Pogacar demolishes Alpe d'Huez to win stage 19 and all but seal the Tour
The yellow jersey attacked early, bridged to the breakaway and soloed to a record ascent, stretching his lead over Evenepoel to 7:11.
Tadej Pogacar produced one of the rides of the 2026 Tour de France on Friday, storming up the 21 hairpins of Alpe d'Huez to win stage 19 and tighten his grip on the yellow jersey to the point of near certainty.
On the 128km run from Gap, a large breakaway built a lead of more than three minutes before the race reached the foot of the legendary climb. It did not matter. Pogacar attacked out of the general classification group in the opening bends, went clear with no one able to follow, and steadily reeled in the survivors of the move. He passed Sepp Kuss, then caught Lenny Martinez and Richard Carapaz, before riding away in the final kilometres for his fifth stage win of this Tour and the 27th of his career.
Martinez took second and Carapaz, the stage 18 winner, third. The manner of the victory was as striking as the result: Pogacar covered the 13.8km ascent in 35 minutes and 27 seconds, erasing Marco Pantani's long-standing benchmark by more than two minutes. It was the men's Tour's first return to Alpe d'Huez since 2022.
The damage to his rivals was heavy. Pogacar now leads Remco Evenepoel, again the best of the rest, by 7:11, having turned a four-and-a-half-minute cushion into a chasm with a single attack. Isaac del Toro, Paul Seixas and Mattias Skjelmose remain locked in the fight for the lower podium places, while Juan Ayuso and Tom Pidcock both cracked early and lost significant time.
The drama is not over. For the first time, the Tour finishes on Alpe d'Huez on consecutive days, and the peloton climbs it again on Saturday's stage 20 after crossing the Col du Galibier.
