Eddy Merckx: The cycling icon turns 75

Merckx himself, who is celebrating his special day with his family on Wednesday, will probably not be there. The humble folk hero doesn't like to be the center of attention. In purely sporting terms, Merckx could easily handle the few kilometers. Fall without consequences He survived his training fall in October, when Merckx fell on his head and even had to go to the hospital, well. "I can not complain. (...) Nobody has to worry about me at the moment. “I did not suffer any particular consequences from the accident,” Merckx told the Cologne City Gazette and immediately added: “I’ve been riding my bike again a long time ago, and a lot. I drove last Saturday and Sunday, a few hours. I ride two or three times a week, which is always between 50 and 70 kilometers per lap.”

This is how the cycling world knows the “cannibal”, as he was once called. Because Edouard Louis Joseph Baron Merckx, Eddy for short, was insatiable and merciless in his racing bike career. The son of a grocer hated nothing more than losing - although that didn't happen often. Merckx won the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia five times each, and he triumphed at Milan-Sanremo seven times. The patron won all other classics at least twice, became professional world champion three times and set an hourly world record of 1972 kilometers in Mexico City in 49,431.

Probably the best professional cyclist of all time: Eddy Merckx © AFP / STAFF

Merckx achieved an incredible 525 victories on the road between 1966 and 1978 – an unmatched mark to this day. His 34 stage victories and 96 days in the yellow jersey are still tour records today. His first Tour victory in 1969 was a pure show of force. He won all the classifications, also took home the green and mountain jerseys, and in the final tally he was almost 18 minutes ahead of second-placed Frenchman Roger Pingeon.

Feared by opponents, loved by fans. When the Tour de France started in his honor in Brussels in 2019 - exactly 50 years after his first triumph - 75 cycling fans celebrated him with chants of “Eddy, Eddy”, which was rather unpleasant for the down-to-earth pedaler. That didn't change the fact that he was raised to the nobility by the Belgian king in 000. Of course, a metro station in Brussels also bears his name and in 1996, Merckx came third in a television vote for the greatest Belgian of all time. Merckx's opinion carries weight His word is law in Belgium and no one can contradict him. “Eddy Merckx has the right to put someone in their place. You just have to look at his career,” super talent Remco Evenepoel recently said after he was criticized by the veteran star.

Merckx has always dedicated his life to cycling, even after his career. He founded a company that produces racing bikes. Merckx was also the sports director of racing, appeared and continues to appear as a commentator and ambassador. “I quickly realized that cycling was always part of my life,” said the cycling star. Nobody came close to his successes, not even his son Axel, who was also a professional cyclist and won Olympic bronze in 2004. Besides Eddy Merckx, there are only three riders – Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain – who have won the Tour de France five times. As is well known, Lance Armstrong was removed from the winner lists as a seven-time champion because of doping.

It is quite possible that Chris Froome will join the exquisite circle with another Tour victory this year - if the Tour of France takes place at all in Corona times. Merckx has a clear opinion on this. The tour should only take place with spectators. “The fans are part of the tour. I understand that it is important for the drivers and the teams. But personally I would find a tour without an audience miserable,” Merckx recently told the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.

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Eddy Merckx: The cycling icon turns 75

On Sunday, the Belgians will get on their bikes. To mark Eddy Merckx's 75th birthday, there will be a course in Brussels with anecdotes and memories of the most successful cyclist in history, who grew up in the suburb of Woluwé-Saint-Pierre.

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