Alpe d'Huez, Yellow Jersey, Rainbow Jersey: Pagacar breaks Pantani’s record

31: Pogacar smashes Pantani’s record

​Pantani’s record at Alpe d’Huez stood for 31 years – until this year’s Tour de France. Pogacar climbed the 13.8-kilometre ascent, with its 21 hairpin bends, in 35 minutes and 27 seconds, making him just under one and a half minutes faster than Pantani in 1995, who took 36 minutes and 50 seconds.

Marco Pantani set the official record on Alpe d’Huez in 1997 in a head-to-head battle with Jan Ullrich and Richard Virenque. The Italian completed the 14.5 kilometres – as measured at the time – in 37 minutes and 35 seconds. However, when converted to the distance of 13.8 kilometres used today, this was not his fastest ascent: according to later recalculations, Pantani had already set his best time in 1995 with a time of 36:50 minutes. His record-breaking climb in 1997, at a converted time of 36:55 minutes, was only just behind that.

1: The world champion conquers Alpe d'Huez

Tadej Pogacar has written another chapter in Tour history on the legendary stage to Alpe d’Huez. The Slovenian won the 19th stage, becoming the first ever reigning world champion to triumph on the famous Alpine climb.

At the same time, the UAE Emirates-XRG rider celebrated his 26th stage victory in the Tour de France. As the wearer of the Yellow Jersey, he is only the second rider to have won on Alpe d’Huez. Before him, only Geraint Thomas had managed this feat in 2018.

12: The King of Mountain Finishes

With his victory on Alpe d’Huez, Pogacar further added to his already impressive record in mountain finishes. The Slovenian has now claimed his twelfth Tour victory in a mountain finish and the 16th win of his career in a major mountain finish at a Grand Tour.

Since his first victory on the Col du Grand Colombier in 2020, Pogacar has racked up wins on almost every legendary climb in cycling, including La Planche des Belles Filles, Col du Portet, Peyragudes, Plateau de Beille, Isola 2000 and now Alpe d’Huez as well.

This means the world champion holds the record in this category. His closest rival is Tour legend Lucien Van Impe, with a total of eight victories on major Tour mountain finishes.

2: Pogacar follows in the footsteps of Fausto Coppi

With his victory on Alpe d'Huez, Pogacar has joined an extremely exclusive group. The Slovenian is only the second rider in Tour history to be the first to cross both the Col du Tourmalet and Alpe d'Huez in the same edition.

Before him, only Fausto Coppi had achieved this feat. The Italian ‘Campionissimo’ did so in 1952 on his way to his second overall Tour victory.

4: Five wins in two different tours

Pogacar is dominating the 2026 Tour at will. With his fifth stage win in this year’s race, he has reached a milestone that only three other riders have achieved in the past 50 years.

The Slovenian is only the fourth professional cyclist to have won five or more stages in at least two different editions of the Tour. This exclusive group includes Freddy Maertens, Bernard Hinault and Mark Cavendish.

However, his personal best remains the 2024 Tour, in which he won six stages.

80: Slovenia’s Yellow History

Slovenia’s tally in the Yellow Jersey continues to grow following the successful defence of the title on Alpe d’Huez. The country has now spent 80 days leading the Tour de France.

69 of these yellow jerseys were won by Tadej Pogacar alone. The remaining eleven were worn by Primož Roglič in 2020, when he dominated the tour for a long time and only lost the lead on the penultimate stage.

19: Seixas revitalises Alpe d'Huez

Paul Seixas continues to break record after record. At the age of 19 years and 10 months, the Decathlon CMA CGM rider became the youngest rider in Tour history to conquer Alpe d’Huez in a race.

The previous record was held by Jean Le Guilly, who had tackled the famous climb during his first Tour appearance in 1952, aged 20 years and five months.

By finishing ninth, Seixas also became the youngest rider ever to break into the top ten in a Tour stage finishing at Alpe d'Huez. The previous record had been held by the Dutchman Jan Nolten since 1952.

3: France is still waiting

Lenny Martinez achieved the best French result of this Tour so far at Alpe d'Huez. The breakaway rider finished second, securing his first podium finish in the Tour de France.

Nevertheless, the Grande Nation is still waiting for a home victory. After 19 stages, no French rider has yet won a stage. This is only the third time in the history of the Tour that France has been without a victory at this stage.

The statistics offer little cause for hope: never before has a French rider claimed his first stage win in a Tour on stages 20 or 21. To date, only the 1926 and 1999 Tours have ended without a single French stage win.

4: Carapaz makes history once again

Richard Carapaz was once again one of the most active riders of the day on the stage to Alpe d'Huez. The Ecuadorian spent 124 kilometres in the breakaway group, battled for the mountains jersey and finished third behind Pogacar and Martinez.

For his efforts, the EF Education-EasyPost rider was once again named the most combative rider of the day. This was already his fourth such honour in this Tour de France.

Carapaz has thus equalled Giovanni Battaglin’s record, which has stood since 1979, for the most ‘Combatif’ awards in a single edition of the Tour. At the same time, he now holds a clear lead over his team-mate Ben Healy in this classification and is considered the clear favourite to win the ‘Super Combatif’ title in Paris.