Pogačar Gobbling up Ground Between Himself and Cavendish Tour Stage Record

Saturday brought the fourth stage win of Tadej Pogačar’s 2026 Tour de France campaign and, with it, a career tally of 25 Tour victories.

That’s a highly impressive haul and sees Pogačar share fourth place in the all-time standings. He’s now level with André Leducq, who clocked up 25 stages between 1927 and 1938.

He’s just three off Bernard Hinault’s tally of 28. More importantly, the 34 victories of Eddy Merckx and the all-time record of Mark Cavendish are now looming on the horizon.

Granted, he’s still 10 stages off Cavendish’s standout achievement but, such is Pogačar’s momentum, he could conceivably equal that record as soon as next year.

Not convinced? Here’s why that is the case.

A run of opportunities

Pogačar’s four stage wins this year came inside the first 14 stages. He won stage 3 in Les Angles, stage 6 in Gavarnie-Gèdre, stage 10 in Le Lioran and then Saturday’s race to Le Markstein.

Seven stages remain and, of those, six are viable targets.

Sunday’s race to Plateau de Solaison is the first of those. It finishes with a 11.3km hors categorie climb averaging 9.1 percent in gradient. That’s tailor made for a strong climber and, on the evidence of the past two weeks, Pogačar is the best uphill in the race.

Tuesday’s stage 16 is an individual time trial which includes a category 2 climb early on. He’s won four Tour de France TTs in the past and even if Remco Evenepoel will start as the big favorite in what is his best discipline, Pogačar can’t be ruled out.

The following day looks suited to the sprinters, but the summit finish of Orcières-Merlette on Thursday plus the two stages to Alpe d’Huez on Friday and Saturday are climber’s delight.

The final opportunity is next Sunday’s finish in Paris. The stage to the French capital would traditionally be one for the sprinters but, in 2025, the Tour organizers took the gamble of including three ascents of the Montmartre climb.

The experiment was a massive success, tilting the stage battle well away from the abilities of the fastmen and towards strong attackers.

Pogačar was on a mission to finish his 2025 Tour with a flourish and went clear in a strong group. However Wout van Aert was the day’s best, sensationally dropping him on the final ascent and powering on to win.

Van Aert is absent from this Tour this time around. Having lost out last year, Pogačar may well want to make amends. He won’t be far off if he does indeed go for it.

Nervous times for the record holder

So, six opportunities in the days ahead. Should he take three of them, which on current form is entirely possible, that’d be seven stage victories from this year’s race.

That in turn would raise his career tally to 28, level with Hinault, six off Merckx, and seven off Cavendish’s record.

On current form, it’s not inconceivable that he could hit 35 wins by the time next year’s Tour reaches an end.

Even if it takes a little longer than that, you can be sure Cavendish is suddenly feeling a little vulnerable.

That’s even more so the case with Pogačar racking up his stages at a younger age than anyone before.

Time is on his side and momentum is too.

Tour de France stage wins by age 27:

1. Tadej Pogačar, 25
2. Eddy Merckx, 24
3. Mark Cavendish, 23
4. Bernard Hinault, 22
5. Andre Leducq, 15