Pogacar’s Tourmalet solo joins his greatest long range raids

This remains Pogačar’s longest solo victory to date. It was also the first edition to feature the new, tougher Strade Bianche route, which added around 30 kilometres and more than 500 metres of extra climbing.

Perhaps the biggest factor, however, was the positioning of the brutal Monte Sante Marie gravel sector, which came around 80 kilometres from the finish. Many believed that was far too early for a decisive attack, even for Pogačar.

But UAE Team Emirates tore the race apart before and on Sante Marie, leaving most rivals isolated without teammates to organise a chase. The familiar “group two syndrome” quickly appeared in the chasing group, where cooperation was limited.

Above all, though, the race was decided by a dominant Pogačar, who eventually finished 2:44 ahead of runner-up Toms Skujiņš.

We jump straight from 2024 to 2026, as the 2025 edition played out differently. That year Tom Pidcock was strong enough to follow Pogačar on the Monte Sante Marie. After crashing heavily with around 50 kilometres to go and fighting his way back to the front, the Slovenian eventually only managed to drop Pidcock on Colle Pinzuto, with 18.6 kilometres remaining.

Heading into 2026, the route had been made slightly easier again and the start list was exceptionally strong, featuring riders such as Paul Seixas, Tom Pidcock and Matteo Jorgenson. It seemed reasonable to expect that someone might be able to follow Pogačar on Sante Marie.

Instead, the Slovenian once again went clear on the sector. Seixas came close to following the move but ultimately lacked just enough to hold the wheel, and Pogačar quickly disappeared up the road to take his fourth Strade Bianche victory, finishing one minute ahead of youngsters Paul Seixas and Isaac Del Toro.

A week after the World Championships, where Remco Evenepoel finished second behind Tadej Pogačar, the two faced off again at the European Championships.

The Saint-Romain-de-Lerps climb featured three times on the route, with the final ascent coming 70 kilometres from the finish. It was there that Pogačar launched his decisive move, with Evenepoel the rider able to follow him for a while before he cracked.

After that, the peloton still had to tackle the Val d’Enfer climb four times. Pogačar rode each of those ascents alone and eventually crossed the finish line 30 seconds ahead of the Belgian.

Pogačar arrived at the 2026 Tour de Suisse for his final preparation ahead of the Tour de France. The revamped race opened with a demanding stage around Sondrio, with Primož Roglič, Richard Carapaz and Matthew Riccitello among the riders expected to test the world champion.

Instead, the race was effectively decided with 69 kilometres remaining. After UAE Team Emirates XRG had forced a split at the foot of the Triangia climb, Pogačar bridged across to the early breakaway before accelerating clear alone just two kilometres later.

By the summit, the Slovenian already had a lead of one minute, and the gap continued to grow across the remaining climbs. Carapaz emerged as the strongest of the chasers, but he was unable to prevent Pogačar from finishing more than two minutes ahead, with Andrea Bagioli taking third. Pogačar claimed the opening stage and the first yellow jersey after another devastating long range solo.

With just over 100 kilometres to go, the riders tackled Mont Kigali, where only Juan Ayuso was initially able to follow Tadej Pogačar. Isaac Del Toro then bridged across on the descent shortly afterwards, forming a three rider group at the front.

On the next climb, the Mur de Kigali, Ayuso was dropped, leaving Del Toro as the only rider able to stay with the Slovenian.

Del Toro managed to follow until 66 kilometres from the finish, when Pogačar launched another attack on one of the ascents of the Côte de Kimihurura and went clear alone.

From there, Pogačar rode solo all the way to the finish, while Remco Evenepoel, after two bike changes earlier in the race, fought his way back through the field to finish second, 1:28 behind the Slovenian.

This marked Pogačar’s first World Championship victory. The Slovenian launched his decisive attack on the Witikon climb with around 100 kilometres remaining.

Andrea Bagioli was the rider able to follow him the longest, but later abandoned the race after the effort proved too intense.

Pogačar briefly received support from Jan Tratnik, who had been up the road when the attack came. Once Tratnik had finished his work, Pavel Sivakov was the only rider able to stay with Pogačar, holding his wheel until 51.7 kilometres from the finish.

In the closing stages, Pogačar was visibly struggling and later admitted he may have gone too early with his attack. “I didn’t really know what I was thinking,” he said afterwards.

Despite the doubts, the Slovenian managed to hold on and ride solo to the finish to claim the rainbow jersey ahead of Ben O'Connor and Mathieu van der Poel.

This edition was raced on the old Strade Bianche route, with the decisive Monte Sante Marie sector coming around 50 kilometres from the finish. Just as in later editions, Pogačar launched his attack there and rode solo to victory.

At the time, the Slovenian was still considered beatable. Compared to recent editions, the start list was relatively modest, and a major crash with around 100 kilometres remaining also reshaped the race.

Even so, the defining factor was Pogačar’s strength on the day. Attacking so far from the finish and still holding on for a long solo victory underlined just how dominant he was already becoming. Alejandro Valverde finished second that day, while Kasper Asgreen rounded out the podium.

In 2024, the Il Lombardia route was slightly different from previous editions. Instead of the usual Passo di Ganda, which normally crests with just over 30 kilometres remaining, the race climbed the Colma di Sormano, with the summit coming a little over 40 kilometres from the finish.

Pogačar had never lost an edition of Il Lombardia he started, and the Colma di Sormano offered the most logical place to launch a decisive attack. The Slovenian did exactly that, going clear on the climb and riding solo to victory, finishing more than three minutes ahead of Remco Evenepoel and over four minutes ahead of Giulio Ciccone.

Because the decisive move came further from the finish than usual, this turned into one of the longest solos of his Lombardia victories.

The 2026 Tour de France had barely reached its first true mountain test, but the race already looked ready for a defining Pogačar intervention. UAE Team Emirates XRG arrived at the Col du Tourmalet with a clear plan, drilling the pace until only the strongest climbers remained, before Isaac del Toro delivered the final acceleration that split the group apart.

For a brief moment, Jonas Vingegaard seemed capable of limiting the damage. The Dane set his own tempo after Pogačar attacked with 42.6 kilometres remaining and kept the gap close in the early part of the move. But by the summit of the Tourmalet, Pogačar had stretched his advantage to 30 seconds, while Del Toro, Florian Lipowitz and Paul Seixas were already further back.

From there, the Slovenian never looked like coming back. Vingegaard lost more ground on the descent and was more than a minute behind by the time the road began to rise again towards Gavarnie-Gèdre. Pogačar then powered through the final 18 kilometres alone, winning by 2:38 over Vingegaard and 2:57 over Del Toro, taking both the stage victory and the yellow jersey in a single devastating statement.

This victory came in Pogačar’s first season as a professional, just days before his 21st birthday. It was also his Grand Tour debut. By that point he had already won two stages in the Vuelta, but producing another victory under those circumstances was remarkable. To achieve that as a neo pro in your first Grand Tour is extraordinary.

What makes it even more impressive is that it happened in the third week of the race, the moment when younger riders typically begin to struggle.

The field was also far from weak. Riders such as Primož Roglič, Alejandro Valverde, Nairo Quintana and Miguel Ángel López were all present in the race. Pogačar attacked on the penultimate climb and held off chasers Alejandro Valverde and Rafał Majka.

And it quickly became clear this was no lucky breakthrough. Just one year later, Pogačar would go on to win his first Tour de France, confirming the arrival of a generational talent.