Final Tour de France Mountain Stage 20 Slashed as Torrential Weather causes Landslides

Due to damage from the storm, two of the three climbs on Saturday's Stage 20 have been eliminated, reducing the day's course from 81 to just 37 miles

Photo: Cormet de Roselend closed for business

Stage 20 the final Mountain stage was to be another difficult but breathtakingly beautiful day in the Alps with the climb of the Cormet de Roselend and Cote de Longefoy and a finish atop Val Thorens.

The new route retains the final 33.5 km climb to Val Thorens with the climbs of the Cormet de Roselend and Cote de Longefoy removed. The penultimate stage will begin in Albertville at 14:30CET with a route less than half the original distance. The climb of Val Thorens, is 33.5 km averaging 5.5 per cent that climbs up to 2,365m in altitude.

The slashing of the stage shortens the action for the overall contenders.

Frenchman Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) leads the mountains classification with 86 points ahead of Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) with 74. 40 points will be available at the top of the final climb, so the Polka Dot could change hands.

After today's Chaotic stage that was cut short, Egan Bernal is in the Yellow jersey 48 seconds ahead of Alaphillpe and 1m 16s back to Thomas. Alaphillpe is likely to defend his podium place but Team Ineos's Bernal and Thomas are likely to attack again. Steven Kruijswijk and Emanuel Buchmann will both be eyeing a podium spot too.

Stage 20 is the penultimate stage of the race before it concludes in Paris on Sunday, but it is typically the last stage in which any change in the overall standing can be made.

2019 Tour de France GC Top 5 after Stage 19 

1 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Ineos 78:00:42 
2 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:48 
3 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Ineos 0:01:16 
4 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:01:28 
5 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:55 

Photo: New Stage 20. Credit: la Flamme Rouge