Eddy Merckx
Miguel Indurain
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Eddy Merckx leads 3 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Eddy Merckx at #1 and Miguel Indurain at #6.
The case for Eddy Merckx
The Cannibal is the consensus greatest cyclist ever, and it is not close. Merckx won a scarcely believable 525 races across his career, a figure no rider has approached. He took 11 Grand Tours, five Tours de France, five Giri d'Italia and a Vuelta, three World road titles and a record 19 Monuments spanning every one-day Classic. He won 34 Tour stages while also claiming its points and mountains classifications, dominating flat sprints, mountains and time trials alike. In 1972 he set the Hour Record at 49.431 kilometres in Mexico City. His nickname came from his refusal to ease off even when a race was won, and his combination of range, longevity and win rate remains the benchmark against which every rider is measured.
The case for Miguel Indurain
Big Mig was the first rider to win five consecutive Tours de France, from 1991 to 1995, an unprecedented run built on time-trial power that few could comprehend. A tall, powerful rider with a famously low resting heart rate, Indurain would demolish his rivals against the clock, then mark them in the mountains without ever needing to attack. He won seven Grand Tours in all, adding the Giro d'Italia in 1992 and 1993 to complete Giro-Tour doubles in both years. In 1994 he set the Hour Record at 53.040 kilometres, and in 1995 he took the World time-trial title before winning Olympic time-trial gold on home-continent roads at Atlanta in 1996. His calm, understated dominance made him a national hero in Spain and ushered in a new era of specialised Grand Tour riding.