Pogacar delivers 7 W/kg in the greatest Alpe d’Huez ascent ever

Marco Pantani’s record of 36:40 has stood for three decades. Riders like Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich, and Chris Froome had all fallen short of the record. When Pogačar raced on the Alpe earlier in his Tour de France career, he wasn’t even close to the record time. 

All eyes were on the yellow jersey in Stage 19 of the Tour de France, and we all knew what was coming. 

Say what you want about the early breakaway, summer heat, or sickness making its way through UAE Team Emirates-XRG. At the end of the day, none of that mattered to Tadej Pogačar. He was going to go for the record. 

It was a relatively short day at 128 km from Gap to Alpe d’Huez, and a large breakaway had a three-and-a-half minute lead at the bottom of the final climb. Others were happy to set the pace for the first kilometer of Alpe d’Huez, but it wasn’t long before Pogačar made his move. 

The yellow jersey attacked in the saddle, his trademark style, pushing well over 7w/kg for five minutes to get the winning gap. But he wasn’t concerned with what was happening behind him. 

In fact, I’m not sure Pogačar looked backwards once on the final climb. He simply rode the hardest pace that he could, for as long as he could. Eventually, he caught his teammate Adam Yates midway up the climb. The Brit paced until he could hardly pedal, and Pogačar went on his way at 7w/kg. 

With a few kilometers to go, Pogačar was about to catch the breakaway, but there were some last-minute attacks from Richard Carapaz and Lenny Martinez. The Slovenian clawed his way up to the leaders, but the duo hung on as the climb flattened out. 

The Strava KOM had been destroyed, but there was still about a kilometer to go to the finish. Pogačar attacked once, then twice, turning the screws until there was clear daylight behind his rear wheel. 

The yellow jersey raised his arms as he crossed the line, almost a shrug in his shoulders and hardly a grimace on his face. It all looked so easy, yet, Tadej Pogačar had just taken the all-time climbing record on Alpe d’Huez. 

Not only did Pogačar take the record, he crushed it by more than a minute. The Slovenian set the Alpe d’Huez Strava KOM with a VAM of 1,937 Vm/h, with the full climb being only slightly lower at just under 1,900 Vm/h. 

Pogačar – Alpe d’Huez Climbing Record

Time: 35:27
Estimated Power: ~6.9w/kg
Alpe d’Huez Strava KOM: 32:26 at ~7w/kg

Pogačar’s climb is without a doubt the greatest performance in Alpe d’Huez history. But when you look at the numbers, you could argue that it isn’t quite his best performance ever. 

Stage 19 of this year’s Tour de France was quite easy compared to Stage 15 of the 2024 Tour where Pogačar destroyed the field on Plateau de Beille. The Slovenian did similar numbers that day, an estimated 7w/kg for 40 minutes. But that effort came after 185km, not 120km. 

There wasn’t a single challenger to Pogačar today, which actually could have slowed him down. Once no one even tried to follow his wheel, it was clear Pogačar would be doing a 30-minute time trial. A rival or two could certainly have spiked his motivation. But perhaps we’ll have to wait for another season of the Tour de France. 

Tomorrow’s stage again finishes on Alpe d’Huez, but from a much easier side rather than the infamous 21 hairpins. Pogačar might not be stronger than ever, but he certainly looks more comfortable than ever destroying the Tour de France.