Egan Bernal suffered a major blow to his title defense on stage 15 of the Tour de France's Grand Colombier when he lost contact with a group led by Jumbo-Visma's Wout Van Aert with just under 14km remaining on the 17.4km climb.

The Colombier was the first major alpine summit finish of the Tour de France and the biggest test for the overall contenders. After setting the pace on overall leader Primoš Roglic, Van Aat pulled away from Bernal, Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic), and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), and then George Bennett, and then Tom Dumoulin.

Bernal, aided by Michal Kwiatkowski and Jonathan Castroviejo, rapidly lost ground, and with 7.5 km to go, he had a two-minute gap. By the finish, the gap had grown to 7:20, ending his hopes for the overall. [To be honest, I wasn't feeling good from the first climb. To be honest, I wasn't feeling good from the first climb. I told the team I wasn't feeling good, but I decided to fight until the final and give it my best."

"It's hard to say how I felt. When the other riders accelerated a lot, I couldn't ride very hard to keep up with them. But after that I recovered really quickly.

"I'm number one and I tried to do my best, but in the end there were stronger riders than me.

It was on the second day that Bernal struggled with the strength of Jumbo-Visma. After holding Roglic to only a time bonus in the difficult first half of the Tour, Bernal showed signs of trouble on the 13th stage to Puy Marie, losing 38 seconds on the climb. He looked ready to fight for the Tour de France title on stage 14, despite his eventual failure.

With four-time overall winner Chris Froome and 2018 champion Geraint Thomas out of the team after failing to produce a result at the Criterium du Dauphiné, Bernal became Ineos Grenadier's sole leader at the Tour de France.

Tadey Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) was 40 seconds back in second place, and Rigoberto Urán (EF Pro Cycling) replaced Bernal in third at 1:34, just outside the top 10.

"Starting the last climb with the other GC riders, I knew I would be dropped, but I wanted to do my best, not only for myself, but for the team and out of respect for the race," Bernal said.

"There are no excuses. I tried to fuel my body in the best way possible, but I don't know, I didn't have the legs. The others were stronger than me and I have to accept that."