Tadej Pogačar won his fifth Tour de France on July 26, 2026, equalling the great Eddy Merckx's total and doing it at the age of 27 across a span of just seven years.

The Slovenian rolled onto the Champs-Élysées in a specially designed all-yellow kit marked with the number five. He crossed the line 30th on the final stage — a ceremonial sprint day that organisers neutralised on the cobbled climb of the Butte de Montmartre because of rain and safety concerns (The Guardian; Tour de France).

Only two riders finished within ten minutes of Pogačar's winning time. Remco Evenepoel, the Olympic road and time trial champion riding for Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe, took second — a step up from his third place two years earlier. Isaac del Toro, a 21-year-old Mexican riding for Pogačar's own UAE Emirates XRG squad, finished third and won the white jersey as the Tour's best young rider. France's Paul Seixas was second in that youth competition.

The 2026 Tour started in Barcelona on July 1 and Pogačar seized control early, winning Stage 3 — his 22nd career Tour stage victory, drawing level with the French legend André Darrigade. He kept winning through the Pyrenees, then capped the high mountains with a solo attack up Alpe d'Huez that broke the climb's record time (Tour de France; Reuters). That Alpe d'Huez win was his 26th career Tour stage. He took five stage wins in total across the three weeks.

What makes this Tour remarkable is how routine Pogačar made it look — and how far ahead of the field he finished. A ten-minute margin in modern Grand Tour racing, where teams and tactics usually compress the gaps, is enormous. He did it while several of his UAE teammates spent the second half of the race fighting off sickness, which makes the scale of his dominance even starker.

Pogačar's previous Tour wins came in 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025. He missed the 2022 and 2023 editions to Jonas Vingegaard. The five victories draw him level with Merckx, the Belgian widely regarded as cycling's greatest champion, who won his five between 1969 and 1974.

After the finish, Pogačar surprised reporters by hinting at retirement. "I will definitely not be doing this for a long time," he said. He pointed to emotional growth rather than physical gains as the area of biggest improvement: "I think this is where I am improving a lot," referring to his mood and emotions (The Guardian).

He also suggested that del Toro, his third-placed teammate, is his natural successor. If so, the sport's next era may already be riding in the same team car.