“I could see Tadej Pogacar was angry” – Rolf Sorensen saw a new side of Tour de France leader during Alpe d’Huez annihilation
Cycling
Former Tour de France stage winner and TV2 cycling expert Rolf Sorensen believes frustration helped drive Tadej Pogacar towards his record-breaking victory on Alpe d’Huez.
Pogacar began the final climb more than three minutes behind the remaining breakaway riders, with UAE Team Emirates – XRG weakened by illness and Brandon McNulty already out of the race. Sorensen felt the yellow jersey was increasingly unwilling to watch one of the Tour’s most prestigious stages disappear up the road.
“I could tell from looking at him that Pogacar was frustrated and angry today,” Sorensen said on TV2. “The victory was beginning to slip away from him.”
Rather than settle for protecting an overall lead of more than seven minutes, Pogacar attacked with over 11 kilometres remaining and immediately began cutting into the advantage held by Richard Carapaz, Lenny Martinez and Sepp Kuss.
Sorensen sees frustration behind Pogacar attack
The difficulties inside UAE had been visible across the previous days. McNulty had abandoned, Adam Yates was still recovering from illness and several teammates had struggled to provide Pogacar with the support normally available in the mountains.
“His teammates have been ill and still are,” Sorensen said. “McNulty abandoned yesterday, and he has really been struggling with the team around him.”
Felix Grossschartner still produced a powerful turn before Pogacar’s attack, while Yates briefly helped after dropping back from the breakaway. Most of the chase, however, was completed by the Tour leader alone.
Pogacar passed Thymen Arensman before reaching the closing kilometres, where Carapaz and Martinez were still fighting for the stage. The gap that had looked sufficient at the foot of Alpe d’Huez had almost completely disappeared.
“So today it was all or nothing,” Sorensen said.
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Anger turns into Alpe d’Huez history
Pogacar caught Carapaz and Martinez inside the final two kilometres before attacking again beneath the flamme rouge. Neither could stay with him as he completed one of the most striking victories of his Tour.
His reported ascent time of 35:27 surpassed the long-standing benchmark associated with Marco Pantani’s 1997 ride by more than a minute. Pogacar also became only the second rider after Geraint Thomas to win on Alpe d’Huez while wearing the yellow jersey.
“A huge performance,” Sorensen said. “Pogacar was very, very happy and proud today.”
The stage had offered Pogacar little reason to take risks for the general classification. His advantage was already overwhelming and his team was operating below full strength.
Sorensen instead saw a rider irritated by the prospect of losing the stage, willing to attack near the foot of Alpe d’Huez and chase down more than three minutes almost entirely under his own power.
By the summit, the frustration Sorensen had detected had been replaced by a fifth stage victory of the Tour and the fastest reported ascent in the history of Alpe d’Huez.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- 18 broken bones. 78 crashes, among 30 rider per year is a lot. so for a rider over 15 seasons, they will break their bones 7-8 times and crash 38 times.abstractengineer04-11-2026
- i dont think he is ready ot win against the top 2 or the 2nd rung of evenepoel, del toro , Almeida. In the third week in the TDF he was very very defensive, no attacks. i think he was exhausted. right now he needs time not the brutal Giro or the intense TDF.abstractengineer04-11-2026
- Rota is an excellent rider to get in a break with because he always does his turnchapmanesque04-11-2026
- That 3000 extra that the Tour de France is built up in the flat stages
Rafionain-Glas04-11-2026 - maybe this is something else they can protest in the streets of France.mij04-11-2026
- his Roubaix win was amazing. not to take anything away from him - arguably one of MVDP's wins was at the expense of a WVA flat - but so many things need to line up to get one of these. He had a perfect race with fewer bike issues on an attritional course. And crazy strong as usual. Glad he got this done.mij04-11-2026
- Orts was a super smart signing with the new rules regarding cross and UCI pointsmij04-11-2026
- yeah... you're right...PogiSloFans04-11-2026
- Podcast sounds great. Two so called experts stating the f*cking obvious.wrsty04-11-2026
- A mindset that reminds me of Tim Declerq. I loved watching that guy just pound away the kilometers, hours at the front, holding an entire breakaway in check on his own. Bjerg seems like a similar guy. Curling, the team sport.RidesHills04-11-2026
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