Who holds the record for most Tour de France stage wins?

Mark Cavendish holds the record for most Tour de France stage wins, with 35 victories. The Manx sprinter broke Eddy Merckx’s long-standing record of 34 by winning Stage 5 of the 2024 Tour in Saint-Vulbas, France.

Cavendish first won a Tour stage in 2008 at Châteauroux. His victories came mainly in mass sprints, where timing, positioning, acceleration, and teamwork are crucial. He accumulated wins across ten different Tours, including a remarkable 2010 edition in which he won five stages.

A common mix-up is confusing the stage-win record with the overall Tour de France record. Merckx remains one of the race’s most dominant all-round winners, with five overall victories and 34 stage wins, but Cavendish has the higher stage total. The record counts individual stage victories; team time-trial results are treated separately in historical statistics.