5: Pogacar ascends to the pantheon of the Tour
Tadej Pogacar has won the Tour de France for the fifth time. Following his victories in 2020, 2021, 2024, 2025 and now 2026, the Slovenian has joined the exclusive circle of five-time Tour winners.
Apart from him, only Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain have achieved this feat. At 27 years, 10 months and five days, Pogacar is also the youngest rider to have won the Tour five times. The previous record was held by Eddy Merckx, who celebrated his fifth Tour victory in 1974 at the age of 29.
7: Mr Podium
With his fifth overall victory this year, Pogacar stood on the Tour de France podium for the seventh consecutive time. That is a new record.
Since his first Tour victory in 2020, the UAE Emirates-XRG rider has finished every Tour de France in the top three. Only in 2022 and 2023 did he have to settle for second place.
Even beyond the Tour, his record is impressive: since finishing third in the 2019 Vuelta, Pogacar has finished on the podium in all of his first nine Grand Tours. In doing so, he has surpassed legends such as Jacques Anquetil, Raymond Poulidor and Bernard Hinault, who each managed a maximum of six consecutive podium finishes.
71: The yellow jersey belongs to Pogacar
By winning his fifth Tour, Pogacar also claimed his 71st Yellow Jersey. In this Tour alone, he led the race for 16 days.
This brings the Slovenian even closer to Bernard Hinault, who wore the yellow jersey 79 times during his career. However, Eddy Merckx’s record of 111 yellow jerseys remains unbroken for the time being.
His overall record is also impressive: since making his Tour debut in 2020, Pogacar has worn 189 classification jerseys. In addition to 71 yellow jerseys, he has won three green jerseys, 40 mountain jerseys and 75 white jerseys.
4: Van der Poel wins on the Champs-Élysées
Mathieu van der Poel provided a spectacular finish in Paris. Following his attack on the Butte Montmartre, the Dutchman pulled away on the Champs-Élysées and kept the sprinters at bay.
For the Alpecin-Premier Tech rider, it was the fourth Tour stage victory of his career and already his second in this Tour, following his win in Ussel.
With his victory, Van der Poel also surpassed his father Adrie, who had finished second in Paris in 1982. At the same time, he followed in the footsteps of his grandfather Raymond Poulidor, who also won a Tour stage in the French capital in 1967. Van der Poel is only the sixth Dutch rider to have won a stage on the Champs-Élysées.
2021: Alpecin-Premier Tech pulls off a perfect finish
Behind Van der Poel, Jasper Philipsen won the main field sprint, securing a one-two finish for Alpecin-Premier Tech.
The team last achieved such a result in Pontivy in 2021, when Tim Merlier beat Jasper Philipsen to the line. The team has thus once again confirmed its status as one of the most successful sprint teams on the Tour.
UAE Emirates-XRG also celebrated two one-two finishes on this tour. Isaac Del Toro won in Barcelona ahead of Tadej Pogacar, before the two riders swapped places when Pogacar triumphed at Le Markstein.
6: Pedersen makes history
Mads Pedersen won the Tour de France’s Green Jersey for the first time, marking a first for Denmark.
The Lidl-Trek rider had already won the points classification at the 2025 Giro d’Italia and at the 2022 and 2025 Vuelta a España. With his success at the Tour, he is now one of only six riders in history to have won the points classification at all three Grand Tours.
Before him, only Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Mark Cavendish, Laurent Jalabert, Eddy Merckx and Alessandro Petacchi had achieved this.
18: Carapaz crowned King of the Mountains once again
Richard Carapaz managed to turn the mountains classification in his favour during the final Alpine stages and secured the polka-dot jersey for the second time.
Following his success in 2024, the Ecuadorian has thus once again won the mountains classification at the Tour de France. He is only the 18th rider in history to have won this classification at least twice.
Since the introduction of the Polka Dot Jersey in 1975, only nine riders have ever achieved this feat.
19: Seixas goes down in history
Paul Seixas finished his first Tour de France in fourth place overall. The Decathlon CMA CGM rider was 11 minutes and 56 seconds behind winner Tadej Pogacar at the finish in Paris.
At 19 years, 10 months and two days, Seixas is therefore the youngest rider in Tour history to finish a stage race in the top five.
The previous record was held by Henri Cornet, who actually won the Tour in 1904 at the age of 19 years, 11 months and 19 days.
2: Del Toro follows in Alcalá’s footsteps
Isaac Del Toro also made history. The Mexican won the white jersey and also finished third in the general classification.
Del Toro thus becomes the successor to his compatriot Raúl Alcalá, who also won the young rider’s classification at the Tour de France in 1987.
Noteworthy: Del Toro is only the third Mexican ever to have competed in the Tour de France.
302: No victories for the ‘founding fathers’
The 2026 Tour de France ends with a historic first. France, Italy and Spain – the home countries of the three Grand Tours – have, for the first time in the history of a major national stage race, failed to secure a single stage victory.
In total, this was already the 302nd Grand Tour since 1903, comprising 113 editions of the Tour de France, 109 editions of the Giro d’Italia and 80 editions of the Vuelta a España.
For France, this is only the third time – after 1926 and 1999 – that the home tour has ended without a national stage victory. Italy won two stages in 2025 through Jonathan Milan, but failed to place a rider on the stage podium at all in 2026. Spain’s last Tour stage victory was three years ago: Carlos Rodríguez won in Morzine in 2023.
Matthias Borchers
Editor