Atop the iconic Alpe d’Huez, it was Tadej Pogacar once again showing his dominance to win Stage 19 of the 2026 Tour de France. With the win, he becomes only the second Yellow Jersey in history to take victory on Alpe d’Huez. Pogačar’s time of 35 minutes and 26 seconds is also the fastest ascent ever recorded up the sport’s most famous mountain.
Today’s stage served up the first of two ascents of the mighty Alpe d’Huez. This time around, it’s a 127.9 km challenge departing from the town of Gap that also mixes in several more categorized climbs. But it’s the summit finish that is going to get the attention today. If anyone could break Tadej Pogacar’s grip on the yellow jersey, there are few opportunities better than the Alpe to give it a go.
While I’ve not ridden the real thing, I did ride the Alpe d’Zwift last Sunday. If it’s anything like the real thing, it’s just relentless, with very few places to catch your breath. 13.8 km of climbing, 21 hairpins and an average gradient of 8.1%. Are there steeper and longer climbs out there? Sure. But the Alpe Just. Keeps. Going. Good luck to the riders today (and tomorrow when they have to do it again!).
The sun is shining in Gap, where the temperature is 30°C. Fine weather is set to prevail throughout today’s stage, with temperatures cooling as the peloton gains altitude. Temperatures of 23°C are expected at the finish at Alpe d’Huez. A wind of 10 km/h, as forecast by Météo France, will be blowing eastwards.
As the riders finished the neutral start, Martin-Guyonnet immediately accelerated with V. Paret-Peintre, Healy, Carapaz, Gee-West and others on his wheel.
On the way to the summit of Col Bayard, it was Sean Quinn and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) with Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek) and Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) making a go. They get caught, but there was still a strong group of around 30 at the front waiting for the right opportunity.
The usual suspects (Paret-Peintre and Carapaz) take the first set of KOM points.
On the descent, there are around 40 leaders, including eight riders from the GC top 20: Lenny Martinez, Richard Carapaz, Yannis Voisard, Davide Piganzoli, Tobias Johannessen, Sepp Kuss, Adam Yates, and Tiesj Benoot. Their gap increased to 1’05” at km 10.
The 42 leaders with a gap of 1’25” were:
- UAE Emirates RXG: Yates
- Visma-Lease a Bike: Armirail, Jorgensen, Kuss, Piganzoli
- Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe: Cattaneo
- Lidl-Trek: Gee-West, Pedersen, Simmons, Vacek
- EF Education-EasyPost: Carapaz, Baudin, Healy, Quinn
- Decathlon CMA CGM: Benoot, Riccitello
- XDS Astana: Tejada
- Bahrain Victorious: Martinez, Tiberi
- Netcompany Ineos: Arensman, Foss, Tarling
- Soudal Quick-Step: V. Paret-Peintre
- Jayco AlUla: O’Connor, Engelhardt, Matthews
- Uno-X Mobility: T. Johannessen, A. Johannessen
- NSN: Bennet
- Movistar: Castrillo, Garcia Pierna, Romo, Rubio
- Cofidis: Izagirre
- Pinarello Q36.5: Howson
- Groupama-FDJ: Braz Afonso, Martin-Guyonnet, Pacher
- Tudor: Hirschi, Storer, Voisard
- Caja Rural-Seguros RGA: Berwick
Next up is the Col du Noyer. The climb featured most recently in the 2024 Tour de France, where Richard Carapaz distanced his rivals on the climb and soloed to victory in Superdévoluy. The Ecuadorian climber is at the front again today, after his stage win at Orcières-Merlette yesterday.
Derek Gee-West was setting the pace three kilometres from the summit with Mads Pedersen is in second position. The gap to the bunch was up to 2’10”.
At the summit, it was, once more Paret-Peintre taking the top points.
Through the rolling hills between the categorized climbs, Visma-Lease a Bike (Armirail), EF Education-EasyPost (Healy, Baudin) and Lidl-Trek (Gee-West) collaborated en route to La Posterle (km 46). In the peloton, UAE Emirates XRG (Politt) and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe (Van Dijke) controlled the gap: 3’25”.
Halfway through the stage, the gap climbed to 3’45”.
As the stage neared the intermediate sprint, the breakaway group started to shed riders. Ben Healy was the first to drop, then Josh Tarling. The gap to the peloton had opened to 4’20”.
Mads Pedersen took the intermediate sprint, his ninth of the 2026 race.
With the sprint in the rearview mirror, the leaders made their way to the Cat. 2 Col d’Ornon. Bruno Armirail ramped up the pace and a number of attackers started to drop of the back of the lead group: Yates, Pedersen, Vacek, O’Connor, Bennett, Howson, Tiberi and others.
With Paret-Peintre flagging, it was Carapaz taking the KOM points at the Col d’Ornon. In the GC group, it was Grossschartner setting the pace, followed by Pogacar, Evenepoel, Van Gils, Hindley, Del Toro, Skjelmose, Seixas, Pidcock, Ayuso, and Prodhomme.
The leaders were approaching the valley that is the gateway to the Alpe d’Huez.
There were 18km to go, but what an 18! 21 switchbacks of relentless climbing awaited!
And they were on the Alpe! Bruno Armirail (Visma-Lease a Bike) drove the breakaway on the first slopes. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) moved up. Tiesj Benoot (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Mattia Cattaneo (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) were immediately distanced. The peloton trailed by three and a half minutes.
Vacek and Pedersen pulled the GC group. But then Pogacar turned things up with 13km to go. Adam Yates was helping him out. Pogacar nows trailed the leaders by 2’39”. But Carapaz was giving no quarter. Kuss and Martinez were there too.
8km to go and Pogacar was now just 1’19” seconds back from the leaders.
Just Martinez, Kuss and Carapaz remained at the front with 6.4km to go. Pogacar was just 1’09” back.
Carapaz attacked again, but Lenny Martinez was not giving up. Still 5.2km to the top.
4km to go and Pogacar was just 19 seconds back from the leaders.
Carapaz attacked again under the 3km banner, but Pogacar was just 8 seconds back. He’d already passed Martinez and Kuss. Behind Pogacar, Evenepoel made a go, but he was held up by a photo motorcycle.
2km to go and Carapaz was still riding strong.
Carapaz was flagging. And there goes Pogacar. But Carapaz was not yielding!
And in the last kilometer, it was Pogacar with the legs.
Pogačar: “It is very cool to win up here, and it was a crazy atmosphere the whole climb. It was thanks to all the team that I could pull it off in the end. I was riding for the teammates today, and I am super happy to take the win.
“When I heard some of the guys dropped when Felix was pulling a super good pace in the beginning of the climb… Already, the climb before, we were going full gas because the breakaway was so strong. We were going full gas all day, and then in the beginning, in the first kilometre of Alpe d’Huez, I knew that I had good legs and there are not many guys left that maybe can follow, or try to go with me. I tried and then I committed to the top.
“I had Adam in the middle, and he gave me a big morale boost. I am super happy that he is finally back after that day of the TT, 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 against super good riders, but they were playing a bit with each other at the end, so this helped me to catch up and win the stage.
“Good shape, I just go day by day, and tomorrow is the Queen stage of the Tour. I hope that Paris will be a nice day and super shiny, but tomorrow is the hardest day of the Tour.”
2026 Tour de France: Stage 19 Brief Results
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates XRG)
- Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), +6”
- Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), +9”
- Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike), +1’14”
- Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), +2’07”
2026 Tour de France: General Classification After Stage 19
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates XRG)
- Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) + 7’11”
- Isaac del Toro (UAE Emirates XRG) +9’42”
- Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) +10’06”
- Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) +13’00”
- Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +13’09”
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