Tadej Pogacar
Mark Cavendish
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Tadej Pogacar leads 2 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Tadej Pogacar at #2 and Mark Cavendish at #11.
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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 Mark Cavendish
The greatest sprinter in cycling history, the Manx Missile rewrote the record book at the discipline he mastered. In 2024 Cavendish won his 35th Tour de France stage, surpassing Eddy Merckx's long-standing record of 34, and across all three Grand Tours he took 55 stage victories. He won the 2011 World Championship, the 2009 Milan-San Remo, and roughly 165 professional races. His peak, built on the flawless HTC lead-out train, saw him beat every rival of his era in the bunch sprints, and his 2021 comeback to equal Merckx's record after years of illness and doubt ranks among the sport's great redemption stories. Where all-rounders are measured by Grand Tours and Monuments, Cavendish stands alone as the finest pure finisher the peloton has ever seen.