Sports legends. Eddy merckx

The best cyclist of all time was born on June 17, 1945 in the Belgian town of Meensel-Kiezegem Brabant. Eddy Merckx had it all: class, strength, temperament, professionalism… He could only be seen to fail on occasion at the high peaks. The Belgian won everything, or rather, he did not let the others win 'almost nothing'. Other great cyclists such as Ocaña, Gimondi and Zoetemelk had to suffer from 1966 to 1976 the great 'cannibal', an appellation by which the Belgian is still known. Merckx was interested in both a Criterium and the Tour de France itself.

He was a wheeler, time trialist, climber and sprinter. In short, he disputed everything: large and small laps in stages, world championships, classics, time records, etc ...

His first great triumph was proclaiming himself amateur world champion. A year later he made the leap to professionalism in the prestigious classic of the Walloon Arrow, specifically on April 29, when he was not even 20 years old. Throughout his career his exploits were innumerable: in the Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, among the classics, and in the Giro d'Italia and, of course, in the Tour de France, among the greats. turns.

Of his seven participations in the gala round, he was proclaimed the final winner in five. He also achieved 35 stage victories and wore the leader's yellow jersey for 11 days. But his trajectory in the transalpine race was equally impressive. He won five times and a "positive" deprived him of winning another.

Also for three seasons he wore the rainbow jersey that defined him as absolute world champion. Like any good Belgian, he loved the classics and in his record he can boast of having achieved 32 victories in them. The hour record was another of his obsessions and in 1972 he beat it, in a 'natural' way, that is, with effort and without the help of technology.

In total there were 525 races that he won throughout his splendid career of the 1.800 in which he participated. After having achieved everything, on May 18, 1978 he said goodbye to professional cycling. Currently, among other investments, Eddy Merckx runs a factory for bicycles named after him.