Feature
Is pro cycling actually getting younger? Mapping a decade of Monument and Grand Tour winners
Tracking a 10-year timeline from how the sport's biggest winners looked in 2017 to the modern reality of dominant champions.
Free to read. No paywall.
Support our work and never miss
a story:
Favourite us on Google
Cor Vos
It feels like winners of the biggest races in the modern men's peloton have been getting younger and younger over the last decade. But is that actually the case?
By mapping out the ages of every rider who has won a Monument or Grand Tour between 2017 and 2026, this feature takes a look at the trend to see how the winning age profile has changed over the last decade.
Monument winners average age 2017-2026
| Year | Milano-Sanremo | Tour of Flanders | Paris-Roubaix | Liège-Bastogne-Liège | Il Lombardia | Average age | Rank - Youngest to Oldest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2026 | Tadej Pogačar - 27 years 6 months 0 days | Tadej Pogačar - 27 years 6 months 15 days | Wout van Aert - 31 years 6 months 28 days | Tadej Pogacar - 27 years 7 months 5 days | Paul Seixas - 20 years 0 months 16 days | 26 years, 10 months, 7 days | 4 |
2025 | Mathieu van der Poel - 30 years 2 months 3 days | Tadej Pogačar -26 years 6 months 16 days | Mathieu van der Poel - 30 years 2 months 25 days | Tadej Pogačar - 26 years 7 months 6 days | Tadej Pogačar - 27 years 0 months 20 days | 28 years, 1 month, 14 days | 6 |
2024 | Jasper Philipsen - 26 years 0 months 14 days | Mathieu van der Poel - 29 years 2 months 12 days | Mathieu van der Poel- 29 years 2 months 19 days | Tadej Pogačar - 25 years 7 months 0 days | Tadej Pogačar - 26 years 0 months 21 days | 27 years, 2 months, 19 days | 5 |
2023 | Mathieu van der Poel - 28 years, 1 month, 27 days | Tadej Pogačar - 24 years 6 months 12 days | Mathieu van der Poel - 28 years 2 months 21 days | Remco Evenepoel - 23 years 2 months 29 days | Tadej Pogačar - 25 years 0 months 16 days | 25 years, 10 months, and 3 days | 1 |
2022 | Matej Mohorič - 27 years 5 months 0 days | Mathieu van der Poel- 27 years 2 months 15 days | Dylan van Baarle - 29 years 10 months 27 days | Remco Evenepoel - 22 years 2 months 30 days | Tadej Pogačar - 24 years 0 months 17 days | 26 years, 2 months, 0 days | 2 |
2021 | Jasper Stuyven - 28 years 11 months 3 days | Kasper Asgreen - 26 years 1 months 27 days | Sonny Colbrelli - 31 years, 4 months, 16 days | Tadej Pogačar - 22 years 7 months 4 days | Tadej Pogačar - 23 years 0 months 18 days | 26 years, 5 months, and 1 day | 3 |
2020 | Wout van Aert - 25 years 10 months 24 days | Mathieu van der Poel - 25 years, 8 months, 29 days | n/a | Primož Roglič - 30 years, 11 months, 5 days | Jakob Fuglsang - 35 years 4 months 24 days | 29 years, 5 months, and 28 days | 7 |
2019 | Julian Alaphilippe - 26 years 9 months 12 days | Alberto Bettiol - 25 years 5 months 9 days | Philippe Gilbert - 36 years 9 months 9 days | Jakob Fuglsang - 34 years 1 months 6 days | Bauke Mollema - 32 years 10 months 16 days | 31 years, 2 months, 10 days | 9 |
2018 | Vincenzo Nibali - 33 years 4 months 3 days | Niki Terpstra - 33 years 10 months 14 days | Peter Sagan - 28 years 2 months 13 days | Bob Jungels - 25 years 7 months 0 days | Thibaut Pinot - 28 years 4 months 15 days | 29 years, 10 months, 15 days | 8 |
2017 | Michał Kwiatkowski - 26 years 9 months 16 days | Philippe Gilbert - 34 years 8 months 28 days | Greg Van Avermaet - 31 years 10 months 23 days | Alejandro Valverde - 36 years 11 months 29 days | Vincenzo Nibali - 32 years 10 months 23 days | 32 years, 8 months, 0 days | 10 |
In 2017, the old standard still held firm in Monuments, with an average winning age of 32 years and 8 months. While the average fluctuated between 29 and 31 years old from 2018 to 2020, winners’ ages mostly remained within what is traditionally considered the ‘peak years’ of a cyclist's career.
Things began to noticeably shift in the early 2020s with a new generation of Classics stars led by Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel, Remco Evenepoel and Wout van Aert, dismantling the old guard.
The trend peaked in 2023, delivering the youngest average winning age of 25 years, 10 months and 3 days.
Remarkably, from 2022 to 2024, there was not a single Monument winner over the age of 30, with Dylan van Baarle being the oldest during the period, when he soloed to victory at Paris-Roubaix in 2022.
This sudden drop in winning age is easy to understand when you look at Pogačar and Van der Poel, who practically closed the door on the older generation in the early-mid 2020s.
From Il Lombardia in 2022 through to the Tour of Flanders this year, the duo won a staggering 16 out of 18 Monuments between them, with Remco Evenepoel at 23 winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2023 and Jasper Philipsen at 26 taking Milan-Sanremo in 2024 being the only breaks from Pogačar and Van der Poel’s Classics dominance.
Zooming in even closer, from the Tour of Flanders in 2024 to 2026, the top step in Monuments belonged exclusively to the clinical duo.
However, because this group of superstars are continuing to win the biggest one-day races year after year, the average age started to rise from 2023 onwards, with it being 27 years, 2 months and 19 days in 2024 and 28 years, 1 month and 14 days in 2025.
This year has seen the trend reverse to 26 years, 10 months and 7 days, however. This is thanks solely to Paul Seixas becoming the youngest winner of Il Lombardia in October at 20 years and 16 days old.
With the French prodigy showing no signs of slowing down, he could spearhead a new trend where the average Monument winner's age starts to creep down once more, and the same could be said for Grand Tours too.
Grand Tour winners average age
| Year | Giro d'Italia | Tour de France | Vuelta a España | Average age | Rank (Youngest to oldest) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2026 | Jonas Vingegaard - 29 years 5 months 21 days | Tadej Pogačar - 27 years 10 months 5 days | Enric Mas - 31 years 8 months 6 days | 29 years, 8 months, 1 day | 7 |
2025 | Simon Yates - 32 years, 9 months, 25 days | Tadej Pogačar - 26 years 10 months 6 days | Jonas Vingegaard - 28 years 9 months 4 days | 29 years, 5 months, 22 days | 6 |
2024 | Tadej Pogačar - 25 years, 8 months, 5 days | Tadej Pogačar - 25 years 10 months 0 days | Primož Roglič - 34 years, 10 months, 9 days | 28 years, 9 months, 15 days | 5 |
2023 | Primož Roglič - 33 years, 6 months, 29 days | Jonas Vingegaard - 26 years 7 months 13 days | Sepp Kuss - 29 years, 0 months, 4 days | 29 years, 8 months, 25 days | 8 |
2022 | Jai Hindley - 26 years, 0 months, 24 days | Jonas Vingegaard - 25 years 7 months 14 days | Remco Evenepoel - 22 years, 7 months, 17 days | 24 years, 9 months, 8 days | 1 |
2021 | Egan Bernal - 24 years, 4 months, 17 days | Tadej Pogačar - 22 years 9 months 27 days | Primož Roglič - 31 years, 10 months, 7 days | 26 years, 4 months, 7 days | 4 |
2020 | Tao Geoghegan Hart - 25 years, 6 months, 25 days | Tadej Pogačar - 21 years, 11 months, and 29 days old | Primož Roglič - 31 years, 0 months, 10 days | 26 years, 2 months, 11 days | 3 |
2019 | Richard Carapaz - 26 years, 0 months, 3 days | Egan Bernal - 22 years, 6 months, 15 days | Primož Roglič - 29 years, 10 months, 17 days | 26 years, 1 month, 22 days | 2 |
2018 | Chris Froome - 33 years 0 months 7 days | Geraint Thomas - 32 years, 2 months, 4 days | Simon Yates - 26 years, 1 month, 9 days | 30 years, 5 months, 7 days | 10 |
2017 | Tom Dumoulin - 26 years, 6 months, 17 days | Chris Froome - 32 years 2 months 3 days | Chris Froome - 32 years 3 months 21 days | 30 years, 4 months, 4 days | 9 |
A very similar trend is present when you look at Grand Tour winners over the last ten years.
However, while the likes of Pogačar, Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard have certainly played their part in the drop in average age, the trend actually started before any of the trio became a Grand Tour winner.
The average age of a Grand Tour winner in 2017 and 2018 sat around the 30-year mark. This period was heavily dominated by British riders, who won five out of the six three-week stage races during this period thanks to Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Simon Yates, alongside Tom Dumoulin, who won the Giro d’Italia in 2017.
2019 marked a significant shift, with the average age of Grand Tour winners dropping to 26 years, 1 month and 22 days old, a benchmark that would soon become the new norm. The biggest catalyst was Egan Bernal winning the Tour de France at 22 years, 6 months and 15 days old, becoming the third youngest winner of La Grande Boucle at the time.
The Colombian was usurped in 2020 by the arrival of Pogačar as a Grand Tour champion, when the Slovenian won the Tour just one day before his 22nd birthday after that dramatic La Planche des Belles Filles time trial.
In the reshuffled autumn Covid calendar, Tao Geoghegan Hart also claimed the Giro at just 25 years, 6 months and 25 days old. Combined with a 31-year-old Roglič who got his redeeming moment to win a second consecutive Vuelta, the average age only marginally increased in 2020 to 26 years, 2 months and 11 days old.
2021 painted a nearly identical picture with another slight increase to 26 years, 4 months and 7 days old after Bernal won the Giro, while Pogačar and Roglič defended their Tour and Vuelta titles.
2021 would paint a similar picture thanks to another marginal increase with an average age of 26 years, 4 months and 7 days old after Bernal won the Giro and Pogacar defended his Tour title.
2022 delivered the lowest average age of the decade for Grand Tour winners at 24 years, 9 months and 8 days old. 2022 also marks the only year since his first yellow jersey when Pogačar didn’t finish on the top step of a Grand Tour podium.
In his absence, a 26-year-old Jai Hindley won the Giro, Vingegaard defeated Pogačar at the Tour at 25, and Evenepoel claimed his maiden Grand Tour at the Vuelta, doing the heavy lifting for the statistics at just 22 years, 7 months and 17 days old.
Over the last four years, the average age has steadily fluctuated between 28 and 29 years old. This upward drift makes perfect sense, with both Pogačar and Vingegaard continuing to hold a massive grip on any Grand Tour they start.
As they get older and continue to win, the average age naturally climbs with them. Just like in the Classics, it is now up to the next wave of stars like Seixas and Isaac del Toro to buck this trend in the coming years.
Summary
- The assumption is true: Average winning ages in both Monument and Grand Tours are lower now than they were ten years ago.
- The trend has stabilised: The drop has not continued indefinitely. After hitting lows in 2022 and 2023, the average age is creeping back up, though riders like Paul Seixas are threatening to shift the mould once more.
The upward trend makes logical sense as a result of the stars of the peloton getting older but still maintaining their grip on cycling's biggest prizes.
While the likes of Seixas could change this trend in the coming years, the current era is defined by a group of elite superstars who dismantled the old guard and are growing older together while still dominating in both Grand Tours and Monuments.
