Tadej Pogačar has taken another big step towards the all-time stage win record with his victory in the Tour de France time trial. The Slovenian all-rounder has already claimed 21 stage wins by the age of 26.
That leaves Pogačar 14 stage wins shy of the record that Mark Cavendish set in 2023. The British sprinter then surpassed Eddy Merckx’s longstanding record, which he had equalled three years earlier.
It seems only a matter of time before Pogačar overtakes Cavendish’s record, but it’s not that straightforward. A look at the number of stage wins by age 26 shows that Cavendish already had 20 wins, and Merckx had 18.
French legends Bernard Hinault, André Leducq, and André Darrigade also (for now) rank ahead of Pogačar in the all-time list.
📊🏆Most stage wins in 🇫🇷Tour de France history:
35 | 🇬🇧Cavendish
34 | 🇧🇪Merckx
28 | 🇫🇷Hinault
25 | 🇫🇷Leducq
22 | 🇫🇷Darrigade, 🇺🇸Armstrong*
21 | 🇸🇮Pogačar
20 | 🇱🇺Frantz
19 | 🇱🇺Faber
17 | 🇫🇷Alavoine
16 | 🇫🇷Pélissier C., 🇫🇷Anquetil, 🇫🇷Le Grèves
15 | 🇧🇪Maertens
14 | 🇩🇪Kittel
— Cycling Statistics 📊💛 (@StatsOnCycling) July 18, 2025
