Tour de France 2019 news - Egan Bernal: It would be 'crazy' for Geraint Thomas to attack me now

He discovered that bad weather had intervened - with a sudden hailstorm affecting the roads ahead - when he received a message over his headset.

“I was riding full gas downhill and I could hear they were saying ‘stop! stop!’,” Bernal said. “But I didn’t want to stop. I wasn’t sure and I asked them to explain in Spanish. That’s when I understood.”

As the stage was not completed, race organisers took the time of each rider at the top of the Iseran, which moved Bernal into the yellow jersey with a 45-second lead over Julian Alaphilippe going into Saturday's final challenge.

"I knew I was in yellow once I got in the car, but I didn’t believe it until I got the jersey," the Colombian said afterwards. "Those are things you imagine or dream of, but I never imagined I would do this aged 22.”

His Ineos team-mate Geraint Thomas is now in third place, one minute and thirteen seconds behind, and although Bernal welcomed potential competition, he did not seem to expect it.

“If he wants to attack, he can, but I think it would be crazy in these circumstances,” said Bernal. “I will respect his decision but I think the team should be careful. Thomas is on the podium so it doesn’t make sense.”

Bernal's own aggressive instincts served him well on Friday, and he reflected: "I love cycling. I love to ride, I love the feeling to suffer in the mountains, I love the adrenalin. Today, if I defended I would have been sure of the podium but I would have always wondered what would have happened if I attacked. I’m 22, so I thought if it doesn’t work I have many Tours in front of me and I can come back."