Pogačar Equals Merckx, Hinault and Induráin with Fifth Tour Success

By Fakorede King Abdulmajeed | Fuxma Media | July 27, 2026

Tadej Pogačar entered the exclusive pantheon of Tour de France greats on Sunday evening in Paris, securing a record equalling fifth overall victory and confirming what many in the peloton have long suspected: that the Slovenian is rewriting the limits of what is possible in the modern era of the sport. The 27 year old UAE Team Emirate XRG rider finished the three week race in 73 hours, 56 minutes and 26 seconds, 6 minutes and 26 seconds clear of Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel, with his young teammate Isaac del Toro, a 22-year-old Mexican making his Tour debut, completing the podium a further three minutes back in third. In doing so Pogačar joined Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Induráin as the only men to have won the race five times. He is the youngest to reach the mark.

The victory was Pogačar’s third in succession and his fifth in seven starts. He has now finished on the podium in every Tour he has contested, a run of consistency that has no modern parallel. He first claimed the yellow jersey as a 21 year old in 2020, defended it the following year, finished second to Jonas Vingegaard in both 2022 and 2023, then reasserted his dominance in 2024 and 2025. This latest triumph came after a race in which he seized the race lead on stage six in the Pyrenees and never looked likely to relinquish it. He won five stages, taking his career total at the Tour to 26, and spent a cumulative 70 days in yellow across his career, moving past both Induráin and Chris Froome on that particular list.

The final stage, shortened and confined to the streets of Paris because emergency services were diverted to combat wildfires in the south west of France, provided a fittingly dramatic coda. Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin Premier Tech claimed the stage win after he and Pogačar attacked together on the final ascent of the Butte de Montmartre. The pair led through the narrow lanes past Sacré Cœur before Pogačar, after three weeks of relentless racing, began to fade in the closing kilometres. Van der Poel held on to win a photo finish from his teammate Jasper Philipsen, with Mads Pedersen third. Pogačar rolled in safely with the main group, the overall classification long since settled.

Afterwards the new five time champion struggled to process the scale of the achievement. “I’m speechless. It’s an incredible day, there was an incredible atmosphere,” he said. “I’ve ridden seven Tours already and I’ve always finished on the podium. You might think this is a fairytale, it’s incredible for me too.” He added that the most important factors in his success were simple: “The most important one is enjoying what you do and being surrounded by people who are there for you, also in the lowest times, and support you so you can build towards your goals. I now have to find a new goal to chase, once this one is accomplished. Which goal? Let’s just not jump ahead of ourselves and enjoy this moment.”

Eddy Merckx, the Belgian who shares the record of five Tours and is widely regarded as the greatest rider of all time, had already predicted that the Slovenian would not stop at five. “I don’t think he’ll be content just to draw level with me and the other champions,” Merckx told Gazzetta dello Sport. “He’ll soon break our record for Tour victories.” Merckx also noted the ease with which Pogačar climbs and the way he continues to improve year after year, observing that each era produces its own champions and that direct comparisons are rarely useful.

Pogačar’s path to the title was smoothed by the early departure of several key rivals. Vingegaard, the only rider to have beaten him in the Tour in the past six years, crashed out on stage 15. Other strong contenders also fell by the wayside through injury or illness. Evenepoel produced a resilient and consistent ride to finish second, while del Toro’s third place and white jersey as best young rider underlined the depth of the UAE team. French riders enjoyed a strong showing in the top ten, with the 19 year old Paul Seixas fourth on debut, Lenny Martinez fifth and Jordan Jegat tenth.

The 2026 Tour will be remembered for Pogačar’s long range mountain attacks, his metronomic pace on the climbs, and the sense that he was operating on a different plane from almost everyone else. He set record times on both the Col du Tourmalet and Alpe d’Huez, the latter on stage 19 when he attacked from the foot of the climb and rode clear to victory. Those displays left his rivals searching for answers that never materialised. At 27 he already possesses five Tour titles, a Giro d’Italia, multiple Monuments and two world championships. The conversation about whether he is the greatest of all time has moved from speculation to something closer to consensus among many observers.

For now Pogačar insists he simply wants to savour the moment. The Vuelta a España begins in late August, and he has left the door open without committing. Whatever comes next, Sunday’s ride into Paris marked the moment a new name was permanently carved alongside the sport’s immortals. Five Tours at 27 is no longer a prediction or a possibility. It is a fact, and the record books have been rewritten accordingly.