The Grandma wants to talk about one of the greatest cyclists of all time, Eddy Merckx, the Belgian who is considered the most successful rider in the history of competitive cycling, and who was born on a day like today in 1945.
Édouard Louis Joseph, better known as Eddy Merckx (17 June 1945), is a Belgian former professional road and track bicycle racer who is widely seen as the most successful rider in the history of competitive cycling.
His victories include an unequalled eleven Grand Tours (five Tours of France, five Tours of Italy, and a Tour of Spain), all five Monuments, three World Championships, the hour record, every major one-day race other than Paris-Tours, and extensive victories on the track.
Born in Meensel-Kiezegem, Brabant, Belgium, he grew up in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre where his parents ran a grocery store. He played several sports, but found his true passion in cycling.
Merckx got his first bicycle at the age of three or four and competed in his first race in 1961. His first victory came at Petit-Enghien in October 1961.
After winning eighty races as an amateur racer, he turned professional on 29 April 1965 when he signed with Solo-Superia. His first major victory came in the Milan-San Remo a year later, after switching to Peugeot-BP-Michelin.
After the 1967 season, Merckx moved to Faema, and won the Giro d'Italia, his first Grand Tour victory. Four times between 1970 and 1974, Merckx completed a Grand Tour double. His final double also coincided with winning the men's road race at the UCI Road World Championships to make him the first rider to accomplish cycling's Triple Crown.
More information: Eddy Merckx
Merckx broke the hour record in October 1972, extending the record by almost 800 meters.
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.
Merckx achieved 525 victories over his eighteen-year career. He is one of only three riders to have won all five Monuments (Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and the Giro di Lombardia) and the only one to have won them all twice or more. The other two are fellow Belgians Roger De Vlaeminck and Rik Van Looy.
Merckx was successful on the road and also on the track, as well as in the large stage races and one-day races.
He is widely thought to be the greatest and most successful rider in the history of cycling. However, Merckx was caught in three separate doping incidents during his career.
Since Merckx's retirement from the sport on 18 May 1978, he has remained active in the cycling world. He began his own bicycle chain, Eddy Merckx Cycles, in 1980 and its bicycles were used by several professional teams in the 1980s and 1990s.
Merckx coached the Belgian national cycling team for eleven years, stopping in 1996. He helped start and organize the Tour of Qatar from its start in 2002 until its final edition in 2016. He also assisted the Tour of Oman in running, before a disagreement with the organizers led him to step away in 2017.
More information: Cycling Weekly
Edouard Louis Joseph Merckx was born in Meensel-Kiezegem, Brabant, Belgium on 17 June 1945 to Jules Merckx and Jenny Pittomvils.
Merckx was the first-born of the family. In September 1946, the family moved to Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, in Brussels, Belgium, in order to take over a grocery store that had been up for lease. In May 1948, Jenny gave birth to twins: a boy, Michel, and a girl, Micheline. As a child, Eddy was hyperactive and was always playing outside.
Eddy was a competitive child and played several sports, including basketball, boxing, football, and table tennis. He even played lawn tennis for the local junior team.
Merckx claimed he knew he wanted to be a cyclist at the age of four, and that his first memory was a crash on his bike when he was the same age.
Merckx began riding a bike at the age of three or four and would ride to school every day, beginning at age eight.
Merckx would imitate his cycling idol Stan Ockers with his friends when they rode bikes together.
Merckx has been regarded by many as the greatest and most successful cyclist of all time.
He rode well in the Grand Tours and in the one-day classics. He was a very good time trialist and climber. In addition, Merckx showed great ability to race on the track. He was known for a racing style that consisted of attacking constantly, which came to be known as la course en tête.
More information: Cyclist
or as long or as short as you feel.
But ride.
Eddy Merckx
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