There are images no one ever wants to see. The Tour de France is effort, joy, sport, anticipation, ambition Alpe dHuez is, by some margin, the climb on the Grande Boucle with the best vibes. However, it isnt always like that. Sadly, today we saw footage of two not-so-young fans who, after an ar...

Youve seen the photos, watched the videos, and possibly stood on the road yourself, witnessing the worlds biggest riders at the worlds best race ascending the worlds noisiest climb. Few things stir the emotions and whet the appetite quite like a stage of the Tour de France to the top of Alpe dHuez.After a four year absence, the Tour returned to its most famous of climbs on stage 19 (and will do again on stage 20, albeit without ascending the 21 hairpins and instead going via the Col de Sarenne).If watching a spread out peloton, one by one, climb the Alpe, past the tens of thousands of fans, barbecues, flags, empty beer bottles and questionable fancy dress is an unmissable date in the diary, imagine what its like to actually ride the thing. To be an actor in bike racings craziest circus. Even one of the minor players, not stage winner Tadej Pogaar.Tobias Foss of Netcompany-Ineos was one of many riders riding up to the ski station for the first time. It was very fun, the Norwegian said. All the climbs in the Tour have a lot of people but this was extreme.My eardrums were hurting a bit sometimes, honestly. Im expecting when I get back to the hotel that my ears will be singing a bit. It was just incredible.It doesnt matter if youre the first guy or the 40th guy or the 100th guy, people are still having a good party and cheering you. Its amazing and incredible.No surprise that Foss had a favourite section. We have the Norwegian/Danish corner, and I saw some friends at the start of that corner so that was nice. It was cool to see a lot of Norwegian flags.Foss was greeted raucously by the thousands of spectators (Image credit: Getty Images)NSNs Lewis Askey, losing his battle to finish dead-last in the race, was a spectator on the Alpe four years ago when his British compatriot Tom Pidcock won. This time he was riding it. Mental, is how Askey described the experience. I think its one of the mythical things of cycling to be able to do. I watched it a couple of years ago so to be here now riding it is really cool. I hate to think what it would have been like for the leaders as I couldnt ride through the crowds [at some points]. It was so crazy, and that was half-an-hour afterwards.(Image credit: Getty Images)The Tour is littered with episodes of riders joining in the festivities on the Alpe, either by taking beers from fans, or wheeling up the steep gradients. Michael Matthews of Jayco AlUla was in the days big breakaway, but when he got to the bottom of the Alpe, he switched his focus into enjoying the madness of it all. Even in the cauldron of noise, he found time for quiet reflection.Stage 19 of the hardest race in the world, and after breaking my arms at the start of the year, and having [pulmonary] embolism at the Tour de France last year, its such an amazing feeling to be back," Matthews said.After what Ive been through the last two years, to be back at the Tour and in this shape, and having these fans cheer me on, it was quite emotional. I was by myself for pretty much the whole climb and I was able to enjoy pretty much every single fan on the side of the road, try to gee them up to get them even more excited, and just do what I can to really just enjoy the atmosphere.How did Matthews animate the crowd further? Its just winding your hands up and that makes the fans go even more crazy. It doesn't take much! Just a little symbol that youre acknowledging them and they go even crazier. I also saw a lot of Aussie flags out there which was really incredible and not even just Aussies, but fans from around the world were cheering me on as if I was about to win the race, so that was pretty special.In terms of feeling the support from the fans, it doesnt get much better than this. The Flanders Classics are pretty incredible, but this was 13km of screaming in my ears the whole way.(Image credit: Getty Images)Not everyone will leave with positive memories: Movistar's Einer Rubio suffered facial injuries after crashing into the back of a UAE Team Emirates-XRG car. But Robert Stannard of Bahrain-Victorious was another one who was inspired by the watching public. Its amazing to come up here with all the fans, he said. It doesnt feel like an effort at all because of how much motivation they have us.Just to get here at the bottom, knowing that youre going up Alpe dHuez in the Tour de France is almost like a dream come true. It was really amazing, all the fans, everything. I loved it.Most fans would give a lot to ride a stage of the Tour up to Alpe dHuez, but it was Foss who had the most envy. It must be so cool to stand alongside the road, he said. Ill definitely bring my kids here in the future.

Remco Evenepoel strengthened his hold on second place at the Tour de France after distancing both Isaac del Toro and Paul Seixas on Alpe dHuez, even if Tadej Pogacar once again proved completely beyond reach. The Belgian gained 12 seconds on Del Toro and 16 on Seixas at the summit, extending his ad...

The last time Tom Pidcock rode up the Alpe d'Huez at the Tour de France, it was one of the performances of his career. The then 22-year-old flew up the famed climb to take his first and to date only Tour stage win, and to mark his name on the world of cycling.That was in 2022. Four years on, the now Pinarello Q36.5 rider, aged 26, is older and wiser, but also now the owner of an opposite experience on the Alpe. Instead of tasting victory once more, Pidcock finished 20th on stage 19 of the 2026 Tour , 8:22 behind the stage winner and yellow jersey Tadej Pogaar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)."That second last climb I went so deep, I think I paid for that on the last climb. I was dead there," he said at the finish."Of course [there are positives to take from the stage] Yeah, what a day. I hoped for more. But there was nothing more I had in my legs there. It is was it is."There might have been positives, but stage 19 was a bad day for Pidcock; not only was he not able to recreate his heroics from four years ago, he also slipped down on the general classification, being leapfrogged by Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost). What looked like a comfortable eighth place is now an edgy ninth, with Pidcock leading Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies) by under two minutes. It should be enough, but with a chaotic penultimate stage to come, anything might happen.His comments post stage 18 on Thursday were prescient, warning of Carapaz: "When Carapaz is up the road, I have too much respect for this guy to give him free time. You don't give him free time."The EF rider is chasing the mountains classification, but has also found himself in the top 10 on GC; he is just 15 seconds ahead of Pidcock, so it will all come down to stage 20, also to Alpe d'Huez.Despite the disappointment, Pidcock could still find time to enjoy his second time racing up the Alpe at the Tour: "It's incredible you know, the amount of people who come here and watch bike racing. It's amazing. The atmosphere. Thank you to everyone who comes out and makes it so magical."

Paul Seixas remains firmly in the fight for a place on the Tour de France podium after limiting his losses on an unforgiving first encounter with Alpe dHuez. The 19-year-old reached the summit alongside Isaac del Toro, preserving fourth place overall and keeping the gap to the Mexican at just 24 se...

Tadej Pogaar was more than three years away from being born the last time someone rode up Alpe d'Huez faster than him. On stage 10 of the 1995 Tour de France, the controversial Marco Pantani flew up the Alpe d'Huez in 36:40. 31 years later, on stage 19 of the 2026 Tour, UAE Team Emirates-XRG's Pogaar rode the famous climb in a reported 35:26, 1:14 faster than Pantani's time.Not that it means much to the Slovenian: "I actually don't know what the time of Pantani was to be honest. I'm staying off the internet a lot in the last weeks, and I don't take too much into that," the world champion said after his latest win."I heard that I broke the record, so I'm happy. I just wanted to do a good race and win today. For the guys. Also, I don't know how old, 30 years old record, finally broken, is good for us."The victory was Pogaar's fifth of the race, his 26th stage win overall, and means he now has a lead of more than seven minutes over second-placed Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). It was dominant performance, as he attacked on the final climb of the day from the GC group, 12km from the top, and picked off riders from the break one by one. From a deficit of 3:25 at the bottom, he overhauled them all. The last survivors were Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), with Carapaz and Martinez finally dispatched with 800m to go.The Alpe, the record, this is supposed to be special. Asked how much this result meant to him, Pogaar answered: "I would say as much as any other win, but now that every single journalist says how big this win is, maybe I'll start to realise how big this win is. Maybe I'll appreciate it once it settles down."(Image credit: Getty Images)It meant a lot to his team, however, with his sports directors Joxean Fernndez Matxn and Andrej Hauptman overjoyed that their charge had done it again, with the former in tears at the finish."I didn't know..." Pogaar started. "I don't know why they got so emotional as men. I don't cry often, I guess it meant a lot to the team. Also, the way we are riding as a team, not just the victory, the team spirit and all, it cannot be better, even with the rough days of the last days, the team spirit cannot be better than when we win. It's a reward for all, and then emotions come to the surface."Those "rough days" for UAE saw Brandon McNulty abandon, and both Adam Yates and Tim Wellens fall ill to a stomach bug."Adam was really bad on the TT day, he was white like a wall," the yellow jersey explained. "Today I was so happy when I caught him on the last climb to ride behind him. Felix [Groschartner] had to do all the work in the last few days because Tim was also feeling sick, Brandon also went home. Guys don't feel like themselves, but today we stepped up again. "They believed we could win and it was just nice to seal the deal today after a couple of rough days for the guys. This one is for the teammates."Pogaar now leads the 2026 Tour by 7:11, which would be the biggest winning margin of any of his five Tours if the race ends with him on top, as it is likely to. That gap is helped by the absence of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), but it proves his utter supremacy.(Image credit: Getty Images)On French TV, they compared Pogaar to Pac-Man, a yellow character gobbling up all before him. In this Tour, however, there are no ghosts to threaten the main character; he looks unbeatable. Even illness within his team hasn't held him back.He is a man used to gobbling up riders ahead of him. Asked what it's like to overtake rivals, he said: "Some riders, you can see that they're already taking it a bit easier to go to the top, and maybe with some riders we have good energy. With [Harold] Tejada we smiled at each other, then some riders... it's a good feeling when you pass somebody. Some riders stick on the wheel to see how fast I am going, and it's a compliment a little bit. "It gives a lot of motivation when you catch riders, and today there was a lot of riders in front so it was good to go and catch them one by one. Chapeau to everyone in the front."It feels like a given now that Pogaar was going to gobble them all up, including Kuss, Carapaz and Martinez, but it wasn't always so, and Pogaar himself wasn't certain."The moment I started to believe was when I heard on the radio that they started to attack each other," he explained. "Then I knew that it was on and off. Then 5km to go... I don't know how much the gap was, if I kept this pace maybe I catch them just before this right turn. When it was the barriers, I could see them finally, and I saw they were looking at each other. "I knew I could catch them, but also somebody was saving a bit, so I was quite in doubt. Then Sepp attacked, and I was like, 'Fuck they're gone again, I will not be able to catch'. That was the last resource of Sepp. Then Lenny was incredible, he was on my wheel, I didn't think I was able to catch him. I was barely able to catch Richard. We were all at the limit. I tried not to come to a three man sprint. "I accelerated with 1km to go, 800m to go, I gave it all. It was one of the hardest wins for me, and chapeau to all the breakaway riders, they were smart today with a lot of teammates in front. Today was a battle of teams, and in the end we could pull it off."Despite a team under the weather, held back by illness, Pogaar the Pac-Man couldn't be stopped. Pantani's record gone, the Tour de France overall victory record of five in touching distance, what's next? If Merckx was the cannibal, Pogaar is just as voracious.

Tadej Pogacar delivered another statement performance in the Tour de France. Despite starting the final climb of Alpe d'Huez around three minutes behind a strong group of climbers, the Slovenian proved once again that he is operating on another level. He managed to catch all the breakaway riders and...

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 dHuez. The Tour de France leader accelerated with more than 12 kilometres of the final climb remaining, having started the ascent more th...

Tadej Pogacar produced a remarkable pursuit on Alpe dHuez to win stage 19 of the Tour de France, erasing a deficit of more than three minutes before dropping Richard Carapaz and Lenny Martinez inside the final kilometre. The UAE Team Emirates XRG leader attacked from the favourites group with mor...

The first day on the slopes of Alpe d'Huez has been kind to UAE Team Emirates - XRG. Even though the Emirati team is dealing with an illness internally, their leaders came out unafected to secure their podium spots. Tadej Pogacar holds his lead firmly after today's victory. The yellow jersey's adva...