Tadej Pogacar put further distance between himself and his last remaining rivals, winning the Alpe d’Huez stage of the Tour de France and extending his overall lead to more than seven minutes.

There was a brutal inevitability about the defending Tour champion’s win on the legendary climb of the Alpe, despite all the rumours of illness and gastric problems within his UAE Emirates XRG team.

Pogacar’s climbing time, of 35 minutes and 26 seconds, shattered the longstanding record set by Marco Pantani in 1997, by more than a minute.

“I don’t know what the time of Pantani was,” he said. “I don’t take too much into that, but I heard that I broke the record, so I’m happy.

“I would say this means as much as any other win, but now everyone has emphasised how big this win is, maybe I will start to realise it is quite important.

“I just wanted to do a good race and to win. A thirtysomething year record finally broken is good for us.”

So feverish was the speculation over Pogacar switching from yellow shorts to black earlier this week, that one French TV commentator even suggested it was to conceal an excess of flatulence. But on the Alpe, it didn’t matter what colour Pogacar’s shorts were: he still won.

The only wind emanating from the four-time Tour winner, now close to taking a record-equalling fifth win in Paris on Sunday, came from the metronomic climbing style that took him to a record-breaking ascent of the Alpe’s 21 hairpin bends.

The Slovene looked the picture of health as he sped up the 13.8 kilometre climb, the theatre for many of the Tour’s most dramatic finishes, and with one final mountain stage still to come, now seems assured of overall victory in Paris.

The old adage, that the Tour is won on the Alpe, was proven again with Pogacar’s latest demolition of his hapless rivals. With 25km left to race, the day’s breakaway led by almost four minutes, but three kilometres from the finish, Pogacar had caught and overtaken them.

Pogacar’s sports director, Matxin Fernández, was reduced to tears by his rider’s performance. “I don’t know why they get so emotional,” Pogacar said of his team management. “I don’t cry often. I guess it meant a lot to the team and also the way we are riding as a team, the team spirit we have. It cannot be better, so when we win, the emotions come to the surface.”

Huge and rowdy crowds, estimated to be in the region of 500,000, and at times out of control, greeted the riders at the foot of the Alpe. Some had arrived six days in advance, while others seemed too intoxicated to know why they were there in the first place.

“It was a crazy atmosphere on the climb,” Pogacar said.

The damage done to his rivals was extensive, with Remco Evenepoel the least wounded by the onslaught. The Belgian remains in second place overall, but any hopes of challenging for the final victory are long gone. He and Pogacar’s teammate, Isaac del Toro, are now the only riders within 10 minutes of the race leader.

On another day of desperation for the teams that have yet to taste success in this year’s Tour, a big breakaway took shape on the early climbs of the Bayard and Noyer.

In that leading group of 40 were some now familiar names, including past stage winners, Richard Carapaz, Thymen Arensman, winner of two stages in 2025, and the recovering Adam Yates, teammate to Pogacar, who won in Bilbao in 2023.

It was a Lazarus-like performance from Yates, who was so sick earlier this week that he was barely able to pedal through the finish line to his team bus after Wednesday’s stage to Voiron. But as soon as the main contenders began to climb the first steep ramps of the Alpe, the stage took on a new look, as Pogacar shifted up a gear.

His decisive acceleration came 12km from the summit and immediately left his closest rivals in his wake. After joining forces with Yates, the pair ate into the break’s advantage, until with 10km remaining, Pogacar set off alone.

The denouement was obvious. It was a cruel and relentless win, wholly in character with Pogacar’s domination of the Tour. He has taken five wins in 19 stages. Saturday’s “queen” stage, over four of the hardest climbs in the Alps, now offers him the chance to take a sixth. Another victory now seems almost inevitable.