TADEJ POGACAR conquered the famed hairpins of the Alpe d’Huez in a record time today, as he won stage 19 of the Tour de France to extend his overall lead.

Pogacar was timed at 35 minutes and 27 seconds over the 13.8km climb, smashing the previous record of 36 minutes 55 seconds set by Marco Pantani in 1997.

In the process, Pogacar became only the second man to win in yellow on this mountain following Geraint Thomas in 2018, taking his fifth stage win of this Tour and the 26th of his career.

The Slovenian took flight on the first of the hairpins and reeled in the remnants of a huge breakaway, closing a gap of three-and-a-half minutes to catch final survivors Richard Carapaz and Lenny Martinez with 1.8km to go before dropping them inside the final 1,000 metres.

It saw Pogacar extend his overall lead to seven minutes 11 seconds over Remco Evenepoel, who himself attacked inside the last four kilometres to strengthen his grip on second.

“It’s very cool to win up here,” Pogacar said. “It was a crazy, crazy atmosphere all climb and it was thanks to all the team that I could pull it off. In the end I was riding for the team-mates today and I’m super happy to take the win…

“In the first kilometre [of the climb] 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, then I committed to the top.”

Tom Pidcock, stage winner here in 2022, fell back early on the climb but battled to finish 20th on the stage, keeping him ninth overall with one mountain stage — on the other side of the Alpe on Saturday — left before Paris.