Pogačar rewrites Alpe d’Huez history with record-breaking ascent

Tadej Pogačar turned the legendary 21 hairpins of Alpe d’Huez into another landmark in his already extraordinary career on Stage 19 of the 2026 Tour de France.

The yellow jersey started the final 13.8-kilometre climb around three and a half minutes behind the leading breakaway riders, but the gap quickly began to disappear once Pogačar launched his attack on the lower slopes. He accelerated away from his general-classification rivals with roughly 13 kilometres remaining and began hunting down the riders ahead one by one.

Inside the final three kilometres, Pogačar reached Richard Carapaz and Lenny Martinez, the last survivors of the breakaway. Rather than settling for a tactical sprint at the summit, the Slovenian attacked again and rode clear around 800 metres from the finish to take the stage victory in the yellow jersey.

The numbers made the performance even more remarkable. Velon data put Pogačar’s ascent of Alpe d’Huez at 35 minutes and 26 seconds, breaking the long-standing climbing record associated with Marco Pantani’s 1995 performance. The new mark was approximately 1 minute and 14 seconds faster than the widely recognised 36:40 benchmark.

Performance modelling also illustrates the scale of the effort. Independent estimates place Pogačar at approximately 6.97–6.99 W/kg for more than 35 minutes — an exceptional sustained output at the end of a Tour de France mountain stage. At an assumed body mass of around 63 kilograms, that corresponds to roughly 440 watts.

What makes the ride particularly significant is not simply the record. Pogačar had already spent almost three weeks racing at the highest level, yet was still capable of producing close to seven watts per kilogram for more than half an hour while systematically closing a substantial advantage to some of the strongest climbers in the race.

The victory was Pogačar’s fifth stage win of the 2026 Tour and further strengthened his grip on the yellow jersey. More importantly, the ascent provided another reference point for analysing the extraordinary level of climbing performance in the modern peloton.

Alpe d’Huez has provided some of the Tour de France’s most famous performances. In 2026, Pogačar did more than add his name to that history — he changed the benchmark against which future performances on the mountain will be measured.