Veteran rider sets incredible grand tour record at Tour de France - One Tadej Pogacar might never match!
CyclingTuesday, 28 July 2026 at 06:00
What better venue is there to write history than the Tour de France. In 2026, the spotlight was naturally on Tadej Pogacar who equalled the all-time record of overall victories of five. But there's a record set during this year's Grande Boucle that not even the all-mighty Slovenian might come close to equalling in his career.
Nelson Oliveira did not ride a fantastic Grand Tour - nor was that his task. The Movistar rider joined for breakaways where his main task was to assist teammates. After three weeks, his best individual result was 27th place in Paris whilst he finished 65th overall. But the key part is that he finished the Tour at all.
At 37 years of age, the Portuguese is a valued road captain who has played part in many of Movistar's past Grand Tour successes. And in all those years, he never stepped off his bike, culminating in total of 24 finished Grand Tours. And zero DNFs.
It is a lot. In fact, Oliveira is the first ever rider to achieve such feat. Already this spring, Oliveira equalled Pole Szylwester Szmyd who completed 23 Grand Tours between 2002 and 2015. And on Sunday, he became the lone leader in this statistic.
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What's next for Nelson?
Oliveira's is not the only fascinating record tied to Grand Tour participations. The current CPA president Adam Hansen has achieved something perhaps even more imposing - to finish 20 consecutive Grand Tours. The Australian did not miss a single day of Grand Tour action between Vuelta a Espana 2011 and Giro d'Italia 2018.
In total, Hansen completed in 29 three-week races across his career, finishing 26 of them. The record for most participations as well as most finished Grand Tours goes to Italian Matteo Tosatto who started in 34 Grand Tours between 1997 and 2016, and only failed to complete six of them while finishing in his last 14 participations.
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- Van der Poel "owes Pogi one Paris Roubaix"... it's a joke. The media is saying Pogi joined the club of 5X TdF winners. That's true, but he wants to make his own exclusive club of record holders... 6 TdF wins. Who will join him in years to come? I think probably nobody. Pogi is "Last of the Mohicans."PogiSloFans28-07-2026
- Three examples: Remco and MVDP....and last year in week 3 of TdF. He gifted Jonas a win over him.PogiSloFans28-07-2026
- Pogi is just a nice guy. For some cyclists (Del Toro, Remco and MVDP) Santa came early this year. Without Pogi, MVDP would have never won on Montmartre, and we all know it.PogiSloFans28-07-2026
- pogačar is NOT a gift giver to anyone who doesn’t ride for UAE and HIM, and even then it’s a rare occurrence. del toro and mcnulty are all i can recall within UAE. but to a rider from any other team? give me just ONE example…OCexile28-07-2026
- Further.... his bs diminishes the brilliance of the last stage and what MVDP achieved!slappers6628-07-2026
- As long as Pogicar is the dominant gc rider Ayuso is looking like a top ten rider at best. He might surprise us yet though. I hope so.Cyclingsbestfan28-07-2026
- NO, Pogi needs to retire, Jonas needs to become old or Trine needs to tell him to retireabstractengineer28-07-2026
- He has to give up till Pogi retiresabstractengineer28-07-2026
- How so whknan?Cyclingsbestfan28-07-2026
- First step prove yourself in the Giro Vuelta, learn how to manage yourself with the new team. 2 years, then assault on Pogi. Going into the TDF with even a small issue means you are defeated before you start. The TDF are raced at supersonic speedsabstractengineer28-07-2026
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