“Some of the guys had been dropped, so I decided to go” – Tadej Pogacar silences UAE doubts with historic Alpe d’Huez triumph
CyclingFriday, 24 July 2026 at 18:14
Tadej Pogacar has revealed that the damage caused by Felix Grossschartner gave him the signal to launch the attack that carried him to a historic victory on Alpe d’Huez.
The Tour de France leader accelerated with more than 12 kilometres of the final climb remaining, having started the ascent more than three minutes behind the remnants of a 42-rider breakaway. Pogacar caught Richard Carapaz and Lenny Martinez inside the final two kilometres before dropping both with his last attack around 900 metres from the summit.
The victory made Pogacar only the second rider after Geraint Thomas to win on Alpe d’Huez while wearing the maillot jaune.
“It’s very cool to win up here,” Pogacar said after the finish. “It was a crazy atmosphere for all the climb. It was thanks to all the team that I could pull it off today. I was riding for all my team-mates today and I’m super happy to take the win.”
Grossschartner gives Pogacar the green light
UAE Team Emirates – XRG had started stage 19 with questions surrounding the condition of several riders. Tim Wellens and Florian Vermeersch were both distanced during the opening climbs, while Brandon McNulty had already left the race.
Grossschartner nevertheless remained alongside Pogacar when the favourites group began to shrink on the Col d’Ornon. His pace forced several general classification riders into difficulty and reduced the group to only 11 before the descent towards Alpe d’Huez.
Maxim Van Gils initially lifted the tempo for Remco Evenepoel on the final climb, dropping Tom Pidcock and Juan Ayuso. Pogacar soon received confirmation that Grossschartner’s earlier work had already weakened the group.
“When I heard that some of the guys had been dropped by Felix’s pace, I decided to go,” Pogacar explained. “I committed to the top.”
Evenepoel did not attempt to follow the initial acceleration and instead settled into his own rhythm alongside Paul Seixas, Isaac del Toro and Mattias Skjelmose.
Pogacar quickly opened a gap and began cutting into the advantage held by Carapaz, Martinez, Sepp Kuss and Thymen Arensman further up the mountain.
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Yates returns to play his part
Adam Yates had spent much of the stage in the breakaway, giving UAE a rider ahead of Pogacar despite the team’s reduced strength around the yellow jersey.
Yates lost contact before Alpe d’Huez but waited on the climb and briefly helped his leader continue the pursuit. His contribution lasted only a couple of kilometres, but came at a crucial moment as Pogacar began closing rapidly on the front of the race.
“I had Adam in the middle, which was a morale boost,” Pogacar said. “I’m glad he is back. I was super happy to ride with him for a couple of kilometres.”
Once Yates had completed his turn, Pogacar accelerated again and continued alone.
He caught Arensman with seven kilometres remaining and immediately left the Netcompany INEOS rider behind. At the front, Carapaz repeatedly attacked Martinez and Kuss, but none of the three was able to establish a decisive gap.
The hesitation between the leaders worked increasingly in Pogacar’s favour. “The leaders were playing a bit with each other at the end and this helped me catch up and then take the stage,” he said.
Carapaz finally dropped Martinez with around three kilometres remaining, but Pogacar was already within sight. Kuss attempted another acceleration as the yellow jersey approached before losing contact, while Martinez managed to regain the wheel.
Pogacar reached Carapaz and Martinez in the penultimate kilometre and waited until around 900 metres from the line before attacking for the final time. Neither could respond.
UAE turn towards Del Toro’s podium battle
Pogacar’s victory extended his general classification lead over Evenepoel to 7:11. Del Toro remained third overall at 9:42, only 24 seconds ahead of Seixas.
That leaves UAE with another major objective on stage 20. Pogacar’s yellow jersey is firmly under control, but Del Toro’s position on the podium and in the white jersey competition remains vulnerable ahead of the hardest stage of the race.
“Tomorrow is the queen stage. It’s the hardest day of the Tour,” Pogacar said. “Now we won, tomorrow we will see.”
UAE will again ride around both of their classification leaders rather than allowing the pressure from Decathlon CMA CGM Team to dictate the stage.
“We go our own rhythm, our own plan, we don’t care about anything else,” Pogacar said. “We go as a team and see what happens.
“We make sure that Isaac fights for the beautiful white jersey and the podium.”
UAE began the day with doubts over their strength and numbers. Grossschartner reduced the favourites group, Yates contributed from the break and Pogacar completed the work with one of the most prestigious victories of his career.
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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- Tomorrow, I suspect more babysitting Del Toro duty for Pogacar to make sure he stays third and neutralize any attacks from Seixas.
PogiFan2Day24-07-2026 - Of course CO is a poison. Just saying it won't kill you in small doses, therefore it's not a poison makes no sense. That is true of every poison.mobk24-07-2026
- Tomorrow Tadej follows wheels until they get close and then he'll make a decision. He has to be thinking about his Vuelta participation.awp24-07-2026
- In awe with that performance. I was in the middle of a workout and it made me pause just to watch the final few KM. Chapeau Tadej, amongst the rumours surrounding the blacks shorts, ill teammates, early doping tests, you proved your dominance still. You can’t not respect that.anonymouscyclist24-07-2026
- No, Jakob is entirely correct to classify CO as a poisonous gas, as it is intrinsically highly toxic. Its dosage doesn’t make it ‘less’ poisonous. In fact, this danger is precisely why teams are not allowed to use the Detalo Performance rebreathing machine without direct, in-person supervision. Because CO binds tightly to haemoglobin and leaves the body extremely slowly, without the correct, monitored and supervised dosage, it can build up overtime and suffocate you. It does not become ‘non-poisonous’ at low levels, it simply has a cumulative effect. CO is poisonous because, upon inhalation, it binds to the haemoglobin 200-300 times more strongly than oxygen. Haemoglobin carries oxygen to your body, and consequently, a sudden high dosage, or repeating low dosages, cause suffocation. You can’t compare it to CO2 either, it does not bind to haemoglobin anywhere close to the rate at which CO does. CO2 is only dangerous in massive, enclosed concentrations by physically displacing the oxygen in the air and suffocating you by physically preventing you from breathing oxygen. And let’s not get started on carbon monoxide inhalation.anonymouscyclist24-07-2026
- Tomorrow solo for Pogačar from Galibier. He has to keep trampling everyone because that's the only way we love him. Pogi Hulk-Smash!!!mus-musculuspeedypogigonzales24-07-2026
- Good lord what a performance, meaning Martinez and Carapaz, after all their idiotic start-stop attacking. Speechless about and in awe of the dominant ride by Pogačar, so I have nothing more to say about him right now.RidesHills24-07-2026
- Really? What if this was actually a warning that they know something is going on and will be taking a closer look in future. Controls had been pretty lax the last decade and never found much, we may be entering a new round of catch up. This kind of stuff would only be available to the best off teams, it’s not something you can just order on the internet with a big black wallet..Mistermaumau24-07-2026
- Please stop referring to CO as a poison, it it the dosage that makes it poisonous. Most of us breathe some in every day, some of us quite a lot more than others, It is basically the same as CO2 just 100x more effective (at killing you) because it does chemically (or more precisely, biologically) what CO2 does physically which is to deprive you of enough Oxygen. Oxygen is also deadly (as is a water overdose), we can only breathe air (around 80% nitrogen) if the O2 concentration stays within a quite narrow range. CO use is basically no different from enriched O2 use, fine if controlled and temporary. The problem is doping always drives people to experiment with limits for max gains so at some point you get the Gianetti effect, a dosage that reveals an undetectable product through unwanted symptoms (putting it mildly).Mistermaumau24-07-2026
- This is just stupid for a team that has won the TDF >5 timesabstractengineer24-07-2026
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