Blood, rain and cheers: Tour de France 2019 – in pictures
Riders arrive at the chapel of Notre Dame de la Vieille Montagne (Our Lady of the Old Mountain) during the first stage.Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images
The Tour de France brings highs and lows for the riders, both in their emotions and the scenery they ride through. This year’s edition started in Brussels, Belgium, on July 6 and concluded in the French capital, Paris, with a procession over the cobblestones at sunset.
Along the way, the riders have had to contend with a variety of terrains, disciplines and weather, as well as the noise of the enthusiastic fans that line the route.
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DividerOrganisers shortened stage 19 for the riders’ safety when a sudden, violent storm made the route through the Alps too dangerous.Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP
Weather hazards
Workers had to use diggers to clear the road on the 19th stage between Saint Jean De Maurienne and Tignes. Organisers stopped the stage for the riders’ safety when a sudden, violent storm, which brought snow and hail, made the route through the Alps too dangerous. The riders had to deal with rain in earlier stages too, along with temperatures that exceeded 40°C.
An emergency vehicle in snow after stage 19 was cancelled due to snow and hail in the final 20km to the finish line in Tignes.Photograph: Tim de Waele/Getty ImagesFrench favourite Thibaut Pinot of Team Groupama-FDJ on stage 15.Photograph: Tim de Waele/Getty ImagesGeraint Thomas pouring water on to his neck during the 17th stage.Photograph: Thibault Camus/APMatteo Trentin of Mitchelton-Scott team cooling off after winning the 17th stage.Photograph: Ian Langsdon/EPAGeorge Bennett wore a special plastic bib with several pockets filled with ice due to a heat wave in France, before the start of the 17th stage.Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty ImagesDividerRiders of the Bahrain-Merida team on stage two, a 27.6km team time-trial in Brussels.Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images
Time-trials
Two of the 21 stages in the race were time-trials – stage two was a team time-trial, and stage 13 was an individual time trial – where the riders raced against the clock rather than each other. For this reason, it is often called the ‘race of truth’ as winning depends only on each rider’s strength and endurance.
Team Jumbo-Visma rider Mike Teunissen, in the overall leader’s yellow jersey, underneath the Atomium during the 27.6-km stage two team time-trial in Brussels.Photograph: François Lenoir/ReutersThibaut Pinot crossing the finish line during the 13th stage, an individual time-trial over 27.2 km with the start and finish in Pau.Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes/ReutersMovistar’s Nairo Quintana struggled in the time-trials, losing ground on his other GC rivals.Photograph: Christophe Ena/APDeceuninck-Quick Step rider Julian Alaphilippe assumed the yellow jersey after winning stage three, the first French rider in five years to wear the maillot jaune.Photograph: Christian Hartmann/ReutersAlaphilippe received a medal to mark his victory on the podium of the individual time-trial.Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty ImagesPeter Sagan, in the green sprint jersey, pulled a wheelie as he crossed the finish line in Pau.Photograph: Chris Graythen/Getty ImagesDividerFans cheered riders on during the 12th stage between Toulouse and Bagnères-de-Bigorre.Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images
Fans stood in a handcrafted swimming pool next to an inflatable crocodile during the 16th stage around Nîmes.Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty ImagesSimon Yates led the race as smoke from fans billowed in the last kilometres during the 15th stage between Limoux and Foix Prat d’Albis.Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty ImagesOther supporters took a more leisurely approach.Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty ImagesMovistar’s Nairo Quintana with fans before the 19th stage in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne.Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty ImagesCamping cars parked along the road of the Tourmalet pass in anticipation of the 14th stage between Tarbes and the famous pass.Photograph: Christophe Ena/APPerched on the Tourmalet, enthusiasts waited for the riders.Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty ImagesAlaphilippe gritted his teeth as he rode up to Foix Prat d’Albis.Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty ImagesDividerStage eight wound from Mâcon to Saint-Étienne.Photograph: Tim de Waele/Getty Images
Town and country
The riders have encountered a variety of environments: from the crowded streets of the cities, to empty countryside roads lined with lavender, to mountainous peaks such as the feared Col du Tourmalet.
Riders flew past the Cathedral of Our Lady of Reims at the start of stage four.Photograph: Justin Setterfield/Getty ImagesA French flag on a convertible car.Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Col du Tourmalet, one of the race’s most dramatic landscapes.Photograph: Zac Williams/SWpix.com/ShutterstockWhile there were flatter stages earlier in the race, such as stage three between Binche and Epernay, Belgium.Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty ImagesThe riders crossed the Pont du Gard near Nîmes …Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images… before making their way past through a tree-lined boulevard …Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images… and through a field of lavender during the 17th stage between Pont du Gard and Gap.Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty ImagesYoann Offredo, centre, and Stephane Rossetto, in a breakaway during the seventh stage between Belfort and Chalon-sur-Saône.Photograph: Thibault Camus/APThe peloton crossed a bridge during stage 10 from Saint-Flour to Albi.Photograph: Justin Setterfield/Getty ImagesJack Haig, left, and Tony Gallopin, with the pack in a tunnel during the 18th stage between Embrun and Valloire.Photograph: Christophe Ena/APCyclists sped around a corner on a descent.Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty ImagesDividerA fan sporting a fancy hat with a portrait of Alaphilippe, wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey and a yellow miniature bike, before the 19th stage.Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images
A splash of colour
The Tour wouldn’t be the same without the colourful fans that provide both noise and eccentricity.
Beefeater fans.Photograph: Guillaume Horcajuelo/EPAA motorcyclist with his moustache dyed in the colours of the French flag.Photograph: Christian Hartmann/ReutersSpectators refreshed themselves in a swimming pool as they watch cyclists riding past on the fourth stage between Reims and Nancy.Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty ImagesA woman with pompoms, cheering from the top of a camper van.Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty ImagesOthers appeared to be from another time altogether.Photograph: Christophe Ena/APFan art lined the side of the road.Photograph: Chris Graythen/Getty ImagesBrussel’s Manneken Pis dressed in the overall leader’s yellow jersey, before the start of the first stage.Photograph: Christian Hartmann/ReutersDidi Senft, aka El Diablo, cut a dashing figure in yellow rather than his usual red and black.Photograph: Chris Graythen/Getty ImagesAnother rider, of sorts.Photograph: Chris Graythen/Getty ImagesCow of the mountain (right) muscled its way into the shot.Photograph: Thibault Camus/APUmbrellas adorning the route.Photograph: Tim de Waele/Getty ImagesDividerFans in Zipaquira, Colombia celebrated as they watch stage 20. Twenty-two-year-old Egan Bernal is to become the country’s first Tour de France winner and the youngest winner since the second world warPhotograph: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images
Joy and pain
The Tour is one of the toughest physical tests in all of sport, and it takes a massive toll on the riders’ bodies. While a select few riders experience the joy of a stage victory, many more experience the pain of defeat. This year’s GC winner, Egan Bernal, rode into Paris on Sunday evening to claim his first ever Tour victory, hand-in-hand with last year’s champion Geraint Thomas.
A fan came to the aid of George Bennett after he crashed on stage 18 between Embrun and Valloire.Photograph: Tim de Waele/Getty ImagesBenoit Cosnefroy of Team AG2R La Mondiale had to be patched up after a fall.Photograph: Tim de Waele/Getty ImagesJakob Fuglsang rode on while bleeding after a fall in the first stage around Brussels.Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty ImagesPinot (left) was comforted by teammate William Bonnet as he stopped on stage 19 and was forced to quit the race due to pain in his left leg.Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty ImagesThomas De Gendt crossed the line to win stage eight between Macon and Saint-Etienne.Photograph: John Pierce/PhotoSport Int/ShutterstockAlaphilippe celebrated his overall leader’s yellow jersey on the podium of the 13th stage, the individual time-trial around Pau.Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty ImagesBernal and Geraint Thomas at the end of stage 20 at Val de Thorens. Tradition dictates that the race leader is not challenged on Sunday’s largely processional final stage to Paris.Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes/ReutersA dejected Alaphilippe after crossing the finish line of the penultimate stage. The Frenchman had led the race for 14 days. However, he lost the yellow jersey to Bernal on the storm-shortened 19th stage and again fell away on the race’s final major climb and will finish fifth overall.Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty ImagesEgan Bernal of Team INEOS sweeps past the Arc de Triomphe on the final stage.Photograph: Justin Setterfield/Getty ImagesColombia’s Egan Bernal crosses the line with team-mate Geraint Thomas.Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images
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