Following on from his second placed finish on today’s sixteenth stage of the Tour de France from Bourg-de-Péage to Gap, Peter Sagan now has five second places in the race this year. He has also finished in second place on Stages 2, 5, 6 and 13. This moves him into equal fifth place on the all-time list for the most runner up finishes.

The second place brings his total second places in stages during his Tour career to 16. In both 2014 and 2013 he had four second-place finishes, with three in his debut Tour in 2012. By contrast, he has “only” won four stages in his career to-date, the last one being the stage from Montpellier to Albi in 2013.

Erik Zabel still leads the way with 22 second places, followed by Sean Kelly with 21. As with Sagan, Kelly’s second place finishes far outranked his wins in the race. Sagan now joins a number of cycling legends – Stan Ockers, Charles Pelissier and Lucien Petit-Breton – on sixteen 2nd places. It’s not the record that the Slovakian champion will be seeking to improve on though, and will be looking to turn those seconds into wins.

His consistency in the race is showing that he is a worthy wearer and quite possible winner of the green jersey. If he does win the green jersey at the end of the week, he will equal Kelly’s total of four wins in the points competition, and he will be just two behind Zabel’s record of six wins. It’s also worth remembering that he’s still only 25.

The riders with the most second place finishes ever are as follows:

Erik Zabel – 22
Sean Kelly – 21
Nicolas Frantz – 18
Eddy Merckx – 18
Stan Ockers – 16
Charles Pelissier – 16
Lucien Petit-Breton – 16
Peter Sagan – 16

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