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At a Glance Riders were making their way through the French Alps when the race was called.

Halting the Tour de France is rare. The Tour de France was halted due to a hailstorm and a mudslide in the French Alps Friday afternoon, one day after a record-breaking heat wave blanketed much of the country.

Organizers ended Stage 19 of the world's premier cycling event before its finish, due to concerns over rider safety when the sudden storm made the route too dangerous, the Associated Press reported.

TV coverage and photos showed a snowplow trying to clear hail and water from the route.

(MORE: 5 Takeaways from the Record-Breaking Europe Heat Wave)

Video posted to social media also showed spectators running as a wave of mud rushed across a roadway, and one poster described the scene as "havoc."

"There has been a landslide, quite a considerable landslide and you have to make sure everyone is alright ," Dave Brailsford, manager of the Ineos team, told Reuters. "There is bike racing, then there is the health and safety of everybody."

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/Active%20Europe.png?v=at&w=485&h=273" srcset="https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/Active%20Europe.png?v=at&w=485&h=273 400w, https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/Active%20Europe.png?v=ap&w=980&h=551 800w" > The extreme heat across western Europe this week was being pushed aside by a cold front and upper-level low on Friday. Thunderstorms are forming just ahead of the front.

The riders were just coming over the Tour's highest peak, the Col d'Iseran, when the race was called for the day.

Halting the race is rare – not even the record heat this week prompted such an extraordinary move.

Weather Underground meteorologist Bob Henson said the heat wave helped make conditions just right for a summer hailstorm.

"The storms were kicked off by an approaching cold front and upper-level low, and the extreme heat in France appears to have teamed up with low-level moisture to increase the atmospheric instability," Henson said. "Wind shear also favored the development of hailstorms."