Tour de France 2019 - The astonishing weather conditions that led to the neutralisation of Stage 19

At first we had GC contender Thibaut Pinot withdrawing due to injury and then the yellow jersey came under attack from both Team Ineos riders.

However that was a mere starter, perhaps even an aperetif for what was about to come our way.

Extremely adverse weather conditions at the finish of the stage led to the neutralisation of the stage.

The first pictures we saw gave us images of hail at the top of the stage, that our own Bradley Wiggins had braved through earlier.

That was more than enough but the Tour wasn't finished there!

Footage of a landslide towards the finish emerged from Norwegian TV that left the road completely unusable.

And the conditions continued throughout the final stretch of the stage with roads completely wiped out due to the weather.

Speaking afterwards on The Breakaway Wiggins explained the conditions he faced.

"By the time we got into Val-d'Isère it was raining, we stopped in Val d'Isère I had a few friends at the side of the road I said hello to. By the time we got out of Val-d'Isère it was snowing, hailstorms and we came out the exit of one of the tunnels on the side of the lake of Tignes and the Gendarmes stopped us we couldn't go any further because there was literally floods of hailstones remains.

"They brought diggers through trying to remove these pools of water and they actually stopped us for our own safety let alone 200 cyclists coming through in lycra.

"So it was pretty bad but one thing I would say is that when we got going again with one kilometre it was back to like we are now and the roads were dry so it was very localised."

He was asked by Orla Chennaoui whether he thought it was the right decision to neutralise it.

"Well actually now looking at it in hindsight, I've had a few minutes to think about it, we could have got the riders into that tunnel, they could have stopped in the tunnel, they're protected from the weather.

"I mean that sounds great in hindsight now but you have to take a decision with the facts that you've got at the time and Preudhomme obviously took that.

"One thing I will say is that we're seeing images of the guys coming down and they're really confused as to why we're stopping the race as they won't have known what was coming 3-4KM down the road, it was that extreme."

Brian Smith said "Yeah, perfect decision, because unbeknown there was a landslide that blocked the road further down the road so I think most people are seeing images that we saw but there are other people out there who have been reporting that there was a mud landslide that went across the course."

And Wiggins added "Yes sorry that was actually on the climb of Tignes and when we were coming up it was actually dry by then but part of the road you're right it was a bit of a landslide. As Brian said in hindsight they probably made the right decision.