Tadej Pogacar Shatters Pantani’s 1995 Alpe d’Huez Record by 1:15

I haven’t watched the Tour de France since 2016, mainly due to the fact I dropped cable and would need to subscribe to a streaming service that may or may not work with my all-Linux set-up. But I stay abreast of the big stories, as I proved last year with my articles on the superhuman feats of Tadej Pogačar on Hautcam and later on Mont Ventoux. Back when I was following cycling closely from 2009-2016ish, there were certainly questions about some of the performances, but for the most part the record climbing times of the 1990s (and to a lesser extent, the early 2000s) were beyond reach (we may offer a qualified exception in the case of Alberto Contador on Verbier in 2009). But that has changed starting in 2024. While Mr. Pogačar did not toppe Bjarne Riis’ famous (or infamous) 1996 record on Hautacam at last year’s Tour, many other records have fallen. But surely he would struggle to dethrone the late Marco Pantani’s hitherto untouchable 1995 record on Alpe d’Huez, which was only threatened by Pantani himself in his 1997 rampage up cycling’s most famous summit. Let’s see what happened… I quote from The Guardian:

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.

Well. That’s something. Gravity suffers another defeat.

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