Most Tour de France Wins in History

The record for the most Tour de France wins is five, and it is shared by four legendary riders: Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. No rider has ever officially won a sixth, which is what makes cycling’s most famous number so hard to move.

The Tour de France is a three-week test of climbing, time-trialling and sheer endurance, held once a year, so a rider gets only a handful of prime seasons to add to a tally. That scarcity is why five stands as the ceiling. Here is the full leaderboard of the most successful riders in Tour history, the eras behind their wins, and why one famous seven-time finisher is missing. All figures are as of the 2025 season.

The record holders: four riders with five wins each

Jacques Anquetil was the first to reach five, winning in 1957 and then four straight from 1961 to 1964, and he became the first man to master the race’s long time trials. Eddy Merckx, widely regarded as the greatest cyclist ever, matched him with five between 1969 and 1974, dominating so completely that he also led the mountains and points classifications.

Bernard Hinault, nicknamed “The Badger,” took his five between 1978 and 1985, the last French rider to win the race. Miguel Indurain then produced the most concentrated version of the feat, winning five in a row from 1991 to 1995 on the back of crushing time-trial performances. He is the only rider to string five consecutive victories together.

The full leaderboard of Tour de France winners

The table below ranks riders by total Tour de France wins. Active riders are noted.

Rank	Wins	Rider	Country	Winning years
1	5	Jacques Anquetil	France	1957, 1961-64
1	5	Eddy Merckx	Belgium	1969-72, 1974
1	5	Bernard Hinault	France	1978-79, 1981-82, 1985
1	5	Miguel Indurain	Spain	1991-95
5	4	Chris Froome	Great Britain	2013, 2015-17
5	4	Tadej Pogacar*	Slovenia	2020-21, 2024-25
7	3	Philippe Thys	Belgium	1913-14, 1920
7	3	Louison Bobet	France	1953-55
7	3	Greg LeMond	United States	1986, 1989-90
10	2	Jonas Vingegaard*	Denmark	2022-23

*Active riders whose totals could still climb.

The list spans more than a century, from Philippe Thys before the First World War to the current duel between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. Only six riders in history have reached four wins or more.

Why Lance Armstrong is not on the list

Lance Armstrong crossed the finish line first at seven straight Tours from 1999 to 2005, a run that once looked like the greatest record in the sport. In 2012, following a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency investigation, he was stripped of all seven titles for orchestrating a systematic doping program, and the UCI upheld the decision. The Tour chose not to reassign the wins, so the record books simply list no champion for those seven years. That is why the outright record remains five, and why Armstrong appears nowhere on the honours list.

The four-win group and the modern chase

Chris Froome won four Tours between 2013 and 2017, anchoring Team Sky’s dominance of the 2010s. Tadej Pogacar drew level with him by winning his fourth in 2025, and as a rider still in his prime he is the clearest threat to the five-win record. His main rival, Jonas Vingegaard, already has two titles from 2022 and 2023, setting up a rivalry that could define the next decade. Endurance dynasties like these echo other sports; for a motorsport parallel, see our leaderboard of the most F1 world championships.

Why the record matters

The Tour de France is arguably the hardest annual event in sport, which is why winning it five times has proved to be an almost impossible barrier. Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault and Indurain reached it across four different eras, giving the shared record real depth. The financial rewards for modern champions have also grown enormously, a theme explored in our guide to the biggest contracts in sports history and our look at the richest sports in the world.

The short version: five riders’ worth of glory is split four ways, with Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault and Indurain each on five Tour de France wins. Lance Armstrong’s seven were erased for doping, and Tadej Pogacar leads the active chase with four as of the 2025 season.