Tour de France 2026 – Stage 19 [HIGHLIGHTS]

July 24, 2026

113th Tour de France 2026 🇫🇷 (2.UWT) ME – Stage 19 – Gap – Alpe d’Huez : 127,9 km

The 113th edition of the Tour de France starts in Barcelona on July 4 and ends three weeks later. Riders have to cover all 21 stages of the 2026 Tour de France route. The rider who completes the distance in the fastest time wins the race, also known as the ‘overall classification’. Each day, the rider who has completed the entire distance raced the quickest is the leader of the Tour de France, and wears a yellow jersey to signify him as such. There is a secondary time classification for the best rider under the age of 26, the best young riders’ classification, and he wears a white jersey if leading. Riders also gain points for their position at the end of each day of racing, known as “stages”. There is a secondary prize for the rider who gains the most points – the points classification, and the leader each day wears a green jersey. There are also points atop a select number of mountain passes for the first riders to cross the top, with more points available the harder the mountain is to climb. The leader of the mountains classification wears a white jersey with red polka dots.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) stamped his authority on the Tour de France to take his fifth victory of the race, triumphing atop L’Alpe d’Huez as the race visited its most famous mountain for the first time in four years.

The Slovenian started the 13.8km climb among the GC group 3:30 down on the survivors of a 42-man breakaway, though he didn’t stay with them for long, attacking just over 12km from the top of the climb to go solo.

Over the next 9km, he raced past those dropped from the break, eventually reaching the surviving trio of Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious).

Stage 18 winner Carapaz went solo with 3km to go, the last man for Pogačar to catch. He made contact with 1.8km remaining, dragging a persistent Martinez with him. The trio rode under the flamme rouge together, though a Pogačar acceleration at the front saw him go solo into the final 800 metres.

That was that, and so the Tour leader could celebrate another victory as well as the record ascent time of L’Alpe d’Huez, six seconds ahead of Martinez, and nine ahead of Carapaz.

Pogačar’s 35:27 ascent, over a minute quicker than Pantani’s record, saw him finish 2:29 ahead of the next best GC rider as Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) trailed home in sixth place. His UAE teammate Isaac del Toro was seventh, 2:41 back and four seconds up on Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) in the battle for the white jersey.

“It’s very cool to win up here. It was a crazy atmosphere all climb. Thanks to all the team that I could pull it off in the end. I was riding for my teammates today and I’m super happy to take the win,” Pogačar said after the stage.

“When I heard some of the guys dropped when Felix [Großschartner] was pulling a super good pace in the beginning of the climb, I knew that – I mean, already on the climb before, we were going full gas because the breakaway was so strong. We were going full gas all day.

“Then in the first kilometre of L’Alpe d’Huez, I knew I had good legs and there’s not many guys left that can follow or try to go with me, so I tried and then committed to the top. I had Adam in the middle to give me a big morale boost and I was super happy that he’s finally back. After the TT he was so [ill] and I was super happy to ride behind him for a couple of kilometres on the climb.

“In the end, I had to fight off super good riders, but they were playing a bit with each other in end, so that helped me to catch up and win the stage.

“I go day-by-day and tomorrow is the queen stage of the Tour. I hope that Paris will be a nice day but tomorrow is the hardest day of the Tour. Now we won and tomorrow we’ll see. We go our own rhythm, our own plan tomorrow. We don’t care about anything else. We’ll just do as we do every day, stick as a team together and do our best as a team, and see what happens.”

The stage result now sees Pogačar go 7:11 clear of second-placed Evenepoel, while Del Toro is third at 9:42, 24 seconds up on Seixas.

Elsewhere, Carapaz seized the polka dot jersey. His third place on the day – and second on the previous three climbs – saw him move onto 91 points, one clear of Pogačar, while Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-QuickStep) lies third on 84 points.

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) once again infiltrated the break of the day to add more points to his green jersey lead. The Dane did just that, leading over the intermediate sprint to take his points total to 502, well clear of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) on 445.

How it unfolded
Stage 19 of the Tour de France took the peloton deeper into the Alps with four major climbs on the 127.9km road from Gap to the famous climb of L’Alpe d’Huez.

There’d be climbing from the start with the second-category Col Bayard (4.7km at 7.2%) and the early Col du Noyer (7.2km at 8.5%) before a ride through valley roads in the middle of the stage. The second-category Col d’Ornon (5.4km at 6.4%) lay 28km from the line, while the final difficulty was the hors catégorie climb to L’Alpe d’Huez (13.8km at 8.1%).

With mountain points up for grabs almost immediately at the Col Bayard, there were attacks from the start with mountain classification contenders Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quickstep) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) among those on the move.

A host of other climbers joined in the action, including Einer Rubio (Movistar), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), and Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek), while Paret-Peintre grabbed five points to Carapaz’s three to move into the virtual mountains lead.

The duo were part of a 42-man breakaway which got away over the climb, including those three climbers above. A host of other notable names made the move, including Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Mads Pedersen, Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos), Ben O’Connor (Jayco-AlUla), Javier Romo (Movistar), Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana), the Visma-Lease a Bike trio of Matteo Jorgenson, Sepp Kuss, and Davide Piganzoli, Decathlon CMA CGM duo Tiesj Benoot and Matthew Riccitello, seventh-placed Lenny Martinez, and 11th-placed Yanis Voisard and his Tudor teammate Michael Storer.

The group quickly raced away to a two-minute lead by the Col du Noyer, where Paret-Peintre once again took the maximum points – 10 to Carapaz’s six. Back in the peloton, Tim Wellens was suffering once again, the Belgian having beaten the time cut by two minutes on Thursday after falling ill.

His UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad controlled the peloton, meanwhile, allowing the break to build a 4:30 on the flatter roads in the middle of the stage. After 74km of racing following the top of the Noyer, the riders hit the day’s intermediate sprint at Le Perier, where Pedersen went clear to take another 25 points to bolster his green jersey lead.

The road headed back uphill after the sprint, with the Col d’Ornon looming. It was there where the breakaway broke apart, with Paret-Peintre dropping from the move 37km from the line as his rival for polka dots, Carapaz, remained in the move.

At the 33km mark, only 15 riders remained out front to leave a group of the best climbers including Kuss, Carapaz, Riccitello, Benoot, Tejada, Martinez, Arensman, Johannessen, and Rubio. Come the top of the climb, it was Carapaz who grabbed five points to strike back at Paret-Peintre.

The breakaway riders made it down the twisting descent on the other side with a 3:30 advantage over the chasing GC group, and they’d carry that lead into Le Bourg-d’Oisans and the start of the final climb of the day.

L’Alpe d’Huez
The early slopes of the climb saw the leading break group break apart once more as Armirail pushed on at the front. A move from Arensman took Martinez with him, while Kuss, Carapaz, Riccitello, and Romo also came along.

Further back, Pedersen led the GC men onto the climb, one last push for his team leaders Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose. The Spaniard couldn’t keep up once UAE took over, however, while Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) was also in difficulty.

The first big move from the GC group came from the yellow jersey as Pogačar attacked 12km out at the first hairpin of the climb to leave behind a group consisting of his teammate Del Toro plus Evenepoel, Skjelmose, and Seixas plus his lieutenant Nicolas Prodhomme.

Three minutes up the road, Kuss, Carapaz, and Martinez led the race as Yates dropped back to pace Pogačar until the 10km mark, by which point he was already 40 seconds ahead of the other GC men.

Seeking a second stage win in a row, Carapaz accelerated at the front 9km from the top. Only Martinez could follow, though Kuss was quick to rejoin.

Pogačar was speeding past the remains of the break by that point, less than two minutes from the leading trio, while Evenepoel, Seixas, Del Toro, and Skjelmose lay over a minute down the mountain.

As the crowds thickened, Carapaz made another move with 7km to go, but once again Martinez and Kuss stuck to him. He’d try again at 5.4km from the top, but, yet again, the leaders would remain as a trio.

Meanwhile, Pogačar, now past Rubio, Johannessen and the rest, lay just 45 seconds down, having put a full two minutes into the GC group he’d left behind. He had them in his sights with 4km to run. Sensing the end was nigh, Carapaz attacked again to lead solo, while Pogačar caught and passed Kuss and Carapaz just inside the final 3km.

Further back, Evenepoel tried to attack Seixas, Del Toro, and Skjelmose, but a line of motos in front of him blocked the path before the barriers began 4km from the top. He would get clear, though, putting 20 seconds into the rest while Del Toro also attacked away from his white jersey rival Seixas.

With 1.8km to go, Pogačar – with Martinez on his wheel – caught Carapaz. The yellow jersey was quick to put in another attack, but both men managed to stick with him. His second acceleration was more successful, however, dropping the two strongest men from the break just 800 metres from the line.

The end result, as predicted, was another win for Pogačar and minutes added to his overall lead. Evenepoel was the next best GC man to finish, racing across the line 2:29 down to secure his second place as Del Toro took some valuable seconds on Seixas in the race for white and the final podium spot.

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