It doesn't mean that much to say the final rankings of a Tour are historic because every year the riders make history, but the overall winner Tadej Pogacar added his name to many pages of the Tour's records.
Thanks to 2020 being a leap year and his birthday the day after the last stage of the Tour, Pogacar became the second youngest winner of the Tour at 21 years and 365 days. He becomes the 12th rider in Tour history to win the overall in his first participation. Primoz Roglic would have taken that place, along with being the first Slovenian to win the Tour, if he didn't suffer a last moment defeat in the individual time trial the day before. Pogacar is the first rider in Tour history to win the yellow, white, and polka dot jerseys for the overall, the young rider, and the mountains classification.
It sounds like a lot, since the only jersey Pogacar didn't win was the green sprinters jersey, won by Sam Bennett also participating in his first Tour. But all these records pale in comparison to what the legendary Eddy Merckx did in his first Tour appearance in 1969. Merckx won the overall, the sprint points, the mountain points, the most combative prize, the combined points white jersey, and at only 24 years of age, he would have won the young riders jersey which was introduced in 1975. Merckx's team Faema also won the team classification. Merckx went on to win four more Tours. Pogacar's career is just starting, but he's already made a huge debut for the Tour's modern era.
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