Updated July 28, 2026 02:48AM
Sunday’s fifth Tour de France victory slots Tadej Pogačar alongside legends like Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain in cycling’s most exclusive club.
Yet the five yellow jerseys only begin to explain the scale of his dominance.
In fact, some of Pogačar’s data points put him directly on a GOAT trajectory, and, in some cases, he’s already there.
Comparing eras is always tricky ground because rules have changed over the decades, but when it comes to straight up stats, the Slovenian is moving up all the lists.
Here’s a stat dump to end the 2026 Tour that proves we’re definitely now in Peak Pogacar era.
Statistics were compiled by stat guru Michele Merlino for the Tour de France. Let’s dive in:
1. Five Tour wins before his 28th birthday
Pogačar makes it look easy. (Photo: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Pogačar is only the fifth rider to officially win five yellow jerseys.
What sets Pogi apart is that he reached five victories at just 27 years and 10 months old, making him the youngest five-time champion in Tour history.
Merckx was 29 when he won his fifth Tour. Anquetil and Hinault were both 30, while Indurain was 31.
That puts Pogačar more than a year ahead of Merckx’s pace and nearly four years ahead of Indurain.
It also means that, barring injury or a dramatic change of heart, he could have several more cracks at adding to his yellow jersey haul.
Only boredom or burnout seem to be able to stop him now.
Can he become the first rider to officially win six or more Tours?
Rider age at 5th Tour win
Tadej Pogačar — 27 years, 10 months
Eddy Merckx — 29
Jacques Anquetil — 30
Bernard Hinault — 30
Miguel Indurain — 31
2. Five wins and two seconds
Pogačar is also the first rider in Tour history to finish on the final podium in each of his first seven starts.
Vingegaard was also close to the Pog streak, with five consecutive podiums from 2021 through 2025, before crashing out of the 2026 Tour while sitting second overall after Stage 15.
Pogačar’s worst Tour result is two second places, in 2022 and 2023, both at the hands of the Dane.
If it wasn’t for Vingegaard, Pogačar might have already won seven times. Uff.
That podium streak is even better than Merckx, who won all of his first five Tours starts, then finished second and sixth at the tail-end of his career.
Hinault also never finished worse than second, but did have one DNF when he pulled out of 1980 with severe knee pain.
Anquetil never finished off the Tour podium in eight starts, but he also had two DNFs during his reign.
It took awhile for Big Mig to hit his Tour stride, with two DNF’s in his first two Tours, then 97th, 47th, 17th, and 10th, before winning the first of his five-straight in 1991.
Pogačar’s Tour finishes
🥇 2020
🥇 2021
🥈 2022
🥈 2023
🥇 2024
🥇 2025
🥇 2026
3. At least two stage wins in every Tour
Van der Poel and Pogačar slugged it out Sunday in Paris. (Photo: Getty Images)
Pogačar owns a record that sets him firmly in GOAT territory.
He is the first rider in Tour history to win at least two stages in each of his first seven editions.
Even in the two Tours he lost, he still won multiple stages. In contrast, Merckx packed in a then-record 34 wins across six Tours (an astonishing win rate), but did not win a stage in his seventh and final Tour in 1977.
Pogačar’s total this year with five is one off his high-water mark in the 2024 Tour with six.
King Pog probably could have won up to another three stages if he wasn’t playing domestique to UAE teammate Isaac del Toro. He eased up in stage 2 in Barcelona to allow Del Toro to win, and then paced Del Toro up both Solaison and in Saturday’s final mountain stage.
If Del Toro were racing on Movistar, Pogačar would have attacked and maybe even won eight stages this year.
The Tour is Pogi’s playground and he seems to win whenever he fancies.
Tour stage wins by year
2020: 3
2021: 3
2022: 3
2023: 2
2024: 6
2025: 4
2026: 5
4. 26 Tour stage wins
Pogačar has already won 26 Tour stages, moving past André Darrigade and André Leducq into fourth place on the all-time list during this year’s edition.
He now sits only two stage victories behind Hinault, who finished his Tour career with 28.
The speed at which Pogačar accumulated it makes it even more extraordinary, with only Merckx hoovering up wins at a faster rate.
He has averaged more than three stage victories per Tour across his seven appearances, against arguably an even deeper and more competitive peloton.
There’s no terrain where he cannot win. His W’s have come across summit finishes, reduced-group sprints, explosive uphill finales, and time trials.
At his current rate, the all-time Cavendish record of 35 is within reach.
Rider stage wins
Mark Cavendish — 35
Eddy Merckx — 34
Bernard Hinault — 28
Tadej Pogačar — 26
5. 71 Days in the yellow jersey
Pogačar ended the 2026 Tour with 71 yellow jerseys, the third-highest total in race history.
Only Merckx, with 111 yellow jerseys, and Hinault, with 79, remain ahead of him. The Merckx total includes split stages that were common earlier in the Tour. That number is 96 if counting only “days.”
Pogačar is now just eight yellow jerseys behind Hinault. One more dominant Tour could carry him into second place on the all-time list.
Merckx’s record remains more distant, but no longer appears untouchable. Pogačar would need another 41 days in yellow to move past the Belgian.
That would require more dominance across a few more editions, but his age and current trajectory keep the record in play.
Yellow jerseys
Eddy Merckx — 111
Bernard Hinault — 79
Tadej Pogačar — 71
6. A record 189 distinctive jerseys
Pogačar has a growing collection of jerseys. (Photo: Gruber Images)
Pogacar holds another record already all by himself.
The Slovenian’s closet must be overflowing because he’s collected 189 distinctive jerseys during his Tour career, more than any rider in history.
His total includes 71 yellow jerseys, 75 white jerseys, 40 polka-dot jerseys, and three green jerseys.
Peter Sagan previously set the standard with 148, primarily through his domination of the points classification. Merckx collected 145 distinctive jerseys, while Hinault finished with 130.
Comparisons across eras are complicated because the Tour’s classification system and jersey rules have changed over the eras, and the white jersey wasn’t even introduced until 1975, long after both Anquetil and Merckx had retired.
Rider total jerseys
Tadej Pogačar — 189
Peter Sagan — 148
Eddy Merckx — 145
Bernard Hinault — 130
7. Zero Tour de France abandonments
Pogačar has completed all seven Tours he has started — everyone knows that.
It’s a record he shares with Merckx, while all the other five-time champions had at least one DNF on their Tour palmarès.
Merckx recorded one finish outside the top three during his seven Tour appearances, but finished all seven. Anquetil DNF’d twice and Hinault abandoned once. Indurain also posted two DNF’s and had five finishes outside the podium across 12 starts.
Pog started winning young, and like Anquetil, Merckx and Hinault, also won in his Tour debut.
Pogačar rarely posts a DNF. In fact, his last one was the 2023 edition of Liège.
That also reflects that Pogačar rarely crashes and has not suffered a major, career-threatening injury.
Rider Tour starts/DNFs
Pogačar — 7/0
Merckx — 7/0
Hinault — 8/1
Anquetil — 8/2
Indurain — 12/2
8. More jerseys than Merckx
Pogačar has now won 12 Tour de France classifications, including five yellow jerseys, four white jerseys and three mountains titles
By comparison, Merckx won 10 classifications and Hinault seven, while Anquetil and Indurain never won another jersey besides yellow.
There is an asterisk on this one.
Merckx and Anquetil were never eligible for the white jersey because it didn’t exist until 1975. And the young rider’s jersey rules were different when Hinault won his first Tour in 1978 because at the time it was only awarded to “neo-pros” in their first two years of racing, while the Badger was already in his fourth pro season.
So it’s not a perfect apples-to-apples comparison. The mountain’s competition began in 1933 but the famous polka-dot jersey was introduced in 1975.
Even so, Pogačar’s collection of 12 classification victories is one more metric on his growing statistical domination.
When will he stop?
His current deal with UAE runs through 2030, when he will be 31 when the Tour starts. That’s four more seasons, and four more chances at yellow.
Right now, it’s hard to imagine anyone stopping him.
Total jerseys won
Yellow – Green – White – Polka-dot (climber):
Tadej Pogačar 5 – 0 – 4 – 3: 11
Eddy Merckx 5 – 3 – # – 2: 10
Bernard Hinault 5 – 1 – 0 – 1: 7
Jacques Anquetil 5 – 0 – # – 0: 5
