LOUDENVIELLE, France (Velo) — There’s no stopping Tadej Pogačar at the Tour de France as cycling’s new cannibal powered Friday to his 21st career stage victory.
With four stage wins and counting this year, and an open road toward a fourth yellow jersey, Pogačar is on track to smash some of cycling’s most hallowed historical marks.
On the radar is the 35-win record set last year by Mark Cavendish.
And if he wins a fourth yellow tunic in Paris, he’s just one short of joining the elite “five-win” club of Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain.
And who says he’ll stop there? Lance Armstrong’s now-erased unofficial record of seven yellow jerseys could also be within reach.
At 26, Pogačar is hitting the peak of his superhero powers.
“Based on my feeling, I feel at the best moment of my career,” he said Thursday. “I’m riding in the rainbow jersey, I ride with an amazing team, amazing team-mates, so it’s like a fairytale for me, riding on the bike these last couple of years.”
Who can stop him?
Jonas Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike are whiplashed after their implosion on Hautacam.
And so far, there are no younger riders who are suddenly appearing to take the challenge directly to Pogačar.
Barring a major crash, health issues, or perhaps boredom in winning — if that’s even possible — there’s almost no one who can stop the Pogi Train in the next two or three years.
Can the Cannibal of the 21st Century knock down some of Tour’s most hallowed records and milestones? It sure looks like it. Let’s dive in:
Chasing Cavendish
Last year, Cavendish broke the previous long-running all-time stage win record with 35, all of which came in bunch sprints from the Tenacious C.
Eddy Merckx — cycling’s unquestioned GOAT, at least until Pogačar entered the frame — held what many thought was an unreachable record at 34 since the 1970s with a mix of sprints, mountain top finales, time trials, and breakaways.
Those numbers seem unattainable in today’s peloton, when riders race fewer days and the peloton is more competitive, but the unstoppable Pogačar is catching up fast with 21 stages and counting.
“There’s the Pog factor, he wins when he wants to win,” Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondial’s Oliver Naessen told Velo. “He’s on another level and he could have already won a few more stages if he had wanted to.”
Pogačar rode and won on instinct
Tadej Pogačar won the Tour de France Stage 13 mountain time trial by 36 seconds from runner-up Jonas Vingegaard, despite not having the guidance of his team in his ear.
Sprint Cycling
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#TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/OGyYecoGdT— Velon CC (@VelonCC) July 18, 2025
Pogačar packs that Mercxkian wide-ranging skillset to win in a variety of terrain, from time trials to summit finales, to uphill kickers to classics-style brawlers.
Already in this Tour, he’s won four stages and finished second in two others, and there are still a half-dozen he can win this year if he wants to.
With 21, he’s already surpassed Luxembourg’s Nicolas Frantz for sixth place on the all-time stage win list. He’s one shy of 22 wins of Frenchman André Darrigade.
Pogačar will likely leave this Tour fifth on the all-time stage win list.
35 is within reach
Is 35 possible? At this rate, certainly yes.
He’s been averaging just more than three stages per Tour he’s started, hitting a new peak of six stage wins last year.
For Pogačar, winning is an obligation, not an obsession.
“I’m not here to make enemies, but it’s the Tour de France — you cannot just back off if there’s an opportunity for a stage win because you never know when it’s your last day,” Pogačar said Friday. “The team pays you to win, not to give away victories.
“And there’s a big, big team behind you that supports you and works every single day of their career to come to the Tour, to win the Tour,” he said. “If I single-handedly decided to start giving away stages, I think my team would not be happy.
“If there’s an opportunity, you go for it. You cannot just say no to a stage in the Tour.”
Assuming he wins a few more this year and that he has at least four more seasons at a very high level — if not more — he could match and surpass Cavendish if he clicks along at three stages per Tour.
Looking at the remaining summit finales this year — Saturday at Superbagnères, Tuesday at Mont Ventoux, and next weekend at Col de la Loze and La Plagne in the Alps — Pogačar could win any of those.
The final stage in Paris — with its new finishing circuit over Montmartre — could draw out Pogačar.
Those are five stages that — at least on paper — Pogačar could win. Assuming some breakaways do stay clear or Pogačar doesn’t chase down every move, a few of those opportunities might slip away.
Leaving a few crumbs on the table
Anything less than two more stage wins — especially with the prestigious finale at Mont Ventoux and a bit of unfinished business at Col de la Loze — seems unlikely.
UAE sport director Joxean Fernandez Matxín told Velo that Pogačar is not obsessing over stats but rather that stage wins are the fruit of the labor that comes with racing to win the race.
“What stage doesn’t suit Tadej?”UAE’s Joxean Fernandez Matxín told Velo. “The most important thing is yellow in Paris. We have our tactic, and of course, we react to the action of others.”
A huge array of setups for Stage 13 ⚙
The Tour de France’s mountain Peyragudes time trial resulted in some rarely seen bike and equipment choices for the fastest riders of the day.
Sprint Cycling pic.twitter.com/0PusiMP1TI
— Velon CC (@VelonCC) July 18, 2025
Naessen believes that Pogačar will tap the brakes a few times, just for diplomatic reasons.
“I think he also realizes, especially in a country like France, winning too much doesn’t make you all that popular, and he’s very smart with his team,” Naessen told Velo. “They let breakaways go. They could have chased down the break that won with [Ben] Healy without much effort.”
We’ll see. Don’t be surprised to see Pogačar rack up at least three more stage wins — Superbagnères, Ventoux, and Col de la Loze — to leave this Tour with 24.
Chasing yellow: 7 or more
And of course, winning stages means winning yellow jerseys.
Barring disaster, Pogačar looks on track to win a fourth yellow tunic. Only one rider — Chris Froome — won four without winning five.
If it wasn’t for Vingegaard, Pogačar would already likely have won five straight. This year, he could have been racing for a sixth GC win.
Who’s going to stop him? The topsoil in the GC rivalry field is surprisingly thin.
Vingegaard and Visma look like they’ve plateaued — or just not improving as fast as Pogačar — and Remco Evenepoel is still chasing their tails.
Behind them, a few riders are showing promise, like Oscar Onley or Florian Lipowitz, but neither of them is coming out gangbusters like Pogačar did in 2020 in his Tour debut.
Perhaps the most explosive young rider to come onto the scene in the past few years is Mexico’s Isaac del Toro, but he’s signed on as a UAE wingman through 2029.
Who’s left to complicate his life?
Visma and Vingegaard will surely give it a go a few more years, but Pogačar has proven he’s a step ahead of getting stung by the Killer Bees.
Going for 7 and beyond
And then there’s the controversial and unofficial record set by Armstrong with seven.
Even if it was officially erased from the record books for doping violations, everyone knows it’s there.
With Pogačar’s insatiable appetite for destruction, rattling off three more yellow jerseys after this year doesn’t seem unrealistic at all.
And Pogačar looks like he’s still having fun on the bike. And for him, that counts a lot.
Jerseys after stage 1️⃣3️⃣ / Maillots distinctifs après l’étape 1️⃣3️⃣
@TamauPogi
Jonathan Milan
⚪️ @TamauPogi
@EvenepoelRemco #TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/1jSFe0ZOW0— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 18, 2025
“I still enjoy this bike riding stuff, and I’m enjoying this sufferfest with the fans on the road, then I think I can still go this deep and have this level, this shape,” Pogačar told TNT.
“I think once this fire goes out, I will probably decline my performance,” he said. “But so far I’d say that now is the peak of my career, and the last two, three years, and I try to hold it as long as I can.”
Even though he will never say it, insiders say Pogačar is interested in hitting these milestones and bettering them.
So long as he stays interested and healthy, no one’s going to stop him.
Most Tour de France stage wins
1. Mark Cavendish – 35
2. Eddy Merckx – 34
3. Bernard Hinault – 28
4. Andre Leducq – 25
5. Andre Darrigade – 22
6. Tadej Pogačar – 21
6. Nicolas Frantz – 20
8. Francois Faber – 19
9. Jean Alavoine – 17
10. Jacques Anquetil – 16
10. Rene Le Greves – 16
10. Charles Pelissier – 16
Pogacar’s 21 stage wins
2025 – 4 wins: Stage 4 (Rouen), Stage 7 (Mur de Bretagne), Stage 12 (Hautacam), Stage 13 (Peyragudes)
2024 – 6 wins: Stage 4 (Valloire), Stage 14 (Pla d’Adet), Stage 15 (Plateau de Beille), Stage 19 (Isola 2000), Stage 20 (Col de la Couillole), Stage 21 (Nice)
2023 – 2 wins: Stage 6 (Cauterets), Stage 20 (Le Markstein)
2022 – 3 wins: Stage 6 (Longwy), Stage 7 (La Planche des Belles Filles), Stage 17 (Peyragudes)
2021 – 3 wins: Stage 5 (Laval), Stage 17 (Col du Portet), Stage 18 (Luz Ardiden)
2020 – 3 wins: Stage 9 (Laruns), Stage 15 (Grand-Colombier), Stage 20 (La Planche des Belles Filles)