Pogačar takes fifth stage win with record ascent of Alpe d’Huez – Tour de France

Tour de France 2026

Stage 19

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) stamped his authority on the Tour de France to take his fifth victory of the race, triumphing atop L’Alpe d’Huez as the race visited its most famous mountain for the first time in four years.

The Slovenian started the 13.8km climb among the GC group 3:30 down on the survivors of a 42-man breakaway, though he didn’t stay with them for long, attacking just over 12km from the top of the climb to go solo.

Over the next 9km, he raced past those dropped from the break, eventually reaching the surviving trio of Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious).

Stage 18 winner Carapaz went solo with 3km to go, the last man for Pogačar to catch. He made contact with 1.8km remaining, dragging a persistent Martinez with him. The trio rode under the flamme rouge together, though a Pogačar acceleration at the front saw him go solo into the final 800 metres.

That was that, and so the Tour leader could celebrate another victory as well as the record ascent time of L’Alpe d’Huez, six seconds ahead of Martinez, and nine ahead of Carapaz.

Pogačar’s 35:27 ascent, over a minute quicker than Pantani’s record, saw him finish 2:29 ahead of the next best GC rider as Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) trailed home in sixth place. His UAE teammate Isaac del Toro was seventh, 2:41 back and four seconds up on Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) in the battle for the white jersey.

“It’s very cool to win up here. It was a crazy atmosphere all climb. Thanks to all the team that I could pull it off in the end. I was riding for my teammates today and I’m super happy to take the win,” Pogačar said after the stage.

“When I heard some of the guys dropped when Felix [Großschartner] was pulling a super good pace in the beginning of the climb, I knew that – I mean, already on the climb before, we were going full gas because the breakaway was so strong. We were going full gas all day.

“Then in the first kilometre of L’Alpe d’Huez, I knew I had good legs and there’s not many guys left that can follow or try to go with me, so I tried and then committed to the top. I had Adam in the middle to give me a big morale boost and I was super happy that he’s finally back. After the TT he was so [ill] and I was super happy to ride behind him for a couple of kilometres on the climb.

“In the end, I had to fight off super good riders, but they were playing a bit with each other in end, so that helped me to catch up and win the stage.

“I go day-by-day and tomorrow is the queen stage of the Tour. I hope that Paris will be a nice day but tomorrow is the hardest day of the Tour. Now we won and tomorrow we’ll see. We go our own rhythm, our own plan tomorrow. We don’t care about anything else. We’ll just do as we do every day, stick as a team together and do our best as a team, and see what happens.”

The stage result now sees Pogačar go 7:11 clear of second-placed Evenepoel, while Del Toro is third at 9:42, 24 seconds up on Seixas.

Elsewhere, Carapaz seized the polka dot jersey. His third place on the day – and second on the previous three climbs – saw him move onto 91 points, one clear of Pogačar, while Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-QuickStep) lies third on 84 points.

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) once again infiltrated the break of the day to add more points to his green jersey lead. The Dane did just that, leading over the intermediate sprint to take his points total to 502, well clear of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) on 445.

Stage 19 of the Tour de France took the peloton deeper into the Alps with four major climbs on the 127.9km road from Gap to the famous climb of L’Alpe d’Huez.

There’d be climbing from the start with the second-category Col Bayard (4.7km at 7.2%) and the early Col du Noyer (7.2km at 8.5%) before a ride through valley roads in the middle of the stage. The second-category Col d’Ornon (5.4km at 6.4%) lay 28km from the line, while the final difficulty was the hors catégorie climb to L’Alpe d’Huez (13.8km at 8.1%).

With mountain points up for grabs almost immediately at the Col Bayard, there were attacks from the start with mountain classification contenders Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quickstep) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) among those on the move.

A host of other climbers joined in the action, including Einer Rubio (Movistar), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), and Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek), while Paret-Peintre grabbed five points to Carapaz’s three to move into the virtual mountains lead.

The duo were part of a 42-man breakaway which got away over the climb, including those three climbers above. A host of other notable names made the move, including Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Mads Pedersen, Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos), Ben O’Connor (Jayco-AlUla), Javier Romo (Movistar), Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana), the Visma-Lease a Bike trio of Matteo Jorgenson, Sepp Kuss, and Davide Piganzoli, Decathlon CMA CGM duo Tiesj Benoot and Matthew Riccitello, seventh-placed Lenny Martinez, and 11th-placed Yanis Voisard and his Tudor teammate Michael Storer.

The group quickly raced away to a two-minute lead by the Col du Noyer, where Paret-Peintre once again took the maximum points – 10 to Carapaz’s six. Back in the peloton, Tim Wellens was suffering once again, the Belgian having beaten the time cut by two minutes on Thursday after falling ill.

His UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad controlled the peloton, meanwhile, allowing the break to build a 4:30 on the flatter roads in the middle of the stage. After 74km of racing following the top of the Noyer, the riders hit the day’s intermediate sprint at Le Perier, where Pedersen went clear to take another 25 points to bolster his green jersey lead.

The road headed back uphill after the sprint, with the Col d’Ornon looming. It was there where the breakaway broke apart, with Paret-Peintre dropping from the move 37km from the line as his rival for polka dots, Carapaz, remained in the move.

At the 33km mark, only 15 riders remained out front to leave a group of the best climbers including Kuss, Carapaz, Riccitello, Benoot, Tejada, Martinez, Arensman, Johannessen, and Rubio. Come the top of the climb, it was Carapaz who grabbed five points to strike back at Paret-Peintre.

The breakaway riders made it down the twisting descent on the other side with a 3:30 advantage over the chasing GC group, and they’d carry that lead into Le Bourg-d’Oisans and the start of the final climb of the day.

The early slopes of the climb saw the leading break group break apart once more as Armirail pushed on at the front. A move from Arensman took Martinez with him, while Kuss, Carapaz, Riccitello, and Romo also came along.

Further back, Pedersen led the GC men onto the climb, one last push for his team leaders Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose. The Spaniard couldn’t keep up once UAE took over, however, while Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) was also in difficulty.

The first big move from the GC group came from the yellow jersey as Pogačar attacked 12km out at the first hairpin of the climb to leave behind a group consisting of his teammate Del Toro plus Evenepoel, Skjelmose, and Seixas plus his lieutenant Nicolas Prodhomme.

Three minutes up the road, Kuss, Carapaz, and Martinez led the race as Yates dropped back to pace Pogačar until the 10km mark, by which point he was already 40 seconds ahead of the other GC men.

Seeking a second stage win in a row, Carapaz accelerated at the front 9km from the top. Only Martinez could follow, though Kuss was quick to rejoin.

Pogačar was speeding past the remains of the break by that point, less than two minutes from the leading trio, while Evenepoel, Seixas, Del Toro, and Skjelmose lay over a minute down the mountain.

As the crowds thickened, Carapaz made another move with 7km to go, but once again Martinez and Kuss stuck to him. He’d try again at 5.4km from the top, but, yet again, the leaders would remain as a trio.

Meanwhile, Pogačar, now past Rubio, Johannessen and the rest, lay just 45 seconds down, having put a full two minutes into the GC group he’d left behind. He had them in his sights with 4km to run. Sensing the end was nigh, Carapaz attacked again to lead solo, while Pogačar caught and passed Kuss and Carapaz just inside the final 3km.

Further back, Evenepoel tried to attack Seixas, Del Toro, and Skjelmose, but a line of motos in front of him blocked the path before the barriers began 4km from the top. He would get clear, though, putting 20 seconds into the rest while Del Toro also attacked away from his white jersey rival Seixas.

With 1.8km to go, Pogačar – with Martinez on his wheel – caught Carapaz. The yellow jersey was quick to put in another attack, but both men managed to stick with him. His second acceleration was more successful, however, dropping the two strongest men from the break just 800 metres from the line.

The end result, as predicted, was another win for Pogačar and minutes added to his overall lead. Evenepoel was the next best GC man to finish, racing across the line 2:29 down to secure his second place as Del Toro took some valuable seconds on Seixas in the race for white and the final podium spot.

Saturday’s penultimate and the final mountain stage of the Tour is a colossus, packing 5,450 metres of elevation gain. Over 170.9 kilometres, the riders take on the Col de la Croix de Fer, Col du Télégraphe, Col du Galibier and Col de Sarenne before finishing in Alpe d’Huez.

Bourg d’Oisans sits at the foot of the climb to Alpe d’Huez, but also at the foot of the Col de la Croix de Fer. Shortly after the start, the riders head up the latter. It’s a tough opener of 24 kilometres at an average gradient of 5.2%. Steeper ramps alternate with short downhill stretches, making it hard to find a rhythm.

After 34 kilometres, the peloton crests the summit and plunges down towards Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. Roughly 15 kilometres later, the Col du Télégraphe marks the start of almost 30 kilometres of uphill torture. It’s a 11.9 kilometres test at 7.1%, which runs virtually straight onto the Col du Galibier, with barely a descent in between. The Galibier adds another 17.7 kilometres of climbing at 6.9%. The summit tops out at 2,642 metres above sea level, making it the highest point of this Tour.

Over the next 30 kilometres, the riders fly downhill towards Mizoën, which lies beside the Lac du Chambon and at the foot of the Col de Sarenne. The 12.8-kilometre climb rises at an average of 7.3%, though the gradient frequently kicks into double digits, especially near the summit.

It’s 13 kilometres from the Sarenne’s summit to Alpe d’Huez. The first part goes downhill, before a rolling uphill section precedes another short drop. The final 3.7 kilometres then climb at an average of 6.2%, with the opening ramps the toughest.

The Col de Sarenne has featured only once before in the Tour, though that time it was tackled from the side that now forms the finale – so, from Alpe d’Huez. After cresting the Sarenne, the riders descended to Bourg d’Oisans and then climbed back up the traditional Alpe d’Huez route. That day, Christophe Riblon enjoyed the moments of his career, soloing to victory 1 minute ahead of Tejay van Garderen. The year was 2013.

Stage 19 result: 

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 Classification:

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