Bernal Tour Lead Trimmed After Jumbo Appeal

Egan Bernal saw his overall Tour de France lead trimmed slightly ahead of Saturday's penultimate stage after rival team Jumbo Visma contested the official results

Val Thorens, France, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Jul, 2019 ) :Egan Bernal saw his overall Tour de France lead trimmed slightly ahead of Saturday's penultimate stage after rival team Jumbo Visma contested the official results.

Bernal now leads Julian Alaphilippe by 45sec instead of 48, with Geraint Thomas third at 1min 11sec (from 1min 16) and Jumbo rider Steven Kruijswijk also closing on the Colombian by five seconds.

The overnight results were improvised after the stage had ben stopped in a panic with Simon Yates and Bernal racing towards a mudslide at 100kph.

Official timekeeper Tissot can give times to a millionth of a second at the finish line, but with the mad scramble to clarify what was going on Friday a mistake appears to have been made and on closer scrutiny of televison images ASO agreed to a slight alteration.

The weather also saw the 20th stage shortened to 59km due to mudslides.

After climbing beyond his rivals in solo attacks on two consecutive Alpine stages, Bernal needs only survive a third one to seal victory in the 2019 Tour de France.

The 22-year-old, bidding to become the first Colombian to win the Tour, will face a 33km uphill slog to the Val Torrens ski resort in the rarefied oxygen at 2,356m altitude Saturday.

Bernal, who grew up at 2,600m, has thrived at altitude, putting at least 27 seconds into all his rivals on Thursday, before dropping them again as he took the race lead on Friday.