Tour de France LIVE standings: Egan Bernal and Geraint Thomas cross finish hand-in-hand after Alaphi

Egan Bernal all but secured his first Tour de France victory in Val Thorens as he crossed the finish line hand in hand with his team-mate Geraint Thomas.

Thomas finished second overall, with the Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk third after Julian Alaphilippe cracked on the mountain and ended fifth.

For the 22-year-old Bernal he just needs to finish the race in Paris on Sunday to ensure he collects the maillot jaune on the Champs Elysees.

At 22, Bernal became the youngest post-World War II winner of the Tour.

Bernal’s teammate and defending champion Geraint Thomas, lagging 1 minute and 11 seconds behind overall, should finish runner-up to give the Ineos team a 1-2 finish.

Vincenzo Nibali, the 2014 Tour champion, won Stage 20 to Val Thorens, which had been shortened to just 59 kilometers (36 miles) because of landslide on the route.

Featuring a 33-kilometer climb up to the ski station, the stage was too difficult for Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe, who cracked after starting the day in second place and allowed Steven Kruijswijk to secure a third-place finish.

Still, from the way he stormed up the Iseran, few could argue that Bernal would be an undeserving winner. Having powered up the climb, he was speeding down hairpins on the other side, with Alaphilippe hot on his trail, hoping to save his race lead, when they received the order to stop racing.

"I don't really know what happened. I was speeding, attacking, and everything was going well and then they told me to stop. I didn't want to stop,'' Bernal said through a translator on French television. "When they told me that I was the race leader and I had the yellow jersey, I couldn't believe it and I still can't believe it.''