Eddy Merckx: Why 'the cannibal' is the greatest cyclist of all time

Thought-about to be the best bike owner of all time, Eddy Merckx received an estimated 525 races on the worldwide calendar in his 18-year skilled biking profession, together with 11 Grand Excursions, all 5 Monuments, three World Championships and several other victories on the observe. 

Many individuals know him just by his nickname, ‘the cannibal’, for his ravenous want for victories. His conquests cowl all forms of terrain and race varieties, demonstrating his power and stamina in not solely the variety of occasions however the high quality of victories.

Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx was born within the Flanders area of Belgium on June 17, 1945. He competed in a number of sports activities as a younger youngster, together with tennis and soccer, however most popular to trip his bicycle. He started racing as an adolescent and received his first race on the age of 16. The following 12 months he received the nationwide novice title within the highway race. Two years later, in 1964, he received his first of two Belgian nationwide novice observe titles within the Madison, driving with Patrick Sercu, and represented Belgium on the Olympic Video games in highway biking.

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He turned skilled in the course of the 1965 season, successful a handful of races with Solo-Superia. In 1966 he switched to the Peugeot-BP-Michelin staff and received his first main one-day race, Milan-San Remo. Two years later, with Faema, he received the Giro d’Italia for his first Grand Tour title. He would go on to win 4 extra Giros, in addition to the Tour de France 5 occasions and the Vuelta a España as soon as. 

The five-time Giro champion continues to carry the report for sporting the maglia rosa for 77 days. Within the stretch between 1970 and 1974, Merckx scored the Giro-Tour double 3 times and the Vuelta-Giro as soon as (in 1973 when he didn’t race the Tour), with 1974 marking a uncommon triple crown when he additionally received the UCI Highway Worlds. He’s the one rider nonetheless at present who has received the Giro and Tour in the identical 12 months 3 times; Fausto Coppi, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Induráin have completed the feat twice.

Certainly one of his prime profession achievements, 34 stage wins on the Tour de France, was surpassed in 2024 by British sprinter Mark Cavendish, who scored his thirty fifth profession stage win on the Tour. Whereas Cavendish amassed his stage wins throughout 10 editions of the French Grand Tour in dash finishes, Merckx collected his victories in six editions of the Tour in a wide range of challenges from climbing days to flat finishes and time trials.

Merckx received his first Tour de France in his inaugural look in 1969, sporting the yellow jersey for an unbelievable 19 days. He would additionally end in Paris because the winner of the Factors classification, the King of the Mountains classification, a Mixture classification and in addition earn the general combativity prize. No different rider has ever swept the key classification prizes on supply in a single Tour. In complete, he has worn the maillot jaune 96 occasions.

One-day races and the observe

Additionally within the report books stays his conquests of the highest one-day races, certainly one of a handful of riders to not solely win all 5 Monuments, however he’s the one one to have received all of them no less than two occasions – Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia. Of these 5 one-day races, he received Milan-San Remo eight occasions.

In an interview with Cyclingnews in 2005, Merckx mentioned the explanation he did so effectively on the early-season Milan-San Remo was attributed to his winter racing on the observe – successful Six Days of Ghent seven occasions – and participation in winter sports activities.

“I did quite a lot of six-days and solely rested for 2 to 3 weeks. I’d go on trip to the mountains, however once I was there, I did cross-country snowboarding. So I used to be at all times busy,” Merckx recollected. 

“With reference to weight, it’s troublesome in the event you put an excessive amount of on within the winter to be good initially of the season. That’s the reason I did so effectively in Milan-San Remo as a result of I used to be racing within the winter. Perhaps the opposite riders weren’t doing as a lot. I used to be racing on the observe and customarily stored in form, so after 250 kilometres I might beat them.”

In 1972 he set the World Hour report on the Mexico Metropolis Velodrome, marking a distance of 49.431 kilometres. The Madison was his favorite observe occasion and throughout his profession, he received six elite Belgian nationwide titles with Patrick Sercu, in addition to three European championships.

Profession reflection

He concluded his professional racing profession in 1978, however retirement was not in his vocabulary as he launched the Eddy Merckx bike model, with highway bikes obtainable by 1980. He additionally labored because the director of Belgium’s nationwide staff for 11 years, managed the Tour of Flanders and helped organise the Tour of Qatar, beginning the race as a co-owner in 2002.

One race Merckx by no means received on the Olympic Video games. Throughout his biking profession, he was solely eligible to characterize Belgium one time, on the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Video games, as professionals weren’t allowed to compete. He completed twelfth within the highway race.

What was the very best victory of his profession? He couldn’t level to only one race when he spoke to Cyclingnews, noting that his Hour Document was particular as a result of he beat Ole Ritter by 700 metres. However his first Grand Tour wins in France and Italy stood out essentially the most. He mentioned his first Giro was “necessary” for his profession, with successful “the stage to Tres Cime di Lavaredo, that was the very best stage that I did in my profession”.

“Ah, for positive, one is the 1969 Tour de France. That was the very best one,” he mentioned.”It was additionally 30 years since a Belgian rider had received the Tour de France. So it was a dream, a present. The yellow jersey was magic.”

One of many causes that the Tour win was so particular in 1969 was that it adopted one of many few darkish durations of the Belgian’s profession. His Peugeot-BP-Michelin teammate and pal Tom Simpson died two years earlier than on the Tour whereas climbing Mont Ventoux. It was decided that his dying, dominated as warmth exhaustion, had been intensified by by amphetamines and alcohol detected in his system. The UCI then carried out necessary doping controls for the subsequent 12 months.

After successful the 1968 Giro, Merckx then was on kind within the maglia rosa by 15 phases however organisers introduced he had examined optimistic at an in-race anti-doping check, and he needed to withdraw although sustaining innocence. With biking followers and plenty of media retailers suspicious of the check outcomes, which allowed an Italian rider to win the race, a division of the UCI held a gathering to overview the circumstances and reversed the choice to droop Merckx for 30 days, which might have stored him out of the Tour. 

Virtually 80 and all about bikes

Merckx mentioned he by no means based mostly his season across the Tour de France, however simply tried to win as many races as potential. Instances have modified because the Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies with how riders put together for particular races on the calendar, what forms of gear can be found and so many different parts. Merckx mentioned it’s troublesome to match every technology on the identical degree. 

Nearing the age of 80 Merckx stays within the information. He was on the 2021 Tour de France to personally congratulate Mark Cavendish when he tied the mark for many Tour stage wins. Three years later, when Cavendish broke Merckx’s Tour de France stage win report, Merckx congratulated him on social media.

Earlier in 2024 the model that also bears his title, Merckx, launched a brand new vary of highway and gravel bikes, the enterprise he began now collectively owned by Belgian producer Ridley’s holding firm. 

On the age of 79 he nonetheless rode a motorbike, however not as arduous or as typically. A fall when driving his bicycle throughout a railway crossing in December 2024 prompted a fractured hip, which required a complete hip substitute surgical procedure. He was anticipated to make a full restoration.

That very same month, Eddy and Claudine Merckx celebrated their 57th wedding ceremony anniversary. They’ve two youngsters, daughter Sabrina and son Axel, who competed as an expert bike owner from 1993-2007 and received a bronze medal within the highway race on the Athens Olympic Video games.