THE CANNIBAL

                                                       Canada, 1974, picture by Ken on Wikipedia


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Edouard Louis Joseph Merckx called Eddy is one of the strongest cyclists since ever. For his insatiable desire to win he was called “the Cannibal”

He was born in Belgium, in Meensel Kiezegem, on the 17th of June 1945

in order to clear up, Fausto Coppi was considered the biggest cyclist, Eddy Merchx the strongest.

He won 5 Tour de France and 5 Tour of Italy. In 1973 he won the Vuelta in Spain.

He won 525 times in 1800 races in 17 years of agonism.

Among the numerous victories there are 7 Milano-Sanremo, 2 Tours of Flanders, 2 Giri of Lombardia, 5 Liegi-Bastogne-Liegi. Since 1972 till to 1984 he was time record holder. On race track he won 17 times the Six Days. Merckx is the one who won Tour for 3 times (in 1970, 1972, 1974). In 1974 he could win Tour of Italy, Tour de France, the world Championship road. Only Irish Stephen Roche could do the same in 1987.

He won 111 times yellow jersey, 34 races won, 77 times pink jersey.

Eddy has been a great champion, also in the way he behaved with challengers, with great respect, particularly with Felice Gimondi, who was rembered for this characters as well, (musician Enrico Ruggeri made a song for both titled “Gimondi e il Cannibale”)

Good blod will tell about Merchx’ son, Axel, who won bronze medal by Olimpics games in Athen, in 2004

He’s running nowadays an important bicycle factory, which he started when he was a professional cyclist.