Cycling Betting - Famous Cyclists
Eddy Merckx
Baron Eddy Merckx was born on June 17, 1945 in Meensel-Kiezegem, Belgium. He is considered by many to be the greatest cyclist of all-time. He was nicknamed "The cannibal" for his unrelenting competitiveness; other nicknames were the Einstein of the two-wheelers, and the Giant. He is five-time champion of the two most important races in professional cycling, the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia.
Merckx started competing in 1961 and three years later he became world champion in the amateur category, before turning professional in 1965. In 1966 he won the first of seven editions of the race Milan-San Remo. In 1968 Merckx started his domination of the Grand Tours by becoming the first Belgian to win the Giro d'Italia. He would repeat this 4 more times.
Merckx is one of only four cyclists to have won all three of the Grand Tours (Tour de France, Giro and Vuelta a Espa�a), and one of only two men to have won the Triple Crown of Cycling (Tour, Giro, and the World Cycling Championship) in the same year.
Overall, Merckx entered 1582 road races in his 13 year professional career, and won 525, an astonishing winning rate of 35.5%. He dominated both, single-day and stage races during his career, a rarity in recent cycling.
In his Tour de France debut in 1969, Merckx immediately won the yellow jersey, the green jersey (best sprinter) and the red polka-dotted jersey ("King of the Mountains"). No other cyclist has achieved this trifecta in the Tour de France, and only Laurent Jalabert has been able to match this feat at the Grand Tours level, in the 1995 Vuelta.
Merckx retired from racing in 1978, at the age of 33. The blackest day in Merckx's career was in 1969, when he crashed in a derny race towards the end of the season. A pacer and a cyclist fell in front of Merckx's pacer, Fernand Wambst, and caused both him and Merckx to crash. His pacer was killed instantly, and Merckx suffered a bad concussion and fell unconscious.
The end of his great Tour-career came in 1975. At that year's Tour de France, he attempted to win his sixth, but became a victim of violence. Many Frenchmen were upset that a Belgian might overcome the record of five wins set by Frenchman Jacques Anquetil.
Merckx held the yellow jersey for eight days of the race, which raised his record to 96 total days, but during stage 14 a French spectator leapt from the crowd and punched him in the liver area. On top of this, a collision with Danish rider Ole Ritter resulted in a broken jaw at a later stage. Despite the fact that he could not eat solid food, and was barely able to talk, Merckx did not retire from the race.
In addition to his achievements in regular professional cycling, Merckx also set the bicycle hour speed record in 1972. On October 25, he covered 49.431 km at high altitude in Mexico City. The record would remain untouched until 1984. Despite his spectacular career, Merckx never won the classic race Paris-Tours.
Having retired from competitive cycling, Eddy Merckx is now a bicycle manufacturer and race commentator. He also was coach of the Belgian national cycling team during the mid-90's, and was part of the Belgian Olympic Committee.
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