Tadej Pogačar won stage 19 of the Tour de France on Friday, July 24, charging past the remaining breakaway riders on Alpe d’Huez to reinforce his command of the race. The Slovenian leader of UAE Team Emirates-XRG completed the 127.9-kilometre route from Gap in 3 hours, 17 minutes and 57 seconds, according to the Tour’s official classification.
French rider Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious finished second, six seconds behind Pogačar, while Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz of EF Education-EasyPost took third at nine seconds. Sepp Kuss placed fourth, 1 minute and 14 seconds back, and Tobias Halland Johannessen completed the top five at 2 minutes and 7 seconds. The result gave Pogačar his fifth stage victory of the 2026 Tour, Cyclingnews reported.
A 42-rider breakaway carried an advantage of about three and a half minutes into the 13.8-kilometre final ascent. Pogačar attacked from the general-classification group with slightly more than 12 kilometres remaining and rode alone through riders who had begun the climb ahead of him. His acceleration rapidly transformed a contest for the stage into another display by the yellow-jersey holder.
Carapaz, who had won the previous day’s mountain stage, attacked the surviving breakaway with three kilometres to go. Pogačar reached him with 1.8 kilometres remaining, bringing Martinez into the leading group. All three passed beneath the final-kilometre marker together before Pogačar accelerated again and opened the decisive gap inside the last 800 metres.
The victory on one of cycling’s most famous climbs strengthened Pogačar’s position before the Tour’s final weekend. Remco Evenepoel finished sixth on the stage, 2 minutes and 29 seconds behind, while Isaac del Toro was seventh at 2 minutes and 41 seconds. The official results listed Pogačar’s accumulated race time after stage 19 as 67 hours and 53 minutes.
The peloton returns to Alpe d’Huez on Saturday for stage 20, a second consecutive Alpine finish approached from Le Bourg-d’Oisans. That stage offers Pogačar’s rivals another opportunity to attack before Sunday’s concluding stage from Thoiry to the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Friday’s performance, however, left the race leader with another victory and his challengers with one fewer mountain stage to change the overall outcome.
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