Pogačar smashes Pantani, Armstrong, Ullrich Alpe d'Huez fastest times

Tadej Pogačar has demolished Marco Pantani's 1997 record on Alpe d'Huez and was over two minutes  faster than Lance Armstrong (Photo: Charly Lopez)

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) has powered his way up Alpe d'Huez to win stage 19 of the Tour de France, smashing Marco Pantani's record, that had stood since 1997, by 1:14.

Pogačar's time of 35:26 was quicker than Pantani's three fastest times for the climb. It was also 2:10 quicker than Lance Armstrong's time on the mountain back in 2004, which was the fourth quickest time ever.

The 10 fastest times before today's record-breaking ascent were:

  1. 1995: 36:40 Marco Pantani 22.58 km/h
  2. 1997: 36:53 Marco Pantani 22.45 km/h
  3. 1994: 37:15 Marco Pantani 22.23 km/h
  4. 2004: 37:36 Lance Armstrong 22.02 km/h (TT)
  5. 1997: 37:40 Jan Ullrich 21.98 km/h
  6. 2001: 38:03 Lance Armstrong 21.76 km/h
  7. 1995: 38:04 Miguel Indurain 21.75 km/h
  8. 1995: 38:04 Alex Zulle 21.75 km/h
  9. 1995: 38:06 Bjarne Riis 21.73 km/h
  10. 1997: 38:20 Richard Virenque 21.60 km/h

Today, Pogačar looked like he was chasing the stage win and the record above taking more time, which he doesn't need to win the race.

The time gain appeared to be the byproduct of his endeavour rather than the main goal, which appeared to be winning the stage in a manner that he owned the mountain in the record books.

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The remains of the day's breakaway arrived at the base of the climb with just shy of 3:30 in hand. In any other era, that advantage would have given the breakaway men a chance, indeed it would tipped the odds firmly in their favour.

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As the early, steepest, part of the 13.8km climb was passed, the lead group exploded and, very soon, just three remained.

Yesterday's stage winner was there, Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), along with Sepp Kuss (Visma Lease a Bike) and Lenny Marinez (Bahrain Victorious).

Even though they were being hunted down by the best rider the sport has ever seen, Martinez, Carapaz and Kuss still had a chance. But their cagey, stop-start, racing worked against them (Photo: Charly López)

Pogačar took off on his own after them, with 12km remaining. Going solo gave him the advantage of being able to ride his own race, while the three up front were engaged in a cagey battle of stop-start racing.

Adam Yates had been in the breakaway but went south - in a controlled manner, rather than blowing up. And when he was caught by team mate Pogačar, he pulled him along for about 1km, giving him a breather.

Once Yates had done what he could, Pogačar was alone again, first catching and dropping Kuss and then Martinez; the young Frenchman able to stay with the race leader.

Carapaz had broken free solo, leaving Kuss and Martinez behind with 3km to go. But Pogačar, with Marinez in tow, caught him with 1.8km to go.

And while Pogačar tried a couple of times to shake of his two passengers, he failed until he was inside the final kilometre. With about 800m to go, he pushed hard for an extended period and was solo, racing into the finish after arguably his best ever ride on the Tour.

Martinez, who rode out of his socks today - even if he found it hard to find the front, as his often his way - was 2nd at 6 seconds and Carapaz was 3rd at nine seconds.

Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) was up the road again today, trying to ensure Carapaz was in a stage-winning position. He eventually finished in 80th at 26:31 after 92km up the road.

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