Well, it took a while, but the late Marco Pantani’s legendary Alpe d’Huez climbing record has been broken. And the yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar said he wasn’t shocked it finally fell.

The Tour de France leader shattered the Italian’s 30-year-old benchmark on Friday with a blistering ascent of cycling’s most famous climb. According to preliminary calculations, Pogačar reached the summit in 35:27, around 1 minute 23 seconds quicker than Pantani’s celebrated ride.

The record

Speaking in a post-race interview, Pogačar said he wasn’t surprised to have eclipsed the record.

“I also think it was about time,” he said. “If you look at the average speeds in the peloton and how fast we ride these days, it shows how much this sport has evolved in the last five years. It has really taken off.”

The Slovenian credited both his teammates and the modern level of racing for the feat, with Félix Großschartner and Adam Yates helping set up his winning attack before he rode clear on the final slopes. I mean, you gotta thank the troops.

“It’s nice to see that we’re riding so fast, also on the climbs,” Pogačar said.

Pogi’s time of 35:27 on the 13.8-km ascent was 1 minute 23 seconds faster than Pantani’s legendary 36:50 from 1995, a record that had stood for three decades. Pantani also holds the third- and fifth-fastest recorded ascents, with times of 36:53 (1997) and 37:15 (1994).

The fastest Alpe d’Huez times

The fourth-fastest climb belongs to a certain Lance Armstrong, who recorded 37:36 in 2004. The fourth-fastest recorded ascent belongs to Lance Armstrong, who climbed Alpe d’Huez in 37:36 during the 2004 individual time trial. Armstrong’s ride came on a very different day, as riders started alone against the clock rather than racing a traditional mountain stage. Which makes Pantani’s record even wilder: the Italian had ridden 200 km before! Ole Lance just started a few km before the climb, and it was all-out.

While Armstrong’s Tour de France titles were later stripped because of doping, the climbing time itself remains part of the historical record, somehow. I guess.

Either way, the world champion has stamped his authority on the Tour, and maybe the sport alone. Fun fact: Pogi now has 26 stage wins. Remember when Mark Cavendish jokingly asked him not to break the all-time record of 35? Kinda not looking so funny anymore, huh?

Paging Mark Cavendish

Think about this Tour: the UAE Team Emirates rider already has five stages. And he probably could have had Stage 2, where he helped his Mexican teammate Isaac del Toro take his first Tour win. Same with Stage 15. After his rival and friend Jonas Vingegaard crashed, it seemed Pogi wasn’t in the mood to win. Remco Evenepoel took the dub, but on another day, surely Pogačar would have taken that one too.

Either way, if and when he wins in Paris on Sunday, that will be five wins… tying the official all-time record with Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. There is still the, shall we say, “asterisk record” of Armstrong at seven. If he chooses to do that, surely he will snag a bunch more stage wins and very well eclipse the record by the Manx Missile.

Saturday is another tough day in the saddle, although ending on the “easy” side of Alpe d’Huez.