‘Maybe the first to win a sixth’ – All-time great Eddy Merckx backs Tadej Pogačar for 2026 Tour de France victory, and possibly more

All-time great Eddy Merckx has recognised that top Tour de France contender Tadej Pogačar could soon be joining him, Miguel Indurain, Bernard Hinault and Jacques Anquetil as five-time winners of cycling’s biggest bike race.

Merckx, 81, won the Tour himself five times from five participations between 1969 and 1974, with 1973, the year he did not take part, the only time he missed out on victory.

Only Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) has proved capable of defeating the 27-year-old Slovenian in that period, in 2022 and 2023, and the Dane is hoping to do so again this July.

A keen follower of cycling to this day, the rider they nicknamed ‘The Cannibal’ has often praised Pogačar and he told Belga this week that while he expects the UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader to make much of the running, he feels others will have their chance, too.

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“Pogačar is obviously the big favourite, but we still hope it will be an exciting battle. Vingegaard, [Remco] Evenepoel, and [Paul] Seixas are the challengers, although perhaps we shouldn’t expect too much from the latter in his first participation at the age of 19,” Merckx said.

“Besides Vingegaard, we saw that Seixas was capable of competing in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Remco, on the other hand, has trained a lot at altitude.”

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Whilst Seixas (Decathlon CGA CGM), at 19, is currently the breakthrough name for French cycling, Merckx is also hopeful that a series of new young Belgian names will also make their mark alongside the well-established top stars such as Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep).

As the outstanding favourite, it looks more than likely that Pogačar could secure a place amongst the joint record-holders of five titles. But Merckx predicts that at 27, Pogačar could be set to move into unknown territory and take a sixth.

“Given his qualities, that would be expected, and he is certainly welcome in our club,” Merckx said. “Perhaps he will be the first to add a sixth to his name.”

Merckx himself will not be at the Tour in 2026, as he is recovering from his latest hip operation. Merckx told Belga he is making good progress, but he needed more time before he travelled to the race again. In the meantime, he’ll be watching the Tour on television.

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