'I'm impatient to get there' – Tadej Pogačar closes in on fifth overall victory in Tour de France after successful yellow jersey defence on Alpe d'Huez

It's almost done. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates-XRG) crossed the line of the final mountain stage, celebrating not just his nearly-achieved fifth, record-equalling, overall victory, but also his successful support of teammate Isaac del Toro to finish third in Paris.

Pogačar had already promised after Friday's victory that the second ascent to Alpe d'Huez on stage 20 would be about helping the Mexican on the last, ultra-hard, trek through the Alps, and he more than kept his word.

Despite having the yellow jersey on his back, Pogačar first began working for Del Toro on the Galibier, reducing the lead favourites group to just the top five riders on GC – himself, Del Toro, Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious).

That work on the front of the small GC group continued on the last major ascent of the 2026 Tour, the Hors Categorie Col de Sarenne, to the point where Seixas, the key rival for the podium, was dropped and then widened the gap by the summit.

However, Del Toro was nearly cracking and on the last, brutally steep but short climb to Alpe d'Huez, with the yellow jersey a near-certainty, Pogačar even let second-placed Evenepoel move away.

The 'Bull' gesture that both he and Del Toro made when the UAE duo crossed the line made it clear that if Sunday will be all about Pogačar's fifth Tour win, Saturday was all about his teammates.

"It's hard to explain how much this means to me that he's on the podium too; to do that is something unimaginable," Pogačar said afterwards. "We can be really proud of what all the guys did; I'm so happy for him."

"I always appreciated my teammates' work; I praise them and how much they work for me, how much they put on the line and for the last three weeks, they've worked their asses off every day."

"Today when Juan [Ayuso – Lidl-Trek] was in front, I was really afraid he could have found his really good legs and we'd maybe lose the jersey," Pogačar explained, saying that he feared the Spanish challenger for the best young rider classification might have been able to finally turn things around after a few bad days with a late break for glory.

"So I committed for Isaac and I realised again how important my teammates are. I have massive respect for them and how much they do for this goal.

"The cycling world doesn't realise how important the team is and how hard it is for team to be riding for the yellow jersey and the white jersey.

"Today I saw again how they are better than most champions, the way they give everything to the team. I cannot explain how grateful I am."

In the case of Del Toro, part of UAE since 2024, Pogačar said they had clicked ever since he joined the team. Four years younger than the Slovenian, it is clear that he has taken Del Toro under his wing, be it good-humouredly reprimanding him from going too fast on stage 6 on the Tourmalet, or simply messaging him to go on the attack, as he did back in the 2025 Giro d'Italia's stage across the sterrato.

"He's always been there for me 100%, he could have gone for his own chance in Strade" – won by Pogacar but with Del Toro in third behind Seixas – "or he could have gone to the Giro or Vuelta," Pogačar said.

"But he's here in the Tour, he committed to the biggest goal, to winning yellow. And today he's got the white jersey and the podium, so I'm super happy for him."

Pogačar was still offering Del Toro advice right up to the line on stage 20 of the Tour, as he explained when one journalist asked him what he had said to the Mexican in the closing metres.

"I said to him – 'don't forget to pedal' – because the last 200 metres were quite steep, we still have to get to the finish line," Pogacar explained.

"But I say now, even if we didn't win the stage, team spirit won today."

With Alpe d'Huez behind the race and just one day's largely ceremonial racing remaining, Pogačar is on the point of celebrating his own date with history, becoming just the fifth rider to win five Tours. And he does so with a current advantage of 6:30, 2:06 more than his already remarkable overall gap of 4:24 last year on GC runner-up Jonas Vingegaard and 13 seconds more than his 6:17 lead over the same rider in 2024.

However, the Slovenian put down the widening of the gap on his rivals down to experience and "dealing with things differently" rather than an improvement in condition.

"I must say this year I didn't feel I was getting much stronger since 2024," he said. "The numbers are there, but I've got more experience; small things are still improving

"Maybe the numbers are the same, but details count. My mood and emotions, that's where I'm improving a lot. That's why I ride good this year."

However, as he pointed out, the race is not over until the Tour crosses the final finish line on Sunday evening, and that was yet to happen in 2026.

"Let's wait until Paris and then we can celebrate; we've still got 90 kilometres [on stage 21] to go," he concluded. "I'm impatient to get there."

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