Tadej Pogacar undoubtedly marked the 4th stage of this Tour de France of his imprint. After a huge amount of work by his team UAE Team Emirates Throughout the day, the Slovenian went on the attack in the last kilometer of the Col du Galibier. Alone Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) tried to take the wheel of the overexcited “Handsome“. But even the Dane failed to keep up and Pogacar passed the top of the climb with a lead of about ten seconds, before widening the gap in the second part of the descent. Data lovers will not have failed to calculate the Slovenian’s climbing time in the Galibier… and it is impressive!
Tadej Pogacar, winner of this 4th stage
A record broken by more than 1’30”
In fact, according to estimates thatprofessional pyroridinga reference in the field, shared on X, Pogacar would have climbed the Col du Galibier in 20’50”, if we only take into account the ascent after the Col du Lautaret and therefore only the last 8.5 kilometers, at an average gradient of 6.8%. The Slovenian has therefore literally smashed the climb record previously held by Nairo Quintanawho had made the climb during the 18th stage of the Tour de France 2019 in 22’23”. A time all the more impressive as the climb was this time climbed with a headwind and after a very difficult stage.
Which means that Pogacar is not the only one to have beaten this time, but there are eight of them, since Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), Remco Evenepoel, Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step), Juan Ayuso, John Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) et Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) were also faster than Quintana. In comparison, Andy Schleck had completed the climb in 25 minutes when he won in 2011, while Louis Meintjes had climbed it in 23’47” in 2023.
