{"id":2062176,"date":"2026-07-24T15:34:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2062176"},"modified":"2026-07-24T15:34:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:34:45","slug":"tour-de-france-stage-19-tadej-pogacar-brushes-away-rivals-with-alpe-dhuez-annihilation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2062176","title":{"rendered":"Tour de France Stage 19: Tadej Poga\u010dar Brushes Away Rivals with Alpe d’Huez Annihilation"},"content":{"rendered":"
Tadej Poga\u010dar blew away his rivals and brushed off questions of sickness with a total annihilation of Alpe d\u2019Huez on stage 19 of the Tour de France.<\/p>\n
The yellow jersey stomped away from the GC group in the early bends of the infamous switchback climb, gobbled up the breakaway, and all-but sealed yellow with a defiant victory Friday on top of the Alpe.<\/p>\n
This was another statement win for the Slovenian.<\/p>\n
He bridged more than 3 minutes to the survivors of the day\u2019s early break with a relentless, irresistible attack that blew away Marco Pantani\u2019s historic climbing record.<\/p>\n
It earned Poga\u010dar his fifth victory of the 2026 Tour de France, the 26th of his career, and another place in the record books of climbing times.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old climbed the Alpe in 35:27 on Friday, demolishing Marco Pantani\u2019s two best marks by around 90 seconds.<\/p>\n
Lenny Martinez and Richard Carapaz finished 2-3 behind Poga\u010dar after they lit up the front of the race with an Alpe d\u2019Huez climbing duel.<\/p>\n
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Martinez and Carapaz clung to Poga\u010dar\u2019s wheel after the yellow jersey blasted across to them, but Poga\u010dar was relentless, shaking them off with one last acceleration around 1km from the line.<\/p>\n
Poga\u010dar puts yellow jersey into vice grip<\/h2>\nPoga\u010dar carved his way through the 21 bends to set a new climbing record and drive a wedge into his rivals.<\/span> (Photo: Christine POUJOULAT \/ AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Poga\u010dar moved one huge step closer to a record-equaling fifth yellow jersey on Friday.<\/p>\n
Remco Evenepoel was the best finisher from the GC group, but he was still 2:29 back on the GOATish Slovenian.<\/p>\n
The four-time winner leads the race over Evenepoel by 7:11 after an attack that landed a bombshell into the GC group.<\/p>\n
Isaac Del Toro, Mattias Skjelmose, and Paul Seixas finished close behind Evenepoel, and the top-4 remains unchanged on GC.<\/p>\n
However, the lead quartet is now split by 10 minutes as Poga\u010dar continues to rule over the Tour de France.<\/p>\n
Poga\u010dar hailed the work of his teammates at the finish after UAE Emirates-XRG dug deep to set up the stage.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s 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,\u201d he said at the finish. \u201cI was riding for them today. I am super happy to take the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlready in the climb before the Alpe we were going full gas,\u201d he continued. \u201cBecause the breakaway was so strong, we had to go full gas all day. Then in the first kilometer of Alpe d\u2019Huez, I knew I had good legs. There were not many guys left that maybe can follow or try to go with me. So I tried.\u201d<\/p>\n
Juan Ayuso and Tom Pidcock both suffered significant losses on the Alpe. They both cracked in the early corners of the 13.8km climb and lost around 4 minutes to the GC pack.<\/p>\n
High anticipation in the Alps<\/h2>\nThere was madness on the Alpe on Stage 19 of the Tour de France.<\/span> (Photo: Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Friday\u2019s 19th stage was loaded with expectation.<\/p>\n
The men\u2019s Tour returned to the mythical 21 switchbacks of Alpe d\u2019Huez for the first time since 2022, just as UAE looked on the ropes with a wave of sickness.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of thousands of fans mobbed to the HC climb in anticipation.<\/p>\n
The stage blew up early. At only 128km long and with questions over UAE, the breakaway riders saw hope.<\/p>\n
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A huge attack of 42 riders formed over the stage\u2019s opening two categorized climbs. This mini peloton of attackers rolled lasted into a long valley toward the penultimate climb to Col d\u2019Ornon with 3:25 advantage.<\/p>\n
Intriguingly, Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe and Pinarello-Q36.5 took control in the main bunch, and Poga\u010dar\u2019s sickly squad got a free sit in the wheels.<\/p>\n
Red Bull perhaps spied an opportunity with Evenepoel, while Pinarello saw a threat to Pidcock\u2019s GC position from Martinez making the break.<\/p>\n
Showdown on the Alpe<\/h2>\nKuss, Carapaz, and Martinez battled to fend off Poga\u010dar\u2019s lightning chase. <\/span> (Photo: Christine POUJOULAT \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Fifteen riders remained out front as the race rushed into the steep early ramps of the Alpe.<\/p>\n
Poga\u010dar and a small GC group clicked into the lower sprocket just 3:30 later.<\/p>\n
Poga\u010dar didn\u2019t leave anything to chance. He wanted the stage win, the climbing record, and to all-but seal his fifth yellow jersey.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old burst out of the GC group after only 2km of the Alpe and carved his way around the infamous bends.<\/p>\n
Evenepoel and Seixas didn\u2019t even seem to try to follow, stunned.<\/p>\n
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Poga\u010dar hooked up with his teammate Adam Yates a kilometer later after the Brit made the early break. Yates \u2013 who had been sick \u2013 delivered a huge 2km turn before he blew his own legs off.<\/p>\n
Breakaway riders Kuss, Martinez and stage 18 winner Carapaz didn\u2019t wait around when they knew Poga\u010dar was coming. The three elite climbers led the race through thousands of beer-sozzled fans that packed the top half of the climb.<\/p>\n
Carapaz attacked repeatedly in his quest for an iconic win on the Alpe, but couldn\u2019t make it stick. Martinez and Kuss didn\u2019t let the elastic snap until the Ecuadorian made one last all-out attack 3km from the summit.<\/p>\n
But Poga\u010dar was coming, fast.<\/p>\n
He bridged to Carapaz just 1,500m from the finish line with Martinez sucking his wheel.<\/p>\n
Poga\u010dar made one last acceleration inside the final kilometer, and the stage was done.<\/p>\n
Tour de France stage 19 results<\/h2>\n\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2286806829.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated July 24, 2026 09:13PM Tadej Poga\u010dar blew away his rivals and brushed off questions of sickness with a total annihilation of Alpe d\u2019Huez on stage 19 of the Tour de France. The yellow jersey stomped away from the GC group in the early bends of the infamous switchback climb, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2062176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2062176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2062176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2062176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2062176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2062176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2062176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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