Pogačar smashes Alpe d'Huez climbing record
The last time Tadej Pogačar climbed Alpe d'Huez in a race, in the 2022 Tour de France, defensive tactics meant he crossed the line more than three minutes slower than the all-time record for the climb, set 31 years ago by Italian climber Marco Pantani.
But in the 2026 Tour, Pogačar attacked relatively early in the climb, springboarding off the work of his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate Felix Großschartner to drop his rivals with more than 8 km left to climb. The result? Pogačar clocked 35:27 for the ascent, smashing the old record (36:50) by almost a minute and a half.
Pogačar was not alone in breaking the record. He caught the remnants of the day's main breakaway high up on the climb and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) crossed the line six and nine seconds behind, respectively. Visma-Lease a Bike's Sepp Kuss, another breakaway survivor, was 1:14 down, meaning those are now the fastest four times on Alpe.
