Baron Edouard Louis Joseph Merckx counts among the most successful riders in the history of competitive cycling… and among the 100 most famous sportsmen of all times.
Born in Meensel-Kiezegem, east of Louvain, in June 1945. During his career, he acquired the nickname "The Cannibal", suggested by the daughter of a teammate upon being told by her father of how Merckx would not let anyone else win.
A childhood in Brussels
His father Jules Merckx, carpenter by trade, decides to open a grocery in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, a Brussels suburb where Eddy would therefore grow up. Merckx got his first bicycle at the age of four. Eddy was a competitive child and played several sports, including basketball, football, table tennis and boxing. At the age of 13, he buys his first racing bike with the tips he collected when working in his father’s store. His dad, also passionate about cycling, drove him to see Six-Jours and the arrival of the Paris-Brussels race. Eddy’s hero at the time is Stan Ockers a Belgian professional cyclist, who would be world champion in 1955.
In summer 1961, Merckx bought his first racing license and competed in his first official race a month after he turned sixteen, coming in sixth place. He rode in twelve more races before winning his first, at Petit-Enghien, on 1 October 1961.
Merckx won his second victory on 11 March 1962 in a kermis race and competed in 55 races during the 1962 calendar year. In 1965, he officially is a professional cyclist.
The Cannibal
Nothing stops the champions. He will total 525 victories – an incredible success which gives him the nicknames The Canival and the Ogre of Tervuren. He is still a star in people’s eyes.
You may best remember the picture of Eddy wearing a yellow jersey when the Tour de France arrived on the Champs Elysées in Paris. But he raced in Belgium plentifully too: the Liège-Bastogne-Liège 10 times between 1966 and 1977 (which he won 5 times), the Flèche wallone 8 times (3 victories), the Flèche Brabançonne, the Championnat de Belgique sur route, the Tour du Condroz, the Paris-Bruxelles (since then renamed Brussels Cycling Classic) and the Tour de Belgique. The public follows him wherever he goes.
He is proud of the biggest number of victories of the Tour de France – 5 consecutive ones between 1969 and 1974. He also won the Tour d’Italie 5 times, the Tour d’Espagne and so many more trophies, even beating the world speed record in Mexico City.
This exceptional career wasn’t always easy – there were painful moments too. In 1978, Eddy Merckx stopped competing… but not cycling.
After competing
Eddy Merckx remained in the cycling world… and still cycles, for pleasure, with the Gran Fondo Eddy Merckx for example, a classic cyclo touristic itinerary led by the champion himself in the Ardenne. He has also between 1980 and 2004, organised the Grand prix Eddy Merckx, an individual then duo speed race which used to take place in August around Brussels.
In 1980, he turned entrepreneur and designs his own brand of bikes – famous for their quality. He retired in 2014 but keeps an eye on the research and development side of things.
Thank you Eddy
Take the subway line 5 in Brussels and you will find the Eddy Merckx station (2003) in Woluwé, where Eddy grew up. The bike on show is the one he rode to win his 1972 world record. On the side feature a few photographs from the time. To beat this exploit in the future, the participants will need to ride a similar bike. In Wolluwé still, a school has been named after the sportsman.
In 1996 Albert II of Belgium, King of the Belgians, gave him the title of baron. In 2000, the UCI names him Cyclist of the 20th Century. Just one of many titles scored along his life
