The Colombian's title defence disintegrated 13 kilometres from the summit of the Grand Colombier, Jumbo-Visma's dominance just too much, despite the presence of his own team mates, Michal Kwiatkowski and Jonathan Castroviejo.
The defending champion finished seven minutes and 20 seconds behind stage winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and the yellow jersey who finished second, continuing the Slovenians' dominance on this year's Tour. Bernal skidded right down the general classification to 13th at eight minutes and 25 seconds.
But he was in trouble well before the final climb.
"It was not going well from the first climb to be honest," Bernal told reporters at the finish. "I was almost dropped there. I was suffering full gas from the first climb.
"Then I was trying to to fight until the final. Even if I started the last climb with them I knew already I would be dropped.
"But I wanted to give my best not just for me but for the team and for the respect I have for the race, I'm the number 1. But there are riders far stronger than me.
"The feeling was that I was empty. I had no power."
"I couldn't squeeze my body, I was like, you know when they did a big acceleration I couldn't go too hard and then I recovered but my body can't squeeze as normal."
"No excuses."
Australian Richie Porte again finished behind the Slovenian Massive repeating his third place finish atop Stage 13's Puy Mary summit, this time right behind. The Tasmanian rocketed into sixth place.
The riders and the viewers of the Tour de France have a rest day tomorrow, racing resuming with Stage 16 on Tuesday evening with a day in the mountains again on the agenda. Watch the race on the SBS ŠKODA Tour Tracker from 8:55pm AEST and on SBS HD / SBS On Demand from 9:30pm AEST.
