Two years ago I wrote about Mark Cavendish beating Eddy Merckx’s stage win record at the TdF:
Until today, the record for Most Stage Wins in the Tour was held by cycling god Eddy Merckx, a Belgium rider who dominated the sport in the 60s and 70s. He won the Tour 5 times outright, and bagged the points prize 3 times and the mountains award twice, all on his way to winning a stunning 34 stages, a record he set 49 years ago. I could go on and on here, but suffice it to say that Merckx dominated cycling in a way that really exceeds the huge footprint Jordan left on basketball, or that Tiger had on golf. He won everything over and over, in a way that no one has been able to approach since, partly because cycling has become enormously specialized. Cavendish has the stage win title now, for example, but he’s a sprinter and has never been in contention for the overall Tour.
I went on to note that the stage win ranking list has been pretty stable, aside from Cav’s march towards the top. When I wrote that post, the next rider in the list with 21st century stage wins was Marcel Kittel, then in 13th place, who did his winning between 2013 and 2017.
Then I noted:
The only other currently active rider (aside from Cav) is wonderkind Tadej Pogačar, currently tied for 16th place with 12 wins (including Stage 4 of this year’s race).
Mr Pogačar has been busy in the last two years. Yesterday, he bagged stage win number 22, placing him in 5th place (tied with Andre Darrigade, who last won a stage in 1964). Tadej needs only 3 more to tie Andre Leducq for 4th place, and it’s early in the tour yet. After that, the mountain gets steep:
- Cavendish, 35 stage wins
- Merckx, 34
- Bernard Hinault, 28
But Tadej is still young (27), and is on a tear. He won 4 stages last year, and 6 the year before that. If he ends this year with 4 total, he’ll be tied for 4th. 4 more in 2027 would beat Hinault and put him in 3rd.