Five Tours. Where Does Pogačar Rank Now?

Five Tour de France victories changes the conversation completely.

Pogačar now joins Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain on five overall victories — the joint record for the race.

And he has reached five at just 27 years old, younger than any of the previous riders to get there.

Is matching the record enough to put him alongside them — or does he still need to surpass it?

Pogačar’s argument has never been based only on yellow jerseys.

He attacks. He wins mountain stages. He races aggressively even when controlling the Tour would be enough.

This year was another example: he won repeatedly in yellow and took his first Tour victory on Alpe d’Huez after attacking 13km from the summit.

Does winning the Tour with that style strengthen his case compared with riders judged mainly on overall victories?

Five Tours does not automatically settle the GOAT debate.

Merckx’s Tour record combines overall victories with an extraordinary number of stage wins and classifications, while Hinault, Indurain and Anquetil each dominated very different eras.

Pogačar is now in that group — but being among the greatest and being the greatest are two different arguments.

What would he still need to do to move clearly ahead of them?

This may be the most frightening part.

Pogačar has reached five victories at an age when previous five-time winners were still older when they secured theirs.

A sixth Tour would give him the outright record.

And at 27, there is no obvious reason to assume this is his final opportunity.

Are we discussing his legacy too early — or watching the record book being rewritten in real time?

Pogačar no longer needs to prove that he belongs among the greatest Tour riders ever.

Five victories has settled that.

The real question now is whether he finishes his career as simply one of the names at the top — or the name above all of them.

For us, Tadej Pogacar is the greatest cyclist of all time.