How many Tour de France stages do you think Tadej Pogačar will win this edition? Before this year, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider had won 21 times across six races, so an average of 3.5 stages per race, or a win every six days, if you prefer that metric. For context, Marcel Kittel won 14 stages in six Tours, 2.3 a race, or a win every seven days, in total. Kittel was a dominant sprinter, while Pogačar is a general classification rider.
After three stages of the 2026 Tour de France, Pogačar has already won a 22nd stage, putting him just 13 behind the record held by Mark Cavendish. Feasibly, the Slovenian could win another five stages; even when he finished second at the 2023 race, he won two. That doesn’t leave many opportunities for other teams.
