Tadej Pogačar celebrated his fifth stage win of this year’s Tour de France after a record setting performance on Alpe d’Huez.
The Slovenian set a new record time of 35:27 up the storied climb breaking the record set by Marco Pantani in 1997.
Pogačar has now racked up 26 stage wins in his career, just nine shy of Mark Cavendish’s record.
There had been much speculation over whether the UAE Emirates-XRG leader might be affected by stomach sickness sweeping its way through the team, but he showed no signs of that being the case as he left the GC riders in his wake on Alpe d’Huez’s early slopes.
With just one more mountain stage left in today’s race his grip on the yellow jersey now appears unassailable.
It is Pogačar's first win on the storied slopes of The Alpe and just the second by any rider wearing the yellow jersey after Geraint Thomas in 2018.
Speaking at the finish he said: “It’s very cool to win up here. It was a crazy atmosphere on the whole climb thanks to all the team that I could pull it off in the end.
Pogačar launched the attack that would take him to victory on the lower slopes of the 21-bend climb. Asked if that was the plan from the start he said: “In the beginning in the first kilometre of Alpe d’Huez I knew I had good legs and there weren’t many guys who could follow, so I tried. Then I committed to the top.”
The yellow-jersey was paced for a couple of kilometres by Adam Yates who had been the day’s breakaway after suffering from stomach sickness in recent days, before the maillot jaune set off on his own.
He caught the three remaining riders from the day’s break with just under 2km to go and eventually distanced them under the flamme rouge to go on and win.
Tomorrow the peloton will ascend Alp d’Huez again, this time from the other side. Asked if he might try and stack back-to-back wins on the famous climb he said: “We’ll see. We’ll go our own rhythm and own plan tomorrow. We don’t care about anything else, we’ll do what we do every day which is stick together and do our best as a team and then see what happens.”
Until the UAE Emirates-XRG leader’s unprecedented display the stage had unfolded in much the way many observers had expected, straight form the flag drop the course climbed and soon a breakaway of 41 riders formed.
Both Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) competed for the king of the mountain points at the top of the second category climb. The Frenchman had started the day just one point off Tadej Pogačar’s lead in that competition with Carapaz a further six points back.
Paret-Peintre beat the Ecuadorian to claim the maximum 5 points, while Carapaz picked up three for second.
That climb was soon followed by the first cat Col du Noyer and the break built up a lead of over three minutes by its summit.
There Paret-Peintre once against bested Carpaz in the sprint for the mountain points extended his gap to the Ef Education-EasyPost rider by another two points.
The descent off the climb flowed into a series of flat to rolling roads before the intermediate sprint at the bottom of the penultimate climb.
But as the breakaway approached the bottom of the penultimate climb Paret-Pientre was dropped leaving and opening for Carapaz to capitalize in the king of the mountains competitions. He took full advantage on the Col d’Ornon taking the maximum five points on the second category climb.
As the race reached the first of Alpe d’Huez’s famous 21 bends the front group had already been whittled down to just 13 riders. Among them was Carapaz.
Before it reached its next bend Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos) attacked taking a group of three other riders with him.
In the GC group Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5) and Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), who sat fifth on GC, both fell out of the back swiftly as the gradients hit.
Soon afterward Tadej Pogačar launched an attack and bridged up UAE Emirates-XRG team-mate Adam Yates, who’d spent the day in the breakaway and now proceeded to set pace for the Slovenian.
Up ahead Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) attacked, dropping Arensman and leaving a trio of Kuss, Carapaz and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) out front. However, the yellow jersey, in Yates’ wheel, was eating into their advantage.
With 10km to go Pogačar had put 30 seconds between him and the rest of the GC pack.
Just over a kilometre later Carapaz accelerated taking just Martinez with him but Kuss, riding tempo bridged back up to the front pair.
With 6.7km to race Kuss made an acceleration of his own but was marked by the other two breakaway companions.
Just outside of the 5km mark Carpaz went once again but again Martinez marked him and Kuss clawed his way back up to them. By now Pogačar had a lead of almost two minutes on the GC group.
He was eating up the gap to the leaders too and under 4km to go banner could finally see them up ahead.
Perhaps sensing the danger, Kuss attacked just before the Slovenian could make contact but a counter-attack from Carapaz was the first to finally break free.
With 1.7km to go Pogačar caught Carapaz with Martinez now in his wheel and the three rode into the ski resort at the top of the mountain together. The Slovenian tried to attack them but couldn’t get away.
Under the flamme rouge he tried again and this time the gap began to open. Martinez attacked Carapaz in the final straight but Pogačar, making a good case to be the greatest of all time, was well out of reach.
Results
Tour de France 2026, stage 19: Gap > Alpe d’Huez (127km)
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, 127.9km in 3:17:57
2. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain Victorious, +6s
3. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost, +9s
4. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +1:14
5. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, +2:07
6. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +2:29
7. Isaac Del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +2:41
8. Mathias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, +2:45
9. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon CMA CGM, at same time
10. Harold Tejada (Col) XDS-Astana, +3:22
General classificaion after stage 19
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 67:53:00
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Redu Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +7:11
3. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +9:42
4. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon CMA CGM, +10:06
5. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain-Victorious, +13:00
6. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek,+13:09
7. Juan Ayuso (Esp) Lidl-Trek, +15:58
8. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost, +21:15
9. Tom Pidcock (Gbr), Pinarello Q36.5, +21:30
10. Jordan Jegat (Fra) ToralEnergies, +23:21