Eddy Merckx
Tadej Pogacar
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Eddy Merckx leads 4 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Eddy Merckx at #1 and Tadej Pogacar at #2.
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 Tadej Pogacar
The most complete rider since Merckx, Pogacar has collapsed the old boundaries between Grand Tour men and Classics hunters. As of the 2025 season he owns four Tours de France, won in 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025, plus the 2024 Giro d'Italia and back-to-back World titles in 2024 and 2025. In 2024 he completed the Giro-Tour-Worlds Triple Crown, the first rider to do so since Stephen Roche in 1987. He also dominates the Monuments, with a run of Il Lombardia wins, multiple Liege-Bastogne-Liege victories and a first Tour of Flanders, passing 100 career wins before turning 27. His willingness to attack from enormous distances has redefined the sport's tactics, and at his age the ceiling on his numbers is not yet in sight.