After his win Pogacar, 25, described the stage as “100% perfect” and added he could “enjoy tomorrow” after extending his lead in the yellow jersey.

The two-time winner raced conservatively until the final climb into the resort of Isola 2000, where his blistering attack was too much for both his rivals around him and those up the road.

“We were here training for a whole month between the Giro and Tour,” he added. “I knew this climb super well. I was speaking with team-mates in the training camp how we wanted to race and we did it exactly how we wanted.”

Two stages stand between Pogacar and a third Tour de France title.

On Saturday, the peloton stays in the mountains and finishes on the Col de la Couillole. The tour ends with a time trial into Nice on Sunday.

But such is Pogacar’s dominance this season, it seems as if Friday’s stage 19 may go down as the day the 2024 tour was won.

He won the Giro d’Italia in May and could become the first man since Marco Pantani in 1998 to win the two tours in the same year.