The greatest climbing performances of all time on the Plateau de Beille | Tour de France 2024 Stage 15

Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard both achieved the best and second best climbing performances of all time on the Plateau de Beille ascent, making it the greatest climbing stage of all time.

It was one of the toughest mountain stages of the modern era with 198.5 kilometres and 5,071 metres of elevation gain. It was the perfect day for Jonas Vingegaard as it was hard and hot, but it would be hard to beat Tadej Pogačar after the Slovenian put in the greatest performance of the 21st century yesterday. Visma Lease a Bike with Christophe Laporte, Bart Lemmen, Tiesj Benoot, Wout van Aert, Jan Tratnik, Matteo Jorgenson and Wilco Kelderman tried to make this stage as tough as possible on the steep climbs, with high watts needed to stay in the peloton as follows:

• Peyresourde: 6 ᵉW/Kg for 20 min
  Spirit: 5.6 ᵉW/Kg for 30 min
  Portet-Aspet: 6 ᵉW/Kg for 15 min
  Agnes: 5.9 ᵉW/Kg for 30 min

Santiago Buitrago spent 4019 kilojoules in 4:38h at 14.34 kj/kg/h before the final climb. Matteo Jorgenson pulled from the start of the Plateau de Beille and slowly whittled the group down to eight riders. Joao Almeida, Giulio Ciccone and Carlos Rodriguez were distanced by the American climber who had progressed throughout the Tour de France. The headwind on the climb slowed the general classification favourites. With 10.4 km to go, Jonas Vingegaard attacked and only Tadej Pogačar followed him. Pogačar was on Vingegaard’s wheel until 5’4 from the finish when he attacked and distanced the Dane.

Pogacar set a new climb record on the Plateau de Beille, beating Marco Pantani’s 1998 record by 3 minutes and 44 seconds. Pogacar didn’t have the best conditions, as there was a headwind, but his performance was the greatest in cycling history. Pantani rode a 6.96kg aluminium bike, but his CdA and rolling resistance were higher than Pogacar’s. However, on an 8% climb, aerodynamics, while important, are not the most crucial factor. It’s the watts that matter, as Pogacar said earlier in this Tour, and the UAE superstar had perhaps the strongest legs a cyclist has ever had.

Pogačar achieved 6.98 ᵉW/Kg in 39:50 min, which is by far the best climbing performance of all time, given the conditions and difficulty of the stage. The sea-normalized power for this historic effort is 7.27 ᵉW/Kg. Pogačar’s adjusted altitude score was 696, meaning that this performance was equivalent to pushing 6.96 ᵉW/Kg for 60 minutes at sea level. Jonas Vingegaard, despite losing 68 seconds, achieved the second best climbing performance of all time. The Dane achieved 6.85 ᵉW/Kg in 40:58 min. His altitude score was the second highest in history at 685. Until today, Marco Pantani’s Alpe d’Huez in 1997 was the best in history. Remco Evenepoel lost 2:51 min on the climb to Pogačar, but his performance remains the 23rd best of all time, with a time of 6.53 ᵉW/Kg for 42:41, which is equivalent to 6.81 ᵉW/Kg for sea level. Evenepoel’s performance remains the third best of the 21st century. Pogačar’s performance on stage 14 on Pla d’Adet is the fourth best.

Looking at pure ᵉW/Kg numbers, Tadej Pogačar’s effort still stands out as the most impressive in a road race. Even Marco Pantani’s effort in Flumserberg at the 1995 Tour de Suisse is not as impressive as it was after an easier day and not in the high mountains. That being said, 7.34 ᵉW/Kg for 23:30 min is impressive for any rider. Previously, Vingegaard, Evenepoel and Pogačar had an effort above or really close to the pink trendline of the All Time Top 40. Evenepoel at the Volta a Catalunya 2023 in perfect conditions with fresh legs did 6.90 ᵉW/Kg for 24 minutes and Jonas Vingegaard at low altitude in the Basque Country 2023 distanced everyone with 7.44 ᵉW/Kg for 11:21 ᵉW/Kg. Pogačar is now the only rider in history to have done such an effort on two consecutive days.

Pogačar has extended his lead in the general classification and is now 3 minutes and 9 seconds ahead of Vingegaard, making him very difficult to beat in the third week. Remco Evenepoel is over 5 minutes ahead of Joao Almeida and has a good chance of finishing on the podium in his first Tour, where he has performed better than ever.

Results provided by FirstCycling.com