ALPE D'HUEZ, France, July 24 (Reuters) - Slovenian four-times champion Tadej Pogacar sped away from his rivals during the punishing climb to Alpe d'Huez to claim victory on stage 19 of the Tour de France on Friday, further consolidating his overall lead.
Pogacar climbed Alpe d'Huez in 35 minutes and 27 seconds, more than a minute quicker than the record set by Marco Pantani three decades ago.
The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider now leads his nearest general classification rival Remco Evenepoel by seven minutes and 11 seconds, with one more mountain stage left before the race ends in Paris on Sunday.
"That was epic, what Tadej did there was pretty special and anyone who witnessed that should be very happy," former cyclist Chris Froome, a four-times Tour de France winner, told TNT.
"Tadej just destroyed everyone, what he did there was nothing short of remarkable."
Frenchman Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) finished second while Ecuadorean stage 18 winner Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) came in third.
Pogacar, who had not challenged for any of the last three stages, broke out of the peloton ahead of the Col d'Ornon, the penultimate climb of the day, as his teammate Felix Grossschartner set the pace.
POGACAR DOMINATES FINAL CLIMB
Most of Pogacar's challengers in the general classification, including Evenepoel, stuck with him as riders approached the 13.8-km climb to Alpe d'Huez, with an average slope of 8.1%.
Soon after the ascent began, Pogacar attacked, quickly moving ahead of his rivals. Up ahead, the leading group still had an advantage of nearly three-and-a-half minutes over Pogacar when Carapaz broke away along with Martinez and Sep Kuss.
But even the steeper sections with 11% gradient did not slow down Pogacar, who pumped the pedals to the loud cheers of the roadside crowd to catch the leaders before the final kilometre.
An exhausted Kuss fell back while Carapaz and Martinez tried to keep up, but the 27-year-old Slovenian pushed ahead and looked barely tired as he sped up to the finish line.
"It’s very cool to win up here and it was a crazy atmosphere the whole climb. Thanks to all the team so that I could pull it off in the end. I was riding for my teammates today and I’m super happy," Pogacar told TNT.
Pogacar has a nearly insurmountable lead in his quest for a third straight Tour de France title ahead of Saturday's stage 20, when riders will climb the Alpe d'Huez again in a 170.9-km ride from Le Bourg.
(Reporting by Vincent Daheron; Writing by Chiranjit Ojha in BengaluruEditing by Toby Davis and Ed Osmond)
