Tadej Pogacar
Bernard Hinault
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Bernard Hinault leads 3 of 5 categories. Our all-time ranking places Tadej Pogacar at #2 and Bernard Hinault at #3.
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.
The case for Bernard Hinault
The Badger was the last great patron of the peloton, a rider who ruled by force of will as much as by his legs. Hinault won 10 Grand Tours, five Tours de France, three Giri d'Italia and two Vueltas a Espana, along with the 1980 World Championship and five Monuments including Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Il Lombardia. He remains the last Frenchman to win the Tour, in 1985, a drought stretching four decades. A fierce competitor with roughly 216 professional victories, he was equally capable in the mountains, in time trials and in the cobbled Classics, and his combative leadership shaped the tactics of his era. His feud and alliance with teammate Greg LeMond at the 1985 and 1986 Tours produced one of the sport's defining rivalries.