Egan Bernal’s hopes of successfully defending his Tour de France title appeared to be fading after he lost more ground to the overall race leader, Primoz Roglic, in stage 13’s summit finish to Puy Mary, in which Slovenian and Colombian riders took control of the race.

Roglic and his Jumbo-Visma team blew away most of their rivals in the volcanoes of the Auvergne as he and Bernal’s Ineos Grenadiers locked horns on the brutal climb of the Col du Pas de Peyrol.

It was the champion’s Ineos Grenadiers team who wilted under pressure, as had been predicted in the first week of the Tour when Roglic’s all-stars appeared dominant in the ski station finish at Orcières Merlette.

Only fellow Slovenian and climbing prodigy, Tadej Pogacar, was able to follow the 2019 Vuelta a España champion Roglic to the top of the final climb. When the dust settled, the standings had a radically different look with two Slovenians — Roglic and Pogacar — being pursued into the Alps by an elite group of Colombian climbers.

Bernal remains the first among those Colombian contenders but he seems a shadow of the rider who took the yellow jersey to Paris in July 2019.

There are now four riders within little more than a minute of Roglic — Pogacar, Bernal, Rigoberto Urán of Education First and past Grand Tour winner Nairo Quintana of Arkea Samsic — all of whom may yet challenge him.

“For me it was a Slovenian day and I’m super happy with the way it went and that we are placed one-two Slovenians in front of the Colombians,” Roglic said. But the irrepressible Pogacar is now perhaps the greatest threat to Roglic’s hold on the race lead. “I decided to try to go on the final climb with Primoz,” the 21-year-old said.

“The feeling is great,” Pogacar said of his growing rivalry with his friend and compatriot. “I gained time on everyone except Roglic, so I’m really happy.

“I don’t think we were friends on those last two kilometres and for sure we will see more attacking into next week. He’s in very good shape. I don’t know what will happen in the Alps but I will keep fighting.”

That brutal battle for supremacy that began on the penultimate climb, the Col de Néronne tore into the hopes of the French riders Guillaume Martin of Cofidis and Romain Bardet of AG2R La Mondiale, both of whom have now tumbled out of the Tour’s top 10. After Thibaut Pinot’s collapse, the hopes of a French success in Paris remain as distant as ever.

For most of the stage the peloton remained grouped together. Ahead, an attack from Neilson Powless, the feisty American climber of the Education First team, split the day’s breakaway and was joined by Maximillian Schachmann, riding for Bora Hansgrohe, who had arrived at the Grand Départ nursing a fractured collarbone.

The dangers of the sport were highlighted again when Bauke Mollema, teammate to Richie Porte in the Trek Segafredo team, abandoned after coming down in a crash. A shaken Bardet, fourth overall at the start of the stage, remounted after falling too with Quintana, who was quickly back on his bike, despite it being his third tumble of the race.

On the final climb, Schachmann, mouth agape, head swaying as if denying his pain, battled hard, but as he tackled the steep gradients, he was caught and passed by his own team mate, Lennard Kamna and Colombian Dani Martínez, of Education First, the recent winner of the Critérium du Dauphiné.

Martínez was too sharp for both riders and sprinted ahead to take his first stage win in the Tour. At 24, Martínez, is, like Pogacar, one of the new generation of riders who will soon challenge for overall victories in Grand Tours, but his focus now will be to support the hopes of veteran teammate, Urán, who was second overall to Chris Froome in 2017.

Meanwhile, in Italy, British riders led the way with Mitchelton Scott’s Simon Yates taking a lone victory in the key mountain stage of the Giro d’Italia warm-up race, the Tirreno-Adriatico. Yates is now leading the Italian race overall with Geraint Thomas, of Ineos Grenadiers, the former champion who was not selected for the Tour, placed third.

In the women’s Giro Rosa, which began with a team time trial in Grosseto, Lizzie Deignan’s Trek Segafredo team won the first stage in the nine-day race and her teammate, Elisa Longo Borghini, took the race leader’s pink jersey.