours for the foreseeable future. Viva Columbia.
@Brendan Boyce: agreed Brendan, I’m so disappointed. I was so looking forward to the stages in the Alps, now ruined. Rarely have the top 5 riders been so close in the last few stages and it was building up to the best tdf finish ever.
@Brendan Boyce: yeah sure man they cant ride in those conditions. Simple as. Alaphilippe might feel aggrieved but he would’ve been buried on the final climb so at least he lives to fight today