49 Fun Facts About Eddy Merckx

By what nickname is Eddy Merckx best known?

The Cannibal. The name stuck because he left rivals nothing: he said he couldn't look at himself in the mirror if he ever started a race without meaning to win it.

Which British world champion led the French team Merckx joined in 1966?

Tom Simpson. He beat his young teammate to the 1967 Paris-Nice title, and when he died later that year Merckx travelled to England for the funeral.

Whose five Tour wins did Merckx equal in 1974?

Jacques Anquetil. The Frenchman was first to five, in 1964; Merckx matched him a decade later but never won a sixth, finishing second in 1975 and sixth in 1977.

Which Slovenian matched Merckx's 1974 Triple Crown fifty years later?

Tadej Pogacar. He sealed it in Zurich with an attack 100 km from the finish; only Ireland's Stephen Roche, in 1987, had matched Merckx in the fifty years between.

Faema, which sponsored Merckx's team from 1968 to 1970, is an Italian maker of what?

Espresso machines. The Milan firm first backed a cycling team in 1955, left the sport in the early 1960s, and came back in 1968 with a squad led by the 22-year-old Merckx.

What business did Merckx's parents run in the capital's Woluwe-Saint-Pierre district?

A grocery. The family left his birth village for the city suburb when Eddy was a baby, and he says his father worked tirelessly to build up the shop.

Which amateur world title did Merckx win in 1964?

Road race. His teachers had told him that cycling was not a job; he won this title at 19 and turned professional the following spring.

Which Belgian star led the Solo-Superia team Merckx joined as a professional in 1965?

Rik Van Looy. Merckx left after one season, saying all he got from the star and his circle was ridicule and not one piece of help or advice.

Which classic gave Merckx his first major professional victory, in 1966?

Milan-San Remo. It came down to a sprint in San Remo, where he beat Italy's champion Michele Dancelli and edged Adriano Durante on the line.

Which French marque's name did Merckx's team carry in 1966 and 1967?

Peugeot. He joined the Peugeot-BP squad after one unhappy season as a professional and left for the Italian Faema team at the end of 1967.

Which major one-day classic did Merckx never win?

Paris-Tours. Noel Vantyghem, the Belgian who won it in 1972, joked that between them they had won every classic: he had won Paris-Tours and Merckx had won all the rest.

Which Grand Tour was Merckx's first, won in 1968 with the Faema team?

The Giro d'Italia. He took the lead for good with a solo win at the Tre Cime di Lavaredo summit and reached the finish five minutes clear of his own teammate, Vittorio Adorni.

Why was Merckx thrown out of the 1969 Giro while leading?

A positive drug test. He was expelled at Savona and always insisted he had taken nothing; his month's ban was lifted in time for his first Tour de France, which he won by almost 18 minutes.

On which climb did Merckx launch his legendary solo attack during stage 17 of the 1969 Tour de France?

Col du Tourmalet. He already wore yellow with eight minutes in hand, yet he ignored his manager's order to wait and rode on alone for 130 km to win the stage by almost eight more.

Which feat did Merckx achieve at the 1969 Tour?

He won the general, points and mountains classifications together, which nobody had done before, and ended Belgium's thirty-year wait for a Tour winner.

What happened to Merckx at a track meeting in Blois in September 1969?

A crash that killed his pacer. Merckx was thrown head first onto the track and his hips were knocked out of line; he said he could never sit comfortably on a bike again.

Which classic did Merckx win in 1970 by more than five minutes in heavy rain?

Paris-Roubaix. The runner-up came in 5 minutes 21 seconds later; he went on to win the race four times himself and earn the nickname 'Monsieur Paris-Roubaix'.

On which mountain did Merckx win a 1970 Tour stage and then need oxygen in an ambulance?

Mont Ventoux. He dropped the whole field in stifling heat, but his pedalling grew ragged near the top and he was given oxygen afterwards; he still won that Tour by more than twelve minutes.

Which Italian-sponsored team did Merckx ride for from 1971 to 1976, after Faema folded?

Molteni. The Arcore salami maker signed him along with his Belgian teammates and team manager, and from 1971 the squad even raced under a Belgian licence instead of an Italian one.

Whose crash while leading the 1971 Tour gave Merckx a yellow jersey he refused to wear the next day?

Luis Ocana. He led Merckx by more than seven minutes when he fell on a Pyrenean descent in a thunderstorm and was flown to hospital; Merckx considered quitting rather than win that way.

Which Monument did Merckx finally win in 1971 to complete the set of all five?

Giro di Lombardia. He rode into Como alone, three and a half minutes ahead of Franco Bitossi, and won the race again the following year.

Where did Merckx set the world hour record in October 1972?

Mexico City. He chose it for the thin air, which cuts drag, and trained at home in an oxygen mask to prepare; his mark stood for more than eleven years.

Which Italian finally broke Merckx's hour record in 1984?

Francesco Moser. He used an aerodynamic bike with disc wheels, then rode a road version of it to win that year's Giro d'Italia in the final time trial.

Which two stage races did Merckx win back to back in 1973?

The Vuelta and the Giro. He skipped the Tour that year, won six stages in Spain, then led the Giro from the first stage to the last, which nobody had managed since Alfredo Binda in 1927.

What is on display on the platform of the metro station named after Merckx?

His hour-record bike. He set off too fast on it in 1972 and had to be carried off it after the hour; it now stands in the station that bears his name.

What makes up cycling's Triple Crown?

Giro, Tour and world road race in one year. Merckx nearly missed it in 1974: his Giro lead shrank to twelve seconds over Gianbattista Baronchelli before he won the other two.

Whom did Merckx outsprint for the 1974 world title?

Raymond Poulidor. France's Eternal Second, who never wore the Tour's yellow jersey, was runner-up again, two seconds behind.

What did a spectator do to Merckx near the top of the Puy de Dome in the 1975 Tour?

Punched him. Merckx was climbing to the summit finish in the yellow jersey; he blamed the painkillers and blood thinners he then needed for his collapse on the next mountain stage.

Who beat Merckx to win the 1975 Tour de France, his first defeat in the race?

Bernard Thevenet. He took the yellow jersey when Merckx cracked on the climb to Pra Loup; Merckx then broke a cheekbone in a crash, could take only liquids, and still reached Paris in second.

Which sprinter broke Merckx's record of 34 Tour stage wins?

Mark Cavendish. His 35th came in a bunch sprint in 2024, in his fifteenth Tour; Merckx had won his 34 in only seven.

Merckx's grandson Luca Masso won Olympic gold in 2016 playing which sport for Argentina?

Field hockey. He came through Belgium's youth teams, then chose his father's Argentina, who beat Belgium 4-2 in the Rio final.

Merckx sealed his first Tour de France win on 20 July 1969, the same day as which event?

The first Moon landing. He won the closing time trial into Paris that Sunday to finish almost 18 minutes clear, and Apollo 11 touched down on the Moon that evening.

Which classic, La Doyenne, did Merckx win five times?

Liege-Bastogne-Liege. First run in 1892, it is the oldest of the five Monuments, which is why it carries a French nickname meaning the senior lady.

What business did Merckx start after he stopped racing in 1978?

A bicycle factory. Eddy Merckx Cycles opened in 1980 and built bikes that professional teams went on to race; he sold his majority stake in 2008.

Which clothing chain sponsored Merckx's final team in 1978?

C&A. The team was built around Merckx, who quit that spring; his longtime teammate Joseph Bruyere then wore the Tour's yellow jersey in its colours that July.

Which Belgian world champion was Merckx's boyhood idol?

Stan Ockers. He had twice won the Tour's green jersey and twice finished second overall, and the young Merckx, who followed little but the Tour, copied him when riding with friends.

Which Middle Eastern stage race did Merckx help to launch in 2002?

Tour of Qatar. It ran for fifteen editions on flat, windswept desert roads before folding, and Merckx went on to present the course for the 2016 world championships in Doha.

What title did King Albert II grant Merckx in 1996?

His motto is Post Proelia Praemia; France also made him a Commander of the Legion of Honour in 2011.

Which of Merckx's children also became a professional cyclist?

Axel. He won bronze in the 2004 Olympic road race, a medal his father proudly called 'something I haven't got'.

Which Briton beat Merckx's hour mark by ten metres in 2000 on a traditional bike?

Chris Boardman. Cycling's rulers had set aside every hour record ridden on aerodynamic bikes, so Merckx's 1972 distance was the mark to beat again, 28 years on.

Which city hosted the 2019 Tour de France start, 50 years after Merckx's first Tour win?

Brussels. In 1969 he first took the yellow jersey there, after a team time trial through the suburb where he grew up; the 2019 start brought a team time trial back to the city.

Which surrealist painter did Merckx name as his favourite artist?

Rene Magritte. Merckx left school as soon as he could to race, yet he says he loves fine art and finds it thought-provoking; his favourite is a fellow Belgian.

What is the French title of the 1974 documentary that follows Merckx at the peak of his career?

La course en tete. The words mean the race in the lead, which is how he rode: Merckx attacked constantly instead of riding defensively.

Which cycling drama features Merckx playing himself as a race starter?

American Flyers. Merckx appears as himself to send Kevin Costner and his screen brother off on a gruelling stage race through the Rockies.

Which heart condition, a leading cause of sudden death in young athletes, was found in Merckx at the 1968 Giro?

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The cardiologist who read his cardiogram said he rode his whole career with a sword of Damocles over his head; he raced on for ten more years and had a pacemaker fitted in 2013.

Which Dutch rider finished second to Merckx in both the 1970 and 1971 Tours?

Joop Zoetemelk. He was runner-up to Merckx in his very first Tour and again a year later, and did not win the race himself until 1980, at his tenth attempt.

At which Olympics was Merckx's late solo attack caught before the line?

Tokyo. Aged 19, he jumped clear inside the last two kilometres, was reeled in, and crossed the line twelfth as the whole bunch sprinted in for the medals.

Which star of women's cycling became Merckx's daughter-in-law in May 2026?

Lotte Kopecky. She married his son that month, and the pair own matching medals: he took bronze in the Olympic road race in 2004, and she did the same in 2024.

Which Alpine summit finish cost Merckx thirteen minutes in his final Tour?

Alpe d'Huez. He had held second place for two weeks before that day; he hit back with an attack on the road to Saint-Etienne and finished his last Tour, in 1977, sixth.