The Giro-Tour double has long been one of cycling’s most coveted achievements. Winning two Grand Tours in one year is a sign of a rider's dominance, and unsurprisingly the list of those who have achieved it is a list of the greatest cyclists of all time. Eight male riders have managed to win both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France in one season, and one female rider, although that is a list that could grow longer thanks to the date change for the women's Giro.

The first rider to achieve the feat was the great Fausto Coppi. The Italian was an icon, famed for his movie star good looks, and the first rider to dominate the sport and win races across Europe. The last rider to win both was Tadej Pogačar, and now his rival Jonas Vingegaard will attempt it in 2026. Starting the Giro for the first time, the Dane is the stand out favourite of all the GC contenders and will go on to ride the Tour de France in July.

Since the turn of the century the Giro/Tour double had been considered impossible in modern cycling, as the likes of Alberto Contador and Chris Froome - the two best GC riders of their generation with multiple wins between them - both failed to do it during their careers.

Although Froome did do the Tour/Vuelta double in 2017, and in 2018 won the Giro, meaning he held all three Grand Tour titles at the same time. Weeks later he finished third in the 2018 Tour behind team mate Geraint Thomas and Dutchman Tom Dumoulin.

The difficulty of winning both is in part down to the time in between the two races. Just the month of June separates them, and while this is plenty of time for a rider to recover, the challenge is for a rider to maintain their form from the beginning of May through to the end of July. Any rider attempting the Giro/Tour double knows that just one bad day out of 42 race days can end their attempt.

*Completed the Triple Crown by also winning the UCI road race World Championships

Annemiek van Vleuten became the first woman to win the Giro/Tour double in 2022, although this list of one is not through a lack of female riders good enough to do it, but through a lack of opportunity. The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift returned to the women's calendar in 2022 after a decade long campaign, and even then, the dates weren't helpful.

That year the ten-day Giro d'Italia Donne finished on July 10 and the Tour de France Femmes began just 14 days later on July 24. Van Vleuten was however more than capable in a year where she barely finished outside of the top five in every race she started. To make her achievement even more impressive, she won the Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta in mid September. Although at the time, the women's third Grand Tour was only five stages long.

This year the Giro d'Italia Women has moved and will start on May 30th, and finish on June 7th, giving riders eight weeks between the two races. This should mean the top GC riders in the women's peloton will ride both, giving more riders the chance to add their name to the list. Demi Vollering has already stated her 2026 aim is to complete the double.

Male riders who have achieved the Giro / Tour double

Fausto Coppi

'Il Campionissimo' needs no introduction. Fausto Coppi is one of the most iconic and legendary cyclists of all time and, long after his untimely death, his name still carries a mythical status in the sport given his extensive list of achievements during his career.

Coppi was the first rider to ever win the Giro/Tour double, and ended up winning both races in the same year on two different occasions.

The first occasion was in 1949 while riding for the Italian national team. Coppi initially sustained a huge time deficit in the Tour after crashing heavily in the earlier stages, but he would go on to claw the time back in the high mountains as the race progressed.

He went on to win the race’s penultimate day time trial in Nancy which ensured that he would triumph at the Tour, on debut, and become the first rider to achieve the Giro-Tour double in the same season in the process, a feat he would go on to match three years later.

Jacques Anquetil  

Five Tour victories and two Giro triumphs make up just part of the great Jacques Anquetil’s list of achievements, but 1964 was arguably the Normandy-born rider’s crowning moment of his career.

Anquetil had already won the Giro previously in 1960, but going into the Italian Grand Tour that year he was among a select group of foreign hopefuls for the maglia rosa who all had the potential to upset the home support looking to witness an Italian triumph in their own backyard.

Riding for the Saint-Raphaël team that eventually inspired the well known kit brand Rapha, Anquetil took a stage win early on which saw him pull on pink before holding it all the way through to the finish.

A few weeks later at the Tour, Anquetil was very nearly denied his fifth Tour victory by Raymond Poulidor, who pushed him all the way to the end, cutting Anquetil’s lead to almost nothing. But Anquetil would eventually prevail, beating Poulidor in the race’s final time trial to ensure that he would win his fifth and final Tour de France by 55 seconds and achieve the double.

Eddy Merckx

Eddy Merckx holds the record for the most Giro/Tour doubles achieved during his career, an achievement truly befitting of a man nicknamed the Cannibal.

The Belgian great first pulled off the double in 1970, before going on to add a second and third in 1972 and 1974. His first Giro d’Italia was arguably unexpected after he had suffered with a knee injury for much of the race and illness beforehand.

However, after winning stage two, Merckx then went on to win three more stages as his fitness developed during the race. He then won a second successive Tour de France later that summer. Merckx then held off several challenges in 1972 at the Tour from France’s Raymond Poulidor and Felice Gimondi of Italy in order to ensure that he landed yet another double. Merckx’s eventual winning margin stood at more than ten minutes.

Merckx’s 1974 Giro win was a closely run affair. The Belgian won the Corsa Rosa by just 12 seconds that year and was made to wait until stage 12 for his first victory of the race, a 25 mile individual time trial on stage 12. He then won the Tour by 8:04 ahead of Poulidor.

Bernard Hinault

'The Badger' is the next man to have completed the double on more than one occasion, winning both the Giro and Tour in 1982 and 1985. Remarkably, the French legend won nearly all of the Grand Tours he ever participated in.

During his career, he competed in three editions of the Giro and two editions of the Vuelta a España, winning all five races. Hinault also won on five out of eight appearances at the Tour de France, making him part of a select club of riders to have won the Tour on five occasions.

The 1982 Tour saw Hinault take four stages on his way to victory in Paris. Three of those were individual time trials, one being the race’s prologue in Basel, before he then went on to win the race’s final stage in Paris on the Champs-Élysées.

Three years later, the Tour was a much more closely run affair. Hinault only managed two stage wins - both coming in time trials once again, before going on to win the race overall by 1:42 ahead of his La Vie Claire teammate, Greg LeMond.

Stephen Roche

Stephen Roche is one of only two former pro cyclists to achieve the unthinkable, winning cycling’s triple crown - the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and road World Championships - all in the same season.

The Irishman only won the Tour on one occasion, but coming in the middle of his triple crown, it shouldn’t be underestimated. Interestingly Roche has previously said that it was never the plan to win all three events in the same year, everything just seemed to fall into place at the right time to enable him to do so.

Roche took the pink jersey during part b of the race’s first stage, a short individual time trial from the Poggio near San Remo into the middle of the town. The second part of the stage was a mere five kilometres in length, but that didn’t prevent Roche from laying down the law and claiming pink. Roche then won the final day longer time trial into Turin to wrap up the overall victory by more than three minutes.

Later that year, Roche was pushed all the way to the penultimate day time trial by Pedro Delgado during the Tour. Roche won an 87km time trial on stage ten before he then lost the yellow jersey with the end in sight. The Irishman clawed back enough time during the penultimate stage to pull on yellow once more ahead of the race wrapping up in Paris.

Miguel Induráin

Induráin is the only man to have ever completed the double in two consecutive seasons, winning both the Tour and Giro in 1992 and 1993. The Spaniard also won the Tour five years in a row with his time trialling prowess setting him well on the way to victory in each.

During his first Giro triumph, it was two time trial wins that got him over the line, including a 41 mile effort into Milan on the race’s final day.

Induráin then won all three of the Tour’s time trials later that year before eventually claiming yellow in Paris. He then replicated that accomplishment the following year, winning all four of the time trials on offer across both Grand Tours on his way to overall victory in each.

On retirement, Induráin’s stage win total stood at 16 in both the Giro and Tour with most of those being on aero bars. As well as his wins in both Italy and France, his time trial mastery also saw him claim the world title in 1995, before going on to land an Olympic gold medal in the discipline a year later.

Marco Pantani

Marco Pantani is possibly one of the most written about cyclists of all time, mainly due to his troubled private life which culminated in his tragic and untimely death in 2004 aged just 34.

In his prime, Pantani was regarded as being one of the sport’s very best climbers, with the sight of him dancing up the slopes of some of cycling’s most iconic peaks on his celeste blue Bianchi being a joy to behold. He was also well known for his pirate bandana and earring which he sported throughout his career, earning him the nickname 'Il Pirata'.

Prior to Pogačar’s victory, Pantani was the last man to complete the Giro/Tour double in 1998. In May that year, the boy from Cesenatico got his Giro off to a slow start as he shipped time in the early stages. But once his favoured terrain arrived, Pantani put the hammer down and soon had his rivals begging for mercy. Two mountain top stage wins at Piancavallo and Montecampione helped the Pirate eventually land the pink jersey in Milan.

Two months later the Tour began in Ireland with Chris Boardman winning the prologue and pulling on yellow. Pantani had to wait until stage 11 to Plateau de Beille to make his mark. The Italian obliterated his rivals to win the stage and set a record time for the ascent in the process. He was made to wait before he could pull on the yellow jersey, but victory on stage 15 at Les Deux Alpes, when leader Jan Ullrich suffered in the cold and rain through the mountains, was enough to see Pantani take the leader’s jersey and eventually win the Tour.

Controversy dogged the race that year, with the Festina doping scandal threatening to discredit the entire sport. Use of EPO was rife - Pantani was kicked off the 1999 Giro for having a high haematocrit (a measure used before a test for EPO was developed) - and the UCI was scrambling to keep up with the cheats. Rider protests threatened the Tour's very existence and many teams and riders were kicked out, or pulled themselves out. All of which left a cloud over Pantani's win.

Tadej Pogačar

It says everything about the Slovenian that he made the impossible look decidedly straight forward in 2024. Having already won Strade Bianche, the Tour of Catalunya, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège he breezed through the Giro d'Italia winning by nine minutes and 56 seconds (the biggest winning margin since 1965) from Daniel Martínez (Bora Hansgrohe), having worn the leaders pink jersey from stage two, taking six stage victories on the way and seemingly taking his foot off the gas in the final stages with his Tour challenge already in mind.

His Tour win was almost as dominant. He beat Jonas Vingegaard, who had won the previous two editions, by six minutes 17 seconds, took the yellow jersey on stage two, relinquished it on stage three only to win it back on stage four and wear it until the finish in Nice. And take six stages along the way.

Even though Vingegaard had a disrupted build up thanks to being caught up in a horrorific crash at the Tour of the Basque country that spring, Pogačar was clearly unbeatable. He then went on to become the third male rider in history to achieve the triple crown - winning the Giro, Tour and UCI road race world title in the same year. The latter with a jaw-dropping 101km break away.

He did however sit out the Paris Olympics that started just one week after the Tour, citing exhaustion. He also won the GP Cycliste de Montréal, Giro dell'Emilia and Il Lombardia before and after the world championships.

Female riders who have achieved the Giro / Tour double

Annemiek van Vleuten

Van Vleuten has won the Giro Donne on four occasions, but it was in 2022 that she won both the Giro and the Tour de France Femmes in the same year. She may not have won two three-week Grand Tours with just a month off in between, but she beat some formidable opposition on the way to her two victories. It is as good as you can get in women's cycling.

Looking at her Tour win in particular, she put the likes of Demi Vollering and Elisa Longo Borghini to the sword on the way to victory in the race’s inaugural edition, a landmark achievement for women’s cycling.

It was on stage three of the Giro that the Dutchwoman took her the first step towards her third overall victory. Van Vleuten won a hilly stage on a circuit around Cesena before going on to win in the mountains around Aldeno on stage seven which was enough to get the job done and secure the overall title.

During the Tour she had to leave it late to snatch the yellow jersey. Marianne Vos held the overall lead going into the final two mountain stages, but Van Vleuten wrestled it from her shoulders by taking wins at Le Markstein and Planche des Belles Filles.

Van Vleuten’s palmarès also matches any male rider on this list, particularly due to her four world titles and Olympic gold medal. She was simply a force to be reckoned with during her career and as a result, she thoroughly deserves her place alongside Pogačar, Merckx and company as a true winner of the Giro-Tour double.

Tadej Pogačar has said that comparisons between himself and Eddy Merckx, the Belgian considered to be the greatest cyclist of all time, are “complete nonsense”.

The Slovenian is a two-time world champion and four-time Tour de France winner. This season, he has the chance to join two exclusive clubs alongside Merckx by winning a fifth Tour and completing the set of all five Monuments; Pogačar is targeting victories at Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix to add to his previous at the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia.

“There is so much talk about me and comparing to Eddy [Merckx] etc. For me, it’s complete nonsense,” Pogačar told Cycling Weekly on Wednesday, as he announced his role as global ambassador for crypto exchange KuCoin.

“I like to live in the moment, in the present, not thinking too much about the records or whatever. I want to keep having fun, that’s the most important [thing] in cycling, in sport, in life, too; that what you do is for fun, that you have some sort of challenges, that you have some goals, but that you don’t overdo it also and overthink it.”

After Pogačar’s victory at the 2024 UCI World Championships in Switzerland, where he won with a 100km attack, Merckx told French publication L’Équipe that it was “obvious [Pogačar] is now above me – deep down, I already thought as much when I saw what he did on the last Tour de France, but tonight there’s no more doubt about it.”

Merckx later backtracked on his comments, telling Spanish outlet Relevo that the Slovenian had “a long way to go” to be considered greater than him.

In 2024, Pogačar completed the Triple Crown of cycling, winning the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and World Championships in the same year, a feat Merckx achieved in 1974. The Belgian, now 80 years old, retired in 1978 with more than 500 wins.

Pogačar has been the UCI’s number-one ranked male cyclist for the past five years, and reached a milestone 100 career wins at the Tour de France last summer, aged 26.

Asked about his legacy, the Slovenian told Cycling Weekly he hopes to be celebrated for more than his victories.

“Maybe the results are not everything that I want people [to remember me for], just saying ‘Yeah, this guy won this and this, and won everything’,” he said.

“Maybe I also want to show the young generations that everything is possible. When you do this, you also need to play it as a game. It’s not all about cycling, you also need to enjoy your life.”

Pogačar is scheduled to begin his 2025 season at Strade Bianche on 7 March.

A more extensive, feature-length interview with the world champion will be published in Cycling Weekly magazine this spring.

The company behind Ridley, Eddy Merckx, Aeres, and Nukeproof, has announced that it will offer a transferable "lifetime" warranty on its frames, effective from 1 January 2026.

However, according to Belgian Cycling Factory (BCF), the term "lifetime" comes with some important terms and conditions. In line with many other brand policies, it refers not to the owner's life, for those that were getting excited about never having to buy a new frame ever again, but to an "industry-aligned" period of ten years from the date of purchase, provided the bicycle is registered within 30 days.

The warranty covers frames only and excludes misuse, but it is certainly a welcome addition for consumers. The fact that the warranty is also transferable to a second owner, is sure to help resale value in the event you move the bike on privately.

Jochim Aerts, CEO of BCF, stated: “With this move, BCF reaffirms its commitment to durable products, transparency, and long-term relationships with both riders and retailers. The new warranty replaces the previous 2/5-year system and forms part of a broader strategic choice: investing in long-term trust rather than short-term commercial incentives.”

An important exception is for Nukeproof frames, where the warranty only extends to two years. While this shorter term is likely a decision based on the rough-and-tumble nature of downhill mountain biking, it is worth noting that some competitors, such as Santa Cruz, do offer a lifetime frame warranty on all its MTB frames, though theirs is not transferable to a second owner.

Warranty conditions vary across the industry, so always check before making a purchase.

CW says

Italian cycling is mourning the passing of Michele Dancelli, winner of Classics such as Milan-San Remo, as well as multiple Grand Tour stages.

A combative all-rounder, Dancelli rode professionally throughout the Eddy Merckx era, signing for Molteni in 1963 and embarking upon a 13-year career that also saw him ride in other Italian trade teams like Scic, Vittadello and Pepsi-Cola.

His one Monument victory, in the 1970 Milan-San Remo, was especially notable. It broke a 17-year deadlock in which no Italian riders had crossed the line first in this particular home race. During that time, riders from all of the 'old' cycling nations had added to the win tally, including Britain's Tom Simpson. But on Dancelli's day, 19 March, 1970, the Italian had broken away with 70km to go and built a lead of nearly two minutes.

"If you pull this off I'll give you the whole factory!" his team boss Piero Molteni yelled as he powered towards the finish to win solo.

Up against the likes of Merckx and Felice Gimondi, Dancelli's was not the easiest era in which to win the biggest races in the world. He was fourth in the Giro d'Italia on GC (1970) and sixth twice (1968, 69). But Dancelli did win 11 stages of his home tour, including a haul of four in 1970, which surely must count as his annus mirabilis. There was also a Tour de France stage along the way, taken at Thonon-les-Bains in 1969 – his only participation in that race.

He was described by Ernesto Colnago as an "instinctive, impulsive rider who did crazy things", while the Italian journalist Gianni Mura dubbed him a "nomadic dreamer". For his part, Dancelli seemed comfortable with either of those descriptions. A rider with talent, perhaps, but not always the right mindset required to make the most of it.

“I've always loved life," he said. "If I'd had Gimondi's mind, I'd have won everything, even the Grand Tours. I loved girls and the good life. Yes, I admit, I was a bit of a rascal.”

After retiring went into real estate, before later going into the business of organising cycling trips for leisure riders.

To earn a nickname like Mr Paris-Roubaix, you need a few things. A supreme athletic talent, of course. But also a steely-eyed belligerence when it comes to defending your ground – and a decided lack of risk averseness.

And Seventies star Roger De Vlaeminck – Mr Paris-Roubaix himself – has once again been displaying plenty of the latter two attributes in his latest interview, this time with Belgium's Het Laatse Nieuws.

This time it is Tadej Pogačar who once again finds himself the target of the 78-year-old Belgian's fiery tongue.

De Vlaeminck called assertions that Pogačar is as good as Merckx "crazy", adding: "Pogacar isn't even close to Merckx's toes! Journalists who dare make that comparison don't know anything about it."

He even suggested that the Slovenian would find it impossible to drop him, too: "Let me be 22 years old today and ride in the peloton with Pogačar, and he won't break away from me. Where was it recently – when he rode away from [Remco] Evenepoel? In Lombardy. Not even on a difficult climb. As good as Merckx... Come on.”

This isn't the first time that modern riders have come under fire from De Vlaeminck's acerbic opinion. After last year's World Championships road race he said: "With me, Merckx or [Freddy] Maertens, Pogačar would never have ridden alone in front for 90 kilometres."

Of course, the comparisons between modern riders and Merckx (who, with 500 victories will always be the touchstone in these sorts of conversations) are great fun and make for hours of pub-argument style entertainment, but they're generally pretty hard to take seriously.

De Vlaeminck's insistence that Pogačar would be utterly incapable of dropping him were he 22 again, doesn't do anything to dispel this.

Rather his arguments sound like the pontifications of an old soldier, fiercely proud of where he comes from and resentful of the hyperbole surrounding today's best riders.

Many point towards Merckx's 500-victory tally as evidence of his superiority (Pogacar is currently on 108). But Pogacar and Merckx represent two entirely different eras, with different training, nutrition and races. They are not comparable by a simple win-tally.

Retiring Canadian rider Mike Woods put forward a well-constructed argument in favour of Pogacar recently, telling Cycling Weekly: "Merckx was competing when there were only four billion people on the planet. And only four countries were good at it… and there were guys he was racing against who were still working."

Woods added: "The fact that Pogačar's as good as he is with this level of depth, with this pool of talent that's being drawn from, it's vastly superior, vastly superior."

The Canadian definitely makes a point. More so than De Vlaeminck, who doesn't seem to at all.

However, like all other Merckx vs [insert modern rider here] arguments, exactly who is 'better' remains unprovable conjecture and always will do. The eras are just way too far apart.

So let's keep on enjoying these little debates while remembering that none of us are demonstrably 'right' – we'd just like to think we are.

For years cycling fans have sought to compare the rider of the moment to the great Eddy Merckx – the 500-victory 'Cannibal' who ruled the sport in the early 1970s.

Despite the comparisons, very few riders have filled more than a small part of the massive impression Merckx made on the sport – until Tadej Pogačar.

And when it comes to the Slovenian superstar there is at least one out-going professional who has little doubt how he stacks up against Merckx.

There is no doubt in his mind that Pogačar is the best rider who ever lived, Michael Woods told Cycling Weekly last week.

Comparing the landscape in which the two riders have raced makes the comparison even more stark, multiple Grand Tour stage winner Woods, who at 39 is retiring from Israel-Premier Tech at the end of this season, explained.

"Merckx was competing when there were only four billion people on the planet," he said. "And only four countries were good at it… and there were guys he was racing against who were still working.

These days, that figure of four billion has grown – slightly alarmingly in such as short period of time – to a shade over eight billion.

"The fact that Pogačar's as good as he is with this level of depth, with this pool of talent that's being drawn from, it's vastly superior, vastly superior," the Canadian surmised.

Unlike Woods himself, who only made the step up from Continental ranks to the WorldTour when he was 29, Pogačar began winning big early, with a Tour de France victory aged just 21.

This year he has won from start to finish, including the Tour de France and the World Championships and other major races, often with swashbuckling and entirely indomitable style. Exactly how long he can keep it all up for might come down to his mental, rather than physical game, Woods reckoned.

"It becomes not as fun when you have less of an opposition, so I certainly believe. So I don't foresee Pogačar racing into his late-30s. But, you never know. Like, he doesn't need to. He can stop tomorrow. And in my mind, he's the greatest cyclist that's ever lived."

"You even saw it with [Peter] Sagan," Woods added. "Sagan just got bored. You could tell he was just doing it as a job. And when you're an athlete like Pogačar and Sagan… these guys want to be pushing the limits and testing themselves."

As for Woods's future, he may be retired but his 'to do' list is far from empty, he said, and he has no plans to hang up his wheels.

"I've got some big plans… I want to do some alternative events – bucket list items… I just love exercising and love training, love racing."

He listed "a lot of the Life Time Grand Prix events, Leadville, maybe Cape Epic – and I want to try and do a good IronMan [triathlon] too.

"I want to answer the question of whether I'd be a good triathlete or not," he said.

And in terms of what he makes of the controversy that has surrounded the team with which is registered until December 31, he said: "I think a lot is going to be determined in the next few weeks in terms of what's going to happen with the team.

"But, yeah, it was a tough time for everybody in the last few months," he added. "but I think a lot of positive changes can happen within the team moving forward, I think there's a lot of good that's going to come out of this."

This article was first published in Cycling Weekly magazine in December 2024, in a special edition that commemorated Pogačar winning the Triple Crown. It has been updated to reflect his fourth Tour de France title.

In December 2023, Tadej Pogačar unveiled his bold plans for 2024. He said he would aim not only for the elusive GiroTour double, but also the rare Triple Crown – adding victory in the road race World Championship.

Yet, in his characteristically laidback manner, seemingly unfazed by the weight of expectation on his shoulders, the then 25-year-old seemed not to be taking anything for granted: “[The season] could be super good, really good, or not so good – I won’t say bad, but mediocre.” What transpired went beyond “super good” – it was one of the most spectacular displays of dominance we’ve ever witnessed in pro cycling. It has left fans and pundits asking the inevitable question: is Pogačar the greatest male cyclist of all time – is he the GOAT?

The exceptional nature of his season cannot be overstated. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider won six stages and the GC at both the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France – only the eighth male to win both races in the same season. He claimed his first rainbow jersey, won two Monuments, and only failed to win twice in 11 races. Wherever he turned up, from the white roads of Tuscany to an autumnal Canada, he was imperious, winning by huge margins and taking enormous chunks off previous best times on mythical climbs. Even a roaring headwind couldn’t slow him down on the Col du Galibier.

In 2025, he has picked up where he left off: he has won two stage races, and cruised to a fourth yellow jersey. In between, he has claimed a further two Monument titles, and finished second on debut at Paris-Roubaix. He is the dominator who doesn't like anyone else winning.

Pogačar’s performances have supercharged the debate within cycling over whether or not he is the GOAT. Until now the consensus has been that this unofficial honour is held by Eddy Merckx, who won five Tours and Giros and claimed 525 road and track wins in total. The Belgian inherited the GOAT tag from Italian champion Fausto Coppi, but is Pogačar, who turned 26 in September, closing in on the Belgian legend? Are we witnessing the best bike rider the world has ever seen?

School of attack

To Merckx, there was only one way to win a bike race: attack. Even when everyone was ganging up on him, attacking remained the best form of defence. Pogačar certainly subscribes to the same school of thought. To quote Remco Evenepoel, arguably Belgium’s most complete rider since Merckx, the peloton awaits Pogačar’s inevitable and bestial attacks like “a ticking time bomb”. You know he will go, but you won’t be able to respond to the detonation, even though you’ve seen the same movie on repeat. It starts with him darting out of the front group, dancing out of the saddle for 30 seconds, and then settling into an unmatchable rhythm.

“What makes him so good is how he attacks from afar,” says Wout Poels, a veteran of the peloton. “A hundred kilometres to go in the Worlds – everyone says, ‘Are you crazy, what are you thinking?’ But then he does it. He’s superhuman.” In 2024, the long-range move became Pogačar’s trademark: the Worlds; 81km at Strade Bianche; 49km at Il Lombardia; and 35km at LiègeBastogne-Liège. “You’re suffering, really suffering,” Poels describes trying to hold the Slovenian’s wheel, “and then he attacks when you’re already on the limit. It’s so impressive. People on TV are watching and asking why no one follows him, but no one can follow him.”

Ben O’Connor tried to react to a Pogačar attack on stage two of the 2024 Giro d’Italia, but his bravery backfired. “When you sail too close to the sun, you get stung,” the Australian said afterwards. “I always wanted to try and follow Pog, but I was the dumbest guy in the race.” The mind-boggling long-distance attacks have become less frequent in 2025 – though they still appear on occasions – and replacing them has become a more matured, conservative approach. He's more about taming and stifling his rivals, rather than punishing them.

Regardless of the new-found attitude, teams are still rethinking expectations. “I know people hate the defeatist attitude, but the race is for second now,” George Bennett, a one-time Pogačar team-mate, said earlier in the 2024 season. Studious French rider and part-time philosopher Guillaume Martin expressed similar thoughts: “Before, I always used to ride races to win; now I don’t see how it could be possible when you are racing against a rider like that.” Pogačar has fundamentally altered race dynamics.

And much like Merckx, he doesn’t only win up mountains. He wins time trials, overpowers cobbles, and has even won the odd bunch sprint. Three-week Grand Tours, shorter stage races and one-day races, Pogačar does it all.

Incredible recovery

Since 2021, the Slovenian has been the UCI’s best-ranked rider every season, winning on average 14 races a year. To produce that consistency, a rider needs two key physiological traits: durability and a fast recovery. Pogačar has both in abundance. “Tadej has this incredible innate ability to adapt and recover from big training loads better than anyone I’ve ever come across before,” says Jeroen Swart, UAE’s head of performance. “We observed it in 2019 [his first season as a pro] when we were looking at his metabolic markers and recovery, and it’s only improved.”

This, married to the apparent good fortune of rarely crashing or getting ill – with the exception of a broken wrist sustained at Liège-Bastogne Liège in 2023 – Pogačar has avoided the darker realities of his profession. His team has been able to predict his success with uncanny confidence. “At the start of the year, on paper at least, we thought Tadej had a high probability of winning between 83 and 90% of all stages he’d compete in,” says Matxin Fernández, UAE’s sports manager. It’s a staggering win rate, underscoring his superiority. “When Tadej is racing, everyone’s so motivated,” his teammate Tim Wellens says. “You notice it with the staff as well – everyone’s operating at the highest level.”

Despite relentlessly winning since Pogačar turned pro, UAE started afresh with his training 12 months ago, convinced that they could elicit even bigger gains from their prized possession. “We looked at Tadej’s durability in 2022 and 2023, and we understood that it was not at the level required,” Swart says. “We looked at some of the factors at play and did some interventions to correct this.” Hurt by losing two successive Tours to Jonas Vingegaard – the only rider who’s figured out a way to best him in the mountains – the buy-in from Pogačar was absolute. Under the guidance of his new coach, the biomechanics expert Javier Sola, that meant more time riding at low cadences; more time riding high-intensity intervals; the incorporation of functional strength training off the bike; changes to diet; a combination of heat training while at altitude, and more of it closer to big events; and physio sessions at home. “There are multiple factors accumulated together that explain the improvement in performance we’ve seen this year,” Swart says. “Javier does a fantastic job and he has been responsible for the turnaround in Tadej’s performance.”

A single-minded determination to improve is a hallmark of sporting greats, setting them apart from lesser champions – and Pogačar is ravenous in this respect. “I’ve arrived at this point where I really strive to be the best ever,” he told CW at last March’s Volta a Catalunya, later revealing that he and his team had devised a plan to win every race on the calendar, with the exception of the sprinters-only events.

“The most beautiful thing about Tadej is that he welcomes this responsibility of new challenges and new motivations,” Fernández adds. “Why go to the UAE Tour when he’s won it twice? Go to Ruta del Sol instead. Why win Tirreno-Adriatico three times? Go to Paris-Nice and win that.” The messaging is unambiguous: he wants to leave an indelible mark across the world, leaving no race unconquered.

Science versus superstition

In debating whether he is already, or will be, the GOAT, comparisons with previous generations cannot be avoided. In Merckx’s era, the science of cycling was in its infancy, and riders relied on training plans that amounted to guesswork, drawing as much on superstition as on evidence. With no power meters, GPS or heart rate monitors to track performance, training intensities and recovery strategies were estimated based on feel alone. The potential of today’s top riders like Pogačar is nurtured with scientific precision, each unit of training carefully tailored and monitored. This knowledge gap arguably makes Merckx’s dominance even more extraordinary, as he relied on raw talent, relentless drive, and intuition to stay ahead and keep winning. How today’s riders would cope under such conditions is one of many imponderables in this debate.

Another one is the influence of financial incentives. Pogačar earns an annual base wage of €8.4m with UAE Team Emirates-XRG plus bonuses for major wins, and private sponsorship deals. The rewards are vastly larger than they were in Merckx’s day. The Belgian told the Guardian in 2013 that, had he been paid well, he would have raced less, adding: “You had to ride a lot back then to make money… Sometimes I would get the equivalent of €25 to enter a race and €15 prize money.” For Pogačar, it must ease the pain of day in, day out hard exertion to know that he is riding himself into fabulous wealth.

Then again, the greater resources in the sport arguably makes winning even harder for today’s generation, with greater pressure too. There is more money in the sport, more development, more youngsters trying it out, and therefore the overall level and depth of competition has markedly improved.

The nearly 1,000 riders in the WorldTour and ProTeam categories are consummate professionals by necessity. They weigh every gram of food, they abstain from drinking, and their training schedules are personally tailored to optimise their output. This applied to very few riders 15 years ago, let alone half a century ago. Winning a bike race has never been harder; winning 25 in 57 race days, as Pogačar did in 2024, is mind-blowing. His rate in 2025 stands at 15 wins in 43 days. Not quite as prolific, but astonishing all the same.

Equally astounding are the performance metrics that illustrate Pogačar’s eminence, especially his climbing times from 2024. On the Tour stage to Plateau de Beille where he ascended the 15.5km Pyrenean beast almost four minutes faster than Marco Pantani’s 1998 record, he rode at an estimated 6.98 watts per kilogram.

“We all witnessed one of the best performances on a climb ever,” Pogačar said afterwards. “I had the highest numbers ever in my career.” Merckx didn’t ride with a power meter (they were only invented in the early-Nineties), but did once produce 455 watts on an ergometer for one hour – roughly 6.25W/kg. Pogačar’s sustained power on Plateau de Beille, some 0.75W/kg more, is unprecedented. His other training data is also remarkable – he’s said to have a VO2 max of 90ml/kg/min – especially high but not enough to account for his dominance – and he recently revealed that his Zone 2 equates to 320-340W, which he sustains for up to five hours. Remarkable figures.

No pressure then

Pogačar’s physical attributes are plain for all to see, but his strongest facet is hidden from view – it’s his mental fortitude. “How he confronts responsibility, stress, pressure, favouritism, tension, nerves, this is his secret – he manages it all excellently. This is the best thing about Tadej,” his team manager Fernández says.

It is something repeated about Pogačar again and again: pressure, what pressure? “He’s super, super relaxed and never stressed before a race,” fellow Slovenian Domen Novak says. “He trusts himself that he’s the best. He just says, ‘Yeah, we smash this, no worries guys, let’s go.’”

Wellens concurs: “What surprises me most about Tadej is how down-to-earth he is, how his feet stay on the ground. He’s taught me that not being 100% serious isn’t a bad thing, you can have a laugh as well. It allows him to stay so mentally fresh and he never puts pressure on himself.”

What about in the rare case where he suffers a defeat? “He’ll never lose his head, never say anything out of character,” says his longtime soigneur Joseba Elguezabal. “Second is the worst result for him, but he’s always calm, respectful, humble, happy, and smiling.” Fernández nods: “In most cases, the team races for him, and he is conscious of that responsibility, but if things don’t work out, it’s never a drama. It’s a big motivation if he doesn’t win but he never takes defeat as a problem.” And why would he? He’ll just win the next one.

“I don’t think he’s angry if he loses because he’s won so much stuff,” says Jayco-Alula’s Michael Matthews, his favoured training partner in Monaco, where he lives. “After I won GP Québec [in September], he came to my room and was openly happy for me. It doesn’t mean everything to him. He’s really good at turning the page.” A fortnight later, Pogačar won the World Championship. Point proven.

Bumps in the road

Double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel echoes many when he says that his friendly foe is “slowly becoming the best ever”. Even so, there are potential problems along the way that could thwart his crowning as the greatest ever, including how he continues to manage the extra attention from his now global fan base.

“The biggest difference between the beginning and the end of this season is how much of a superstar Tadej has become,” Wellens says. “It’s enormous. People don’t leave him alone, not in the cafe, not when he stops to have a pee. He can’t get mad with people, but we as team-mates need to protect him, because it’s a lot of stress.”

The biggest threat to his continued success, though, is a change in fortune – if, for example, he suffers a serious injury or repeated illnesses, or just setbacks that could derail his march towards cycling immortality.

Perhaps the hardest question mark to shake surrounding Pogačar’s status and how his greatness will be ranked is that of plausibility. Can his dominance be believed? Is this a clean era of cycling? He is insistent that cyclists “should avoid grey areas”, but got himself twisted in knots in the summer over the controversial but legal practice of repeated carbon monoxide inhalation, a method the UCI has since banned.

Not a shred of evidence has been produced to substantiate doping rumours – and many are content to believe he is a generational talent backed by the sport’s wealthiest ever team – but he is surrounded by people with a tainted past, in particular UAE’s manager Mauro Gianetti. The Swiss has presided over the careers of several riders who were banned for doping, and as a rider himself he spent 10 days in intensive care, reportedly as a result of unkowingly being given performance-enhancing drugs.

One fellow cycling manager, Frenchman Stéphane Heulot, told L’Équipe in 2011 that “doping is so ingrained in certain managers, like Gianetti, that they can’t conceive of cycling any other way.” But unless Pogačar tests positive for a banned substance – bearing in mind he is one of the most tested athletes in the world – we can only accept his word that he is a clean athlete.

What does count against him in the GOAT debate, though, is his empty palmarès when it comes to different disciplines. Merckx would turn up at six-day track events in the winter, win countless Madison and omnium titles, pick up European and national medals on the boards, and even set an Hour record that stood for 12 years.

Pogačar has expressed no interest in emulating such feats, saying recently that Filippo Ganna’s Hour record distance of 56.792km was insurmountable. “Before [Ganna’s mark] I would have considered it, but now not so much. Ganna was fast, incredible,” he said.

It is legitimate to ask, if Pogačar sweeps all before him only on the road, eschewing the honours that he could surely achieve in other disciplines, can he really be considered the greatest bike rider of all time? Versatility, it can be argued, means taming not only mountains and cobbles, time trials and sprints, but mud and velodrome too. In this regard, Merckx is a clear winner.

The new Cannibal?

The man arguably best placed to answer the GOAT question is Merckx himself. After Pogačar claimed the triple crown with his Worlds win in September, ‘The Cannibal’ said that “it is obvious he is above me. I have no doubts about that.” But days later he told Spanish outlet Relevo that he was referring only to the manner of Pogačar’s rainbow jersey win. Of the wider question, “I don’t believe Pogačar is superior to Eddy Merckx,” he stated, referring to himself in the third person. “He has only won three Tours. He’s not yet better than me. He has a long way to go to be better than Eddy Merckx,” he clarified, smiling.

Equalling and then surpassing Merckx’s five Tour titles would be a prerequisite for inheriting the GOAT title, as would completing the Grand Tour set. Pogačar is pondering taking on the Vuelta a España in 2025, the one three-week race still missing from his palmarès. Additionally, there are still two Monuments he is yet to win: the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix, a race not typically won by riders with his physique but a race he finished second in on debut in 2025; and Milan-San Remo, the marathon March race that he’s quipped will be “the one that’s going to send me to the grave”. His last four finishes at at San Remo read: 5th, 4th, 3rd, 3rd. So close, yet so far.

Dynasties are formed not by oneoffs, but by dominance spread over a career. Look at Merckx’s 11 Grand Tours, and 19 Monuments. So if and when Pogačar ticks off all those outstanding races, the subsequent challenge will be to win them again, multiple times over. He would also need to chase milestones like the Tour de France’s alltime stage win record – which Merckx jointly held with Mark Cavendish until this year. Pogačar has 21, 14 shy of Cavendish’s 35. “He’s still motivated to keep on winning more and more,” says Wellens. Is he the greatest ever? History will be the judge.

Career timeline

• 2018, Second year U23 rider (Age 19)
• Wins Tour de l’Avenir
• 2019 Turns pro with UAE Team Emirates (Age 20)
• Wins February’s Volta ao Algarve, his second pro stage race
• Wins Tour of California
• Wins three stages and fi nishes third at Vuelta a España, his maiden Grand Tour 2020 First yellow jersey (Age 21)
• Wins two stages and GC at Volta a Valenciana
• Wins three stages and the GC at the Tour de France, overturning 57s deficit to Primož Roglič in penultimate day time trial
• 2021 Dominance begins (Age 22)
• Wins UAE Tour and TirrenoAdriatico in the spring
• Wins first Monuments: Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia
• Wins second Tour de France by five minutes, taking another three stages
• 2022 Meeting his TdF match (Age 23)
• Wins UAE, Tirreno and Tour of Slovenia in first half of season
• Wins three stages of the Tour, but finnishes second to Jonas Vingegaard by almost three minutes
• Wins Strade Bianche, GP Montréal and Il Lombardia
• 2023 The one-day racer (Age 24)
• Wins Ruta del Sol and ParisNice, his only short stage races
• Wins Jaén Paraiso, Tour of Flanders, Amstel Gold, Flèche Wallonne, Slovenian nationals, and Il Lombardia
• Wrist injury hampers his Tour build-up, and loses race by 7:29 to Vingegaard, but still wins two stages
• 2024 The greatest ever season? (Age 25)
• Wins six stages, mountains classification and the pink jersey at the Giro d’Italia by almost 10 minutes
• Wins six stages and third yellow jersey at the Tour
• Wins Strade Bianche, LiègeBastogne-Liège, GP Montréal, Giro dell’Emilia, Il Lombardia, and World Championship
• 2025: the dominator (Age 26)
• Wins third UAE Tour.
• Wins Strade Bianche, Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and La Fleche Wallonne.
• But two Monuments desert hm: he finishes seocnd in a memorable Paris-Roubaix debut, and third at Milan-Sanremo.
• Wins Critérium du Dauphiné before cruising to a fourth Tour de France title.

MERCKX'S Biggest Wins

POGAČAR'S BIGGEST WINS

Legendary cyclist Eddy Merckx has broken his hip in a “stupid” cycling accident in Belgium, his wife has said.

The 79-year-old crashed his bike on Monday afternoon, falling in a town on the outskirts of the city of Mechelen. He was assisted at the scene by onlookers, who phoned for an ambulance for the five-time Tour de France champion.

Confirming the news to Belgian publication Het Nieuwsblad, Merckx’s wife Claudine said it was a “stupid accident”.

“There were no other road users involved,” she said. “Eddy just skidded away. Luckily, he wasn’t alone, because Eddy felt a sharp pain. He knew right away what time it was, and that suspicion was also confirmed in the hospital: he broke his hip. Eddy now has to undergo surgery.”

Merckx’s surgery is organised to take place in the hospital in Herentals, where double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel was operated on last week. The 24-year-old was doored by van driver while out training, and fractured his rib, shoulder blade and hand.

Evenepoel also dislocated his collarbone and suffered contusions to his lungs.

Earlier this year, Merckx was admitted to hospital for emergency surgery on an intestinal obstruction. The former pro had experienced stomach pain during the night, and the decision was made to remove a section of his intestine. His recovery, at the time, was said to be “peaceful” by Het Laatste Nieuws.

The 79-year-old Belgian is considered by many to be the greatest cyclist of all time. As well as his five Tour de France titles – the joint most of any rider – he won 34 stages of the French Grand Tour and three road world titles. He also won the Giro d’Italia five times, Paris-Roubaix three times and Milan-San Remo seven times.

Merckx retired in 1978, marking the end of a 13-year career.

In late 2019, then 74 years old, the Belgian suffered a head injury when he fell off his bike on a ride with his friends.

“If you’d seen what I went through, then you’d know that I was very lucky,” he told Sporza at the time. "If it wasn't for the coincidence that a nurse had been passing by, I think it might have been the end for me."

On that occasion, Merckx remained in hospital for five days.

Eddy Merckx broke the Tour de France stage win record on the 23 July 1972. The Belgian, who only made his debut at the French Grand Tour three years earlier, in 1969, amassed 26 stage wins out of just 104 opportunities. The Belgian won a quarter of days he started in his first four Tours to clinch the record from André Leducq, who had held the title of 'winningest' for the previous 40 years. 

Just under 52 years later, Mark Cavendish smashed through Merckx's yellow ceiling on stage five of the 2024 Tour de France. While the Belgian rode just seven Tours to make history, in just eight years, Cavendish has proved that longevity matters just as much. The Manxman is riding his 15th Tour, 16 years after he made his debut. He might not be able to match Merckx's strike rate, but he has outdone the Belgian on just a longer career. That, in itself, is impressive, let alone the winning. 

Cavendish is the Jimmy Anderson, the Ronnie O'Sullivan, of sprinting. To remain at the top of the sport for 16 years is madness. Not only has Erik Zabel, who he beat in the 2008 Tour de France, retired, but his son, Rick, has too. Marcel Kittel, the man who seemed like Cavendish's nemesis for a few years, only won 14 stages, and has been retired since 2019.

Given it has been over half a century since the last time the Tour record was broken, Cavendish might be safe at the top of the pile for now, but we can't rule out the possibility that the stage win record will last forever.

However, there is only one rider in the current peloton who can feasibly beat it: one Tadej Pogačar. 

The UAE Team Emirates rider, the man in the yellow jersey, has won 12 stage wins in five appearance so far; add a few more in over the next couple of weeks, and it could be on.

After the moment of history on Wednesday evening, Cavendish joked with Pogačar behind the podium, telling him "don't beat it", to which the man 14 years his junior replied "no I won't, no worries".

"When I was a kid, I was watching Mark with my friends and my brother," Pogačar said later, in his press conference. "He was just a hero to so many guys. He was winning in such a class with the team together. Now I'm already racing against him for six years. We became quite good friends, I would say. Winning the 35th stage, he's [in] historical company.

"Mark asked me behind the podium 'Please don't break this record' so I will let him have it," he added.

Will he, though? Pogačar won three stages at his first three Tours, two last year, and could feasibly win a few more in 2024. He just won six stages on his way to winning the Giro d'Italia, and is the closest thing cycling has to a modern Merckx.

It will come down to longevity more than anything else. It would take 12 Tours for Pogačar to break Cavendish's record - that's if the Manxman doesn't win any more - and most careers don't last that long at the top. Not in Tour de France stage-winning form, anyway. Merckx's record lasted 52 years, remember.

The Slovenian is different, though. He can win all sorts of different stages, and doesn't seem to ever be sated with winning. Even if he doesn't last as a general classification rider - something we can't really predict - one can imagine him still being there, sprinting to stage wins, punching to victory.

If Pogačar keeps riding well until his mid 30s, and keeps picking up a few Tour stage wins a year, then he is the only rider of the current generation who can deny Cavendish of an eternal place in history. 

Of course, there will be another great rider who comes eventually and sweeps the record away, things don't last forever. For now, Cavendish can sleep comfortably, knowing his place in history is secure, but don't bet against Pogačar. 

Greatness recognises greatness, and there is no respect lost between cycling legends Eddy Merckx and Mark Cavendish. On the evening that Cavendish secured his 35th Tour de France stage win, thereby breaking Merckx’s record for the most Tour de France stages, the 79-year-old Belgian didn’t speak to the media. He did, however, take a minute to congratulate the Manx rider in a brief but warmhearted message on social media.

In an Instagram story, reposted by his son Axel Merckx, the cycling great congratulated the Manx Missile, stating:

“Congratulations to Mark Cavendish on this historic achievement! Such a nice guy to break my record.”

Merckx, widely considered the greatest cyclist of all time, has 34 stage wins to his name, which include more than just sprint stages. The so-called Cannibal won the Tour de France overall classification five times and spent an incredible 96 race days in the coveted yellow jersey.

In 2021, when Cavendish was on the brink of equaling his Tour de France stage win record, Merckx was quoted saying that he wouldn’t be losing any sleep over it.

“There’ll be no problem if Cavendish equals my record. I won’t lose any sleep over it. If he does it, I’ll congratulate him because it’s not easy to win 34 sprints,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

During that 2021 Tour de France, Cavendish, then 36 years of age and racing for Deceuninck Quick-Step, won an impressive four stage wins, including his 34th to equal Merckx.

After his contract expired that year, Cavendish joined the Astana team in 2022 but was not selected for the 2022 Tour de France. He decided to chase Merckx’s record for a final Tour de France in 2023 but crashed hard and was forced to abandon the race after stage 8. 

Delaying retirement yet again, Cavendish and his sponsors pulled out all the stops for one final Tour de France in 2024, actively going for that 35th stage win. Sixteen years after winning his first Tour de France stage, Cavendish did it. At the age of 39, he securing his 35th victory on stage 5 with more opportunities still ahead in this Tour.

Eddy Merckx has said he "wouldn't have had a problem with it if Mark Cavendish had beaten [his] record" for the most stage wins at the Tour de France.

The 2021 Tour was a magical one for Cavendish. Back with Deceuninck - Quick-Step and with the best lead-out man in the world, Michael Mørkøv, he was almost unstoppable in the sprints.

The 'Manx Missile' won four stages on his way to taking the green points jersey for the second time in his career, levelling the stage win record at the race set by Merckx in 1975.

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In an interview with Het Nieuwsblad, Merckx said: "I wouldn't say Mark is the greatest sprinter of all time, but he is one of the greatest. 

"There have been so many top sprinters, who have also won many stages. But he's a really nice guy and I wouldn't have had a problem with it if he had beaten my record. I have a lot of appreciation for Cavendish."

Cavendish took 10 wins in 2021 with four coming at the Tour of Turkey, thus breaking his almost four year draught with him going on to take the four at the Tour as well as a stage of the Tour of Belgium and Sparkassen Münsterland Giro.

The 36-year-old was also recently announced to be staying with Deceuninck - Quick-Step for another year with the team changing its name to Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl.

In the announcement, Cavendish said: "I am incredibly proud and happy to have agreed a new deal with Deceuninck – Quick-Step.

"One year ago, when I came to the team, I did not hide my admiration for what this team does and how happy I was to be back here. I knew from my first time here that this squad has a unique family feeling, and it is a culture that remains to this day.

"The last 12 months have been phenomenal and the support that I have had from the team and the staff has made me very emotional at times. I am really looking forward to making some more special memories together over the next 12 months."

Eddy Merckx has, once again, voiced his criticisms of Remco Evenepoel, this time saying "I admire his character, but he turned pro too early."

Evenepoel turned professional back in 2019 at the age of 18 with Deceuninck - Quick-Step and has already racked up an impressive 21 victories during his three years at WorldTour level

But that hasn't stopped one of the all-time greats from putting the 21-year-old down from time to time, most notably during the Road World Championships where Merckx said Evenepoel "mainly rides for himself" after the youngster had committed to being all-in for Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma).

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"I admire his character- he is a rider of great class and very strong," Merckx said. "The problem is that he turned pro too early and skipped the other categories. As a result, he misses something in his preparation. I hope he can make up for that in the coming years and show that he is a super champion.”

Merckx then heaped praise on Van Aert: "He won Ghent-Wevelgem, Amstel and the stage over Mont Ventoux in the Tour de France. He is super strong for a non-climber, a real champion.”

Evenepoel has had yet another successful season, especially so considering he didn't start his season until early May at the Giro d'Italia as he was recovering from a horror crash at the Italian Monument Classic of Il Lombardia in 2020 where he suffered multiple injuries including a pelvis fracture and a contusion to his right lung.

He had a good start at the Giro but his lack of fitness and experience showed as eventual winner Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) started to stamp his authority with Evenepoel eventually abandoning.

But the Belgian returned to take eight victories during the season with overall wins at both the Tour of Belgium and Tour of Denmark along with one-day races. He also scored a place on the podium at both the European Championships road race and time trial as well as the World Championships time trial.

Evenepoel is set to start his 2022 season at the Vuelta a San Juan, starting January 30, which he won back in 2020, before potentially riding Tirreno-Adriatico, Tour de Suisse and the Vuelta a España with no mention of the Tour de France as of yet. 

Eddy Merckx has said that he believes Tadej Pogačar "can do better than me" as the Slovenian superstar dominates the peloton.

Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) has been called the new Merckx already, much like a number of riders who do consistently well, such as Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck - Quick-Step), but Merckx has had his say.

The Belgian legend was quick to point out that Pogačar has already won two Tours de France at the age of 23, as well as two Monuments. Merckx did not win the Tour until he was 24-years-old.

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Speaking in a piece by Tuttobici, Merckx said: "I have heard many times 'this is the new Merckx' without the conditions being fulfilled, but with Tadej I think we are really there this time - he is 23 and has already won the Tour de France twice, incredible.

"Tadej is only at the beginning of his career, I think he can do better than me in some races. He is 23 years old and has already won the Tour de France twice and 30 races, that is unbelievable. 

"At 24, I had not even won the Tour. He is still at the beginning of his career, but I think he is doing better than me in some races. He is a great champion and we are going to enjoy him for many years to come."

But Pogačar still has a long way to go to get near the incomparable records of Merckx. Five Tours, five Giro d'Italia titles, three World Championships, five Liège-Bastogne-Liège titles, three Paris-Roubaix wins, seven Milan-San Remos, two Il Lombardias, and many more besides in a truly incredible career. 

So far, Pogačar has managed back-to-back Tour wins as well as victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia. He has also won Tirreno-Adriatico, UAE Tour, Tour of California, Volta ao Algarve, three stages of the Vuelta a España, and six stages of the Tour in his impressive list of 30 wins. 

Pogačar ended his season at Il Lombardia saying that he was extremely tired after a long year which started in late February and ended on Saturday, October 9. But he is still keen to win more as he sets his sights on the world title and the Giro in the future.

Remco Evenepoel has shared his disappointment after his "idol" Eddy Merckx spoke out against him being selected for the World Championships road race.

In an interview with Het Nieuwsblad in Belgium, Merckx said that Evenepoel "mainly rides for himself" and would not be good as a team helper for the team leader Wout van Aert, despite Evenepoel saying in an earlier interview that "everyone rides for Wout."

The 21-year-old, who recently managed third place in the World Championships time trial behind eventual winner Filippo Ganna (Italy) and Van Aert in second, spoke of his disappointment in a pre-race press conference.

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In a report by Het Nieuwsblad, Evenepoel said: "[Merckx] always has to say something. And that's a shame. For me he is an idol, someone from the same area that I look up to. My respect and appreciation for him is enormous, apparently is not mutual."

This isn't the first time Merckx has written about Evenepoel is a less than positive light as he previously said that Evenepoel thinks "he's already made it."

Evenepoel continued: "Every time I get criticism from him. And it's always before important moments. And that hurts. Maybe it's because I didn't join his son's team [Hagens Berman Axeon]. I don't start here to screw the team, that doesn't even cross my mind."

Evenepoel lines up alongside Van Aert as well as a very strong support squad that could potentially win the race outright themselves. 

With Jasper Stuyven, Yves Lampaert, Tiesj Benoot and Dylan Teuns being the stand-out names alongside Tim Declercq and Victor Campenaerts who are likely the early control riders.

Van Aert spoke in the same press conference about his chances and the rest of the team, adding that he believes Stuyven is the best chance for the squad if he has a bad day.

Speaking about Evenepoel, the Olympic silver medallist said: "The whole peloton is scared of Remco, he is a great weapon. If we send him forward, the rest will have to be on the defensive. 

"But to win he has to gain time alone so it's hard to win the race. We have to be sensible and always race to get me in a winning position. So he's not really a joker."

The men's elite road race takes place on Sunday, September 26 starting in the centre of Antwerp before heading over to the finish town of Leuven where they take on two circuits, one around the town and one around the tough hilly countryside on a 268.3km course.

Eddy Merckx has said that he doesn't believe Remco Evenepoel should not be riding the road race at the World Championships if Wout van Aert is the sole team leader, as he "mainly rides for himself."

The Belgian legend has been critical of the home team selection for the men's road race, after it was made clear Van Aert would be the stand alone leader for the team on the roads of Flanders.

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When asked if a sole leader is the right approach for the team, Merckx told Het Nieuwsblad: "At the moment yes, but that is certainly not always the case. If two riders stand out in advance, you can hardly leave the second one at home,

"If there really is only one leader, you shouldn't take Evenepoel with you. He mainly drives for himself, we saw that at the Olympics.

"In Tokyo I didn't think the selection was well made. Too many men were not in shape: Greg Van Avermaet had a hard time in the Tour de France, Mauri Vansevenant is good but still so young,... Van Aert was too much alone in
the final."

Merckx spoke about other nations as well as Belgium who have a great chance to maybe beat Van Aert.

"It makes sense that he (Van Aert) is the leader. And Jasper Stuyven also seems to be very strong. But the Belgians are not alone, are they? There will be many candidates on this course: Caleb Ewan, Julian Alaphilippe, Tom Pidcock, they all count. And start chasing everything as a Belgian team."

Merckx referenced how Van Aert being watched at the Olympics was like himself in the 1968 and 1972 World Championships in Imola and Gap, where he was marked out by team-mates in the break and the Italians in the bunch, seeing him miss out on the medals.

The men's elite road race starts in the city of Antwerp before making its way over to the finish town of Leuven to take on two circuits, one in the town and another named the 'Flandrien circuit' making the route 268.3km. 

Eddy Merckx has the best record of any male pro road racer ever. You name it and Merckx won it. Except Paris-Tours, which gave another 70s pro a lovely one-liner.

He was Noel Van Tyghem, a Belgian like Merckx, and in 1972 Van Tyghem won Paris-Tours, a real classic in its day, but he didn’t win much else in his career.

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Noel is no longer with us, sadly, but he would say to anyone who would listen; “Eddy Merckx and I dominated the 1970s, I won Paris-Tours and Eddy won everything else.”

Anyway, how did Eddy Merckx train? Well, hard about describes it. He rode for miles, often with his whole team.

Sometimes he was out all day, arguing that big races last up to seven hours, so nine hour rides are good for the body and good for the mind.

Merckx did lots of motor-paced training to put zip in his legs, and he rode six-day races on in the winter to keep his speed up and his weight down.

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He took virtually no rest, as you can see from this page in his training diary, which lists what he did in the week before his first Tour de France in 1969.

Sunday: Raced in the Belgian National Championships, 264 kilometres.

Monday: Did two races, a 110-kilometre criterium and an evening track meeting.

Tuesday: Raced in a kermesse, but retired after 35 kilometres because he’d been prevented from starting with the rest of the riders by people demanding his autograph.

Wednesday: Training with his team, 180 kilometres.

Thursday: Training on his own 270 kilometres!

Friday: Behind a Derny for 50 kilometres (this session was scheduled to be longer, but torrential rain made it too dangerous)

Saturday: Morning, 40 kilometres fast. Afternoon, 40 kilometres easy. Evening, the prologue of the Tour de France.

Merckx won six stages in that Tour, seven if you count the team time trial. He took the yellow jersey by almost 18 minutes, he won the green jersey, the King of the Mountains, the combined classification and the combativity award.

So hard work does pay, especially if your name is Eddy Merckx.

Belgian cycling great Eddy Merckx has made his first public appearance since he fell off his bike in October but admits he is still not back to full fitness.

The 74-year-old was out on a Sunday ride with friends when he crashed, suffering a haemorrhage and briefly losing consciousness.

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After a week in hospital Merckx was allowed to return home and six weeks later was well enough to make his first public appearance since the ordeal.

The appearance in question was at the Crystal Bicycle, an award given out by Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws to their nation's rider of the year.

Remco Evenepoel took home the honours after a breakthrough season that included a fantastic solo ride to win the Clásica San Sebastián, while Patrick Lefevere won best manager for the third year in a row and Tim Declerq took best domestique, making it three wins for Deceuninck - Quick-Step. Sanne Cant won best female rider.

Although Merckx was allowed to hand out the awards he was only permitted to be out for half an hour by his doctors, "my health no longer allows more," Merckx said, as he continues to recover from the mystery ailment after the fall.

"The doctors don't know what exactly happened. My heart has been checked, that was fine," the Belgian told Het Nieuwsblad, before adding that walking is still a struggle but that he still hopes to get back on the bike one day.

"Walking is still difficult at the moment, because I have been standing still for a long time after the accident. It is not yet optimal. Slowly I should be able to ride the bike again. That should improve."

Things could have been a lot worse for Merckx, though, who explains that he still can't understand how he crashed, and that he was very fortunate a nurse was in the area at the time, who helped him regain consciousness.

"I stopped and wanted to click my foot out of my pedal. I don't know anything after that. Fortunately there was a nurse in the area , that was my great luck. She brought me back to consciousness."

Eddy Merckx has left hospital after suffering a head injury following a bike crash during a Sunday ride with friends.

The Belgian returned home on Saturday, a week after the crash, having suffered a haemorrhage and also briefly losing consciousness.

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The cycling great was first attended to by a passer-by before being taking to the intensive care unit at a hospital in the Flemish city of Dendermonde.

Merckx was kept in hospital while doctors investigated if an unknown condition had caused the fall as well as the extent of the damage he had done himself. The pacemaker he has fitted a further cause for caution, but following the culmination of tests he was allowed to go home.

"Eddy is doing well, but he got a scare," Merckx's friend Paul Van Himst told Het Laatste Nieuws. "He felt something and slipped out of his pedals for an unknown reason. When Eddy rides a bike, he no longer reflects on how much his body has lost - he always rides with a whole group that easily cycles 70km.

"But when I say that he will break himself, he does not want to hear that. That is his character: don't give up. Fortunately he was wearing his helmet. You have to be lucky at such moments."

While Merckx returns home, his former rival Roger De Vlaeminck remains in hospital, having been placed in intensive care with a fever last week. He will stay in hospital for another week for further examinations, but the Belgian is said to be "doing good now" after suffering from cold shivers the evening before taking himself to hospital.

As well as Merckx and De Vlaeminck, Raymond Poulidor was also recently admitted to hospital, with his condition said to be "improving significantly" after his family had initially been "very worried" about his condition.

Eddy Merckx suffered a haemorrhage during his bike fall and will remain in hospital for the next few days as doctors conduct further tests, it has emerged.

It is not yet known whether the 74-year-old's fall was caused by another ailment, but ultimately Merckx hit his head and suffered a heamorrhage before he was immediately transferred to the intensive care unit at Dendermonde hospital in the Flemish region of Belgium.

>>> Roger De Vlaeminck in intensive care with fever

Merckx had been enjoying his ritual Sunday bike ride with friends and former team-mates who remain local to Meise, where the cycling legend lives, according to Belgian news site Sudpresse.

After being placed in intensive care, Merckx was later transferred to another unit so that doctors could conduct a series of tests on the Belgian, who was fitted with a pacemaker six years ago.

A friend of Merckx, who had been in contact with Merckx's wife, told Belgian broadcaster Sporza: "I had contact with his wife last night. According to her it’s all-in-all good."

Merckx is one of three cycling legends who have found themselves admitted to hospital recently, with Raymond Poulidor also hospitalised last week, his family initially “very worried” before his condition “improved significantly on Friday following treatment.

Then, Roger De Vlaeminck was placed in intensive care on Saturday morning with a fever. The 72-year-old will remain in hospital while doctors monitor him and oversee further medical checks. The Belgian is said to be “doing well now” however, after taking himself to hospital after feeling ill the previous evening.

>>> Raymond Poulidor’s condition has ‘improved significantly’

Merckx is considered the most successful rider in history, having won a record five Tour de France titles and 34 individual stages, as well as winning all five Monuments multiple times. Roger De Vlaeminck also won all five Monuments, including Paris-Roubaix five times, having competed at the same time as Merckx.

Raymond Poulidor, meanwhile, is famous for finishing second three times in the Tour de France, including behind Eddy Merckx in 1974. With the eight podium places in the Tour but no wins, Poulidor was known as ‘The Eternal Second’, his biggest victory during his career being the overall classification at the Vuelta a España in 1964.

Eddy Merckx is in hospital with a head injury after falling off his bike during a ride with friends.

The 74-year-old was rushed to hospital in the Flemish city of Dendermonde, Belgium, as a precaution, with further examinations of his condition set to take place today.

>>> Raymond Poulidor’s condition has ‘improved significantly’ following hospitalisation

The cycling great was kept in overnight because of the pacemaker Merckx had fitted six years. He will now be transferred to a normal hospital room today, with a friend who had contact with his wife telling Belgian broadcaster Sporza: "I had contact with his wife last night. According to her it's all-in-all good."

Another legend of the sport, Raymond Poulidor, was hospitalised last week, with his family initially "very worried" before his condition "improved significantly on Friday following treatment.

Eddy Merckx is deemed by many to be the most successful rider in history, having won a record five Tour de France titles and 34 individual stages, five Giro d'Italia victories and 24 indvidual stages, while also winning all five Monuments multiple times.

The Grand Départ of the 2019 Tour de France was held in Brussels to honour the 50th anniversary of Merckx's first Tour de France victory.

Updates to follow...

When Italian coffee machine manufacturer Faema recruited Eddy Merckx in 1968, part of the deal was to provide the cash not only to pay Merckx but to let him build the best team he could. That agreement was preserved when Molteni took over sponsoring Merckx’s team in 1971.

Merckx and his personal manager Jean Van Buggenhout enlisted the best talent possible, but with one proviso — anyone joining the team wasn’t just riding for anybody, but Eddy Merckx.

The pay was good, but you could forget personal glory. The deal appealed to some, but not everybody he approached, thankfully.

Once the team was assembled there was a pretty tough regime implemented. Training started with a bang on January 1 each year, and riders were expected to stay fit through to the end of the previous year. They had to cope with what Merckx had in store for them.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday the team met at his house just outside Brussels for a ride. Most of the team were Belgians, so they were expected to turn up. And the ride plan was simple and unwavering.

For almost the whole of January, the team rode 200 kilometres together. They rode side by side, swapping riders at the front. And they rode whatever the weather threw at them. Rain, hail or sleet, it didn’t matter.

They rode from Brussels to the East Flanders hills, the Flemish Ardennes, did a big loop of the Tour of Flanders climbs, then rode back to Brussels again.

“I used to see them,” said former British rider Barry Hoban. “I’d be out training, but the Flemish Ardennes are a lot nearer to where I lived in Ghent than they are to Brussels. I’d be on my way home and I’d shout, ‘Enjoy your 200 kilometres, lads,’ taking the mickey a bit, but the training worked.

“Merckx always had riders around him towards the end of a Classic. He always had team-mates who could set the pace and close gaps, setting things up ready for him to attack.”

The training group would have a team car following them, with bike spares, extra clothing, food and drinks because there were never any stops.

The car didn’t pick up stragglers though. Anybody who dropped behind had to make their own way back, then explain to the boss why they were late. And if it rained or if sleet fell, Merckx would just tell the group it would probably do the same in the Tour of Flanders, so they’d better get used to it.

Once back at Merckx’s place the riders showered and ate — usually the universal pro recovery food of Seventies Belgians, hot minestrone soup — then the group dispersed. And in the days they were at home, they were expected to do their own training.

It was a tough regime but when the season started in February, Merckx and his men were always ready. He was never less than competitive in his favourite first races; the Trofeo Laigueglia, Monaco GP and the Tour of Sardinia, often winning them.

Then Merckx would roar into the Classics. Winning Milan-San Remo seven times was no accident — it was based on those Monday, Wednesday and Friday sessions.

Illustration by Simon Scarsbrook

Belgian cycling legend Eddy Merckx will not faces charges over allegations he was involved in bribing police.

The accusations related to the purchasing of 46 bikes for the cycling unit of the Brussels-Midi police force, with Merckx allegedly using false documents and rewarding a police officer.

The 73-year-old was one of 13 people accused in the case but he will not face legal action, according to the The Brussels Times.

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Merckx will not be charged because the time limit on prosecution has now passed.

Spokesperson for the Brussels prosecutor’s office, Ine Van Wymersch, said: “[The delay] is due to various factors.

“We regret this, because it sends out a wrong signal.

“This was a very extensive dossier, and we are only able to work with the resources we are given.”

Merckx faced being charged over alleged irregular procedures in 2006 and 2007 in relation to his previous duties at Cycles EddyMerckx.

The allegations were that a police officer gave Merckx inside information around rival bidders to help him win the €15,000 (£13,000) contract.

Merckx was suspected of rewarding the police officer with a cut price deal on a high-end carbon bike and giving a bike to the officer’s wife.

The officer denied the allegations and Merckx previously said he had “nothing to say” and “we’ll see what happens.”

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A judicial enquiry was started in 2007 and was completed in 2016.

Information was passed to the public prosecutor in Brussels, but a court ruled this week that the time limit for prosecution has now passed.

Eddy Merckx founded Cycles EddyMerckx two years after his retirement from his highly successful 18-year career. He stepped down for his role as chief executive of the company in 2008.

None of the people accused will be prosecuted, including the officer in question or other officers involved.

From next year, AG2R La Mondiale and their star rider Romain Bardet will be riding Eddy Merckx bikes. The agreement to ride Eddy Merckx machines will be for the next two seasons, with the option of a two year extension.

For the last few seasons, AG2R has been riding Factor machines. But Factor announced earlier this year that that relationship was ceasing.

According to Jochim Aerts, CEO of Belgian Cycling Factory: “It’s really marvelous news for our bike brand. Timing couldn’t be better either. Next year, the Tour de France will start in Brussels, with Eddy Merckx himself as the main guest. It will be 50 years ago Eddy has won his first Tour de France. Perhaps Romain Bardet can do the same, riding an Eddy Merckx. It’s a dream coming true.”

Merckx himself says: “I’m proud to have a WorldTour team riding Eddy Merckx bikes at the Tour de France next year as a tribute to the 50th anniversary of my first Tour victory.”

Eddy Merckx bikes was merged into Ridley Cycles last year. So with its existing commitment to the Lotto-Soudal team, who ride Ridley bikes, the Belgian Cycling Factory brands will be making the not inconsiderable commitment to support two WorldTour teams next year.

AG2R La Mondiale will be riding Eddy Merckx’s new flagship model, the 525, with retail availability planned for the start of the Tour de France.

According to Belgian Cycling Factory, a size medium 525 weighs 6.8kg without pedals. Wind tunnel tests in the company's own facility show that it’s very aero too, while improving frontal stiffness over the previous model.

Components on the 525 used by AG2R La Mondiale will come from a number of brands: wheels from Mavic, tyres from Vredestein, Super Record shifters from Campagnolo, 2inPower chainset and power meter from Rotor, chain from KMC, Alanera bar-stem from Deda and pedals from Look. Lezyne will supply its cycling computers, while Lizard Skins is responsible for bar tape and bottles and cages will come from Elite.

Cycling insiders say that Philippe Gilbert's Tour of Flanders victory on Sunday in Oudenaarde, coming after a solo 55.5km ride, ranks with the best of all time.

Distance and substance created a lasting mix in the race, which celebrated 101 editions in 2017.

>>> Five things we learned from the Tour of Flanders

Gilbert emerged from a group that splintered under team-mate Tom Boonen's power on the re-introduced Muur climb at 95km remaining. Gilbert, with the red, yellow and black Belgian champion's jersey, then "accidentally" rode free on the Oude Kwaremont.

"Best Flanders win? I think so, you have to almost back to the time of Eddy Merckx. Gilbert went from the favourites’ group and just hammered everyone," Trek-Segafredo sports director, Dirk Demol said.

"He went from far, he's never afraid to go. That's how he races when he's good. He has a strong team with five or six riders to win, so he knows he has to go first. If a team-mate went first, then he'd have to wait.”

Gilbert gave Wallonia it’s first Flanders win in 30 years, since Claude Criquielion in 1987.

"He's from Wallonia, yes, but they like him a lot here in Flanders," added Demol. "The Flemish love riders who have the balls to go from very far."

Cycling great Eddy Merckx rode solo to his first victory in 1969. That win stands out as one of the longest solo rides in recent memory, 73km. For his second and last Flanders win, he rode away at 104km to go, but with another rider for company.

"The greatest? I'm not going to say that, but one of the biggest victories, yes," Quick-Step sports director Wilfried Peeters said of his rider. "After a breakaway of more than 50km, not too many riders can do that. Not too many have made [such a] victory."

Italian Fiorenzo Magni is one of six who hold a record three Tour of Flanders titles. That list also includes Tom Boonen, who rode his last Flanders this year. To win his third Flanders, Magni attacked with 73km remaining.

"Gilbert's courage paid off," said Fabio Baldato, director with BMC Racing, which had Greg Van Avermaet racing to second after a crash with Peter Sagan (Bora).

"We expected Quick-Step to go early, but I didn't really think it from Gilbert because he was the strongest of them.

"This race remains a nightmare, placing second twice as a rider and again twice second as a director. When I placed second the first time, I'd gone from 60km and only Johan Museeuw pulled me back in the end.

"It's no guarantee that if you have courage it pays off, you need numbers in the team to make it work."

"I was a team-mate with Moreno Argentin, he went with Rudy Dhaenens from far off, 60km. You don't see these wins often. Hats off to Gilbert. He pulled quiet a show."

Lorenzo Lapage stood behind his team bus after the race. He directs team Orica-Scott, which had their star Jens Keukeleire call off Flanders after falling sick on the eve of the race.

"All the guys who win Flanders are great riders, but the way Gilbert did it..." Lapage said. "He had a really strong team around him, but you have to do it on your own. 55km solo. Only great champions can do that."

"It has to be said, this is Merckxian" said Belgian cyclocross star Sven Nys. "How many times we have seen this in recent years in the Tour of Flanders?"

"Chapeau Monsieur Philippe, what a number," added the great himself, Eddy Merckx. "If you put in such an effort and win, then you prove you're a true sportsman."

Merckx said regarding Peter Sagan's crash with Greg Van Avermaet and Oliver Naesen, "It's simple: one dead, the other is his bread. Philippe is the deserved winner. In cycling you should not count, but you should go for it. Gilbert prefers to fight, and isn't that the beauty of this sport?"

Eddy Merckx Cycles has doubled its sales in the past two years - but has reported a multi-million euro loss for 2016.

The bike company, which the legendary cyclist handed control over to Diepensteyn NV in 2014, sold close to €9m of bikes last year, continuing the trend set in 2015 of increasing the number of bikes it sells. However, it expected to sell even more.

Overall interest in the road race market diminished, affecting the company harder than they anticipated. They thus generated a loss of €5.7m.

>>> Eddy Merckx: the man behind the legend

Eddy Merckx Cycles is now running a deficit of more than €17m euros, which is largely due to the sponsorship of the Quick-Step Floors team that ceased in 2012.

Diepensteyn committed more than €27.7m last August, up from €14m, to strengthen the company's finances.

"The market for road race bikes dropped by 25 percent last year and a specialist in this category we were hit unexpectedly hard," Bart Van Muylder, chairman of the brand and CEO of Diepensteyn NV, said according to Bike-eu.com.

"We were not able to compensate our decline in turnover in other bike categories as we are 100 percent dedicated to the road race market.

"Our turnover was stable, although we anticipated on a growth in sales. Still, we are proud we have doubled our sales over the past two years and still believe in the future of Eddy Merckx Cycles."

Cycling great Eddy Merckx says that cyclists at the UCI road World Championships this week in the hot Persian Gulf state of Qatar are not facing "impossible conditions."

Yesterday, women and men raced the team time trial to open the worlds. The women teams, off first, rode in 37-degree heat. Rabo-Liv’s Roxane Knetemann said that it was like "riding in a sauna" and said that organiser and governing body, the UCI, "did not think this through."

Merckx, who ruled cycling in the 1960s and 1970s before it ever went to the Middle East, said that it is much ado about nothing.

"Well, in California they raced in 40-plus degrees and I think that was also the case at the Vuelta a España," the Belgian told La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper.

"Here it's less than 40 degrees. The temperature is slightly lowering from now through Sunday and Qatar is a peninsula, so there's always wind. No, we are not talking about impossible conditions."

Merckx knows the peninsula well. Since 2002, he and Dirk De Pauw organised the successful Tour of Qatar.

Extreme weather, however, has been a hot topic over the last three years with snow affecting races from Ghent-Wevelgem to the Giro d'Italia, and extreme heat playing its role in the Tour of Oman, a race Merckx helped organize since 2010. This year, with a new UCI protocol in place, organisers cut stages in Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice.

So concerned about the heat, the UCI already issued a Qatar protocol that appointed a team to examine the conditions daily. It said that if the heat was too much in the sandy barren plains then it would cut 150-kilometre out and back section from the men's road race. It would be reduced to the seven 15.2-kilometre finishing circuits, or 106.4 kilometres for the world title race.

"There won't be the need for it," said Merckx, who won the worlds in 1967, 1971 and 1974. "The course will stay the same."

Reducing the race from 257.5 to 106.4 kilometres would make it the shortest worlds in UCI's history, since it first started hosting the worlds in 1927 when Alfredo Binda won.

Chris Froome has been making strides up the yellow jersey leaderboard in the 2016 Tour de France, but he now finds himself facing a huge challenge to breach the top four.

As of the end of stage 17 of the 2016 Tour, Chris Froome had worn the yellow jersey for a total of 40 days in his career, overtaking the likes of Antonin Magne, Nicolas Frantz and Philippe Thys in the leaderboard this year.

It won't be a walk in the park for Froome to move further up the board, though. Should he win the Tour for the third time in Paris this year he would take his tally to 44 days, still six shy of Jacques Anquetil, who won the Tour five times between 1957 and 1964.

It's an even bigger step up to overhaul Miguel Indurain, who also won five times but wore yellow for a total of 60 days. Should Froome dominate next year's race from the first week he could just about draw level with Big Mig's achievement.

But then the gap between Indurain and Bernard Hinault in second place is 15 days - pretty much another Tour win away. And the gap between Hinault and Eddy Merckx in first place is surely insurmountable, with the legendary Belgian spending 96 days in yellow over the course of six Tours - five of which he won.

Even Lance Armstrong, who won seven times before his titles were stripped, 'only' wore the yellow jersey for 83 days, showing just how dominant Merckx was in his career.

Fabian Cancellara holds the record for spending the most days in yellow - 29 - without ever winning the Tour de France, having led the race in six different years.

The fewest number of days in yellow by Tour winners stands at two, accomplished by Jean Robic, Jan Janssen and Charly Gaul.

Most days in the yellow jersey

96 - Eddy Merckx (1969-72, 1974-75)

75 - Bernard Hinault (1978-82, 1984-86)

60 - Miguel Indurain (1991-95)

50 - Jacques Anquetil (1957, 1961-64)

40 - Chris Froome (2013, 2015, 2016 to stage 17)

Mark Cavendish matched Bernard Hinault's Tour de France stage tally of 28 with his stage three victory in Angers, and is second only to cycling great Eddy Merckx with 34 – something he says he never could have imagined.

Dimension Data's sprinter won stage one and put on the yellow jersey for the first time Saturday and on Monday won his second stage in the 2016 race to match Hinault's career haul of 28. He began taking victories in 2008, going home with as many as six in 2009.

"To be honest, when I started my career to think that at any point [I would] be ever mentioned in the same sentence with the great Eddy Merckx or Bernard Hinault was something more than I ever could have dreamed of," Cavendish said.

"There is no way that I can sit here and compare myself in anyway to these two greats. Without looking at their names, I can look at their numbers: 28 is 28.

"If I'd only won one stage of the Tour de France, it'd make my career. I say this every time. If I win 50, I win 50, but if this is my last ever win, then so be it. I've come to this bike race, I made my career around this bike race.

"Ultimately, I want to be successful in this bike race regardless of all the other great cyclists who've come here and done stuff."

Highlights of stage three of the Tour de France

Merckx and Hinault each won the Tour overall five times. Hinault was the last Frenchman to win the Tour in 1985.

Cavendish, the small, powerful 31-year-old from the Isle of Man, will never win the Tour, but he has done certainly made his mark on the race. He has pulled in stage victories in all three grand tours, won the points jersey in all three, and as of Saturday at Utah Beach, wore the leader's jersey in all three.

Outside the three-week tours, he has won Milan-San Remo, the World Championship road race, Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne twice and Scheldeprijs three times. Perhaps the only thing missing for Cavendish is a victory in Ghent-Wevelgem and an Olympic gold medal. This August, he will lead Great Britain in the Omnium and try to add a gold medal to his palmarès.

Dimension Data said that this winter they will sit down with Cavendish to plan out the next targets for 2017 and 2018, his next two contracted years with the South African team.

In the meantime, Cavendish could top Hinault's mark and approach Merckx's.

"If I'm not just going to stop here," he said. "I'm going to try my best to get more."

Sports fans always like to fire up the old debate over who is the greatest in a sport’s history. Is Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo, or Bobby Moore the greatest ever footballer? In tennis is it Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, John McEnroe or Steffi Graf?

When it comes to cycling the debate never gets very far. We know the answer. Eddy Merckx is the greatest cyclist of all time.

During his career from 1965 to 1978, the Belgian won 525 races. He is still the joint record holder for the number of Tour de France overall victories (five). He has undisputedly won the most Tour de France stages (34), the most Grand Tours (11) and the most Grand Tour stages (64).

He has won the most Monuments (19) including seven victories at Milan-San Remo. He broke the Hour Record. He was the first rider to achieve the Triple Crown of Cycling — victory in the Tour, Giro d'Italia and World Championships in one season — and only one other rider, Stephen Roche, has done so since.

In 1971 Merckx won 45 per cent of the races he started. Come up against Merckx during that season and your chances of victory as a rival rider were as good as halved before you’d even begun.

There is just so much. There’s a bronze and stone monument dedicated to Merckx at the top of

the Côte de Stockeu, a steep climb used in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which lists his achievements. It simply ends with the word ‘etc’. There isn’t even space to mention the fact that he won Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Nice three times each.

But reducing Eddy Merckx to mere statistics is missing the wood for the trees, like talking about Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ as a collection of coloured pixels or one of Mozart’s symphonies as a big bunch of notes.

In his native Belgium, Eddy Merckx is a combination of David Beckham, Paul McCartney and Winston Churchill. Eddy Merckx is a sporting god, a style icon, and a national hero.

In a 2005 TV poll he was voted the third greatest Belgian of all time (and Merckx is the only person in the top 10 who is still alive). In 2003 a station on the Brussels underground was named after him and his Hour Record bike was encased in glass within it.

Did you know?

Eddy Merckx once raced at Eastway

It was June 11, 1977, the Glenryk Cup, and Merckx turned up with the likes of Raymond Poulidor and Luis Ocaña. Sid Barras won the sprint.

Eddy Merckx never won Paris-Tours

The end-of-season Classic was the one race to evade him. His best place was sixth in 1973.

Eddy Merckx could have been even better

Merckx remarked that he was never the same again after a serious crash on the track in September 1969, which killed his derny pacer Fernand Wambst. The injuries led to him continually adjust his bike for the rest of his career.

Meeting the master

We’re in Belgium to interview Merckx at the Eddy Merckx Cycles factory on an industrial estate off the Brussels ring road.

Just being here helps you understand how big a name he is. He has been interviewed so many times that, if you’re not careful, he answers your question with a stock answer that he’s given dozens of times before without even realising it.

>>> Brussels exhibition celebrates the life and career of Eddy Merckx (video)

In a country where cycling amounts to a national sport, Merckx is public property. Everybody here knows the story of the grocer’s son from the Brussels suburbs whose first victory came at the age of 16 and who turned pro five years later. Everybody recognises that trademark smirk, those long cheeks and those dark eyebrows. And everybody wants a piece of him.

“I don’t go to bike races that much anymore,” Merckx tells Cycling Weekly. “I’m just fed up of having my picture taken and signing autographs. That’s not my thing any more.”

The reality is that the Eddy Merckx of 2016 is not the Eddy Merckx of the 1970s. He’s now 71 years old. Eddy Merckx is an old man. Wrinkles and creases now frame his famous features. Not that it matters to Belgians. Or to Merckx.

“It’s a catastrophe!” he jokes as his recognisable smile creeps across his chin. In fact, quite often over the course of our interview Merckx makes a deep rumbling noise when he doesn’t quite agree with a line of questioning: a roar that says, ‘Now hang on just a minute.’ We ask him whether he feels his age.

“Bwaar,” he bellows, “70 is 70. I like to say that when you start with 100cm and you cut off 70cm, you’ve still got plenty left, eh? What’s important is good health, and making the most of it.”

Maybe he doesn’t like to be reminded of it, but Merckx has aged. In 2014 he was out cycling when a car drove into his back wheel, hospitalising him with a broken shoulder, a damaged knee and torn hip ligaments. Earlier that year he underwent a heart operation to treat his cardiac arrhythmia, a little over 12 months after being fitted with a pacemaker. He’s been told he shouldn’t take his heart rate above 145bpm.

Yet Eddy Merckx is a happy, down to earth man. He’s never been one to embrace celebrity or the high life, but these days he likes to keep out of the public eye more than ever.

“I don’t have too much on these days,” he says. “I go cycling, I organise the tours of Oman and Qatar, I go to the football, I go to watch the hockey, I watch TV.”

>>> How Eddy Merckx put the Middle East on the cycling map

We get the feeling that these days Merckx just wants to be normal. In an attempt to get him talking, we ask him about his reported interest in surrealist art.

“Yeah, but no,” he says. “I had a Dali drawing once but I don’t know all about it that much.”

Being Eddy Merckx, the greatest living Belgian and the best bike racer of all time, is quite enough for one man’s plate without having to be a surrealist art connoisseur as well.

He says he likes to stay at home of an evening and watch TV quiz shows with his wife of 48 years, Claudine. But as he says it, he looks at us with the slightest bit of mischief, as if he knows that the Eddy Merckx everybody knows shouldn’t be slumping on the sofa in front of the box.

He should be out there gobbling up life with the same appetite with which he gobbled up races. But don’t mention the R word. Eddy Merckx is emphatically not retired.

“No, no, no,” he says. “I keep myself busy. I don’t want to spend the whole day on the sofa."

Getting on

Being here, it’s very difficult to reconcile this chatty old man with the Eddy Merckx of countless biographies and photography collections and the Eddy Merckx who sits in the background of cycling as a yardstick for achievement even today.

To a certain extent, this old Merckx has had enough of that old Merckx. He’s still got the slim, cyclist’s legs — 13 years as a professional leave their mark — but he admits that he doesn’t have any photos, jerseys or memorabilia from his riding career around his house.

All he has on display is one gold medal from the 1967 World Championships and a photograph of his son, former pro rider Axel, with his bronze medal from the 2000 Olympics — the one achievement that eluded Merckx Senior.

>>> Icons of cycling: The Rainbow Jersey

Much of the rest has gone into boxes in the loft or been given away to sponsors. Merckx’s generosity, particularly when it came to old jerseys and bikes, is a common theme when talking to those around him.

He was also burgled in the 1970s and lost much of his valuable memorabilia in the raid. We later learn that Merckx is in the process of buying back some of the old bikes he lost, though he doesn’t like to wallow in the past.

“I’m not too nostalgic,” he says. “I remember what it was like to be 15 and wanting to become a pro cyclist. It was a really nice time in my life. But it’s gone.”

There is one reminder he’s very happy to have around: his grandson, Luca. Eddy Merckx is a doting, generous grandfather who loves to spend time with his grandchildren, which he explains has helped to make up for the time lost with his own children while he was busy riding his bike.

And Luca, who is in the middle of a marketing internship at Eddy Merckx Cycles and sits in on our interview to help translate the odd word from French, is an uncanny visual reminder of his grandfather’s heyday.

>>> Top seven father and son combinations in cycling

He looks like the boy at school who was annoyingly good at everything: the straight-A student who was funny, made the first team, and got the girls.

You can feel a sense of what it must have been like to line up on the start against Eddy. As was often said at the time, it must have felt like he’d beaten you before you’d even begun.

Luca is an echo of Merckx, two generations down the line, except that Luca plays hockey. Unsurprisingly, we’re told he’s very good.

Merckx, Froome and the French souvenir

Despite Merckx’s staggeringly prolific career, the public didn’t always warm to him for it. There are interesting parallels with events 40 years later, when Chris Froome and Team Sky were on the receiving end of physical and verbal abuse during the 2015 Tour just as Merckx was in 1975.

The man himself has come to terms with the response, even if deep down he still can’t understand it.

>>> Merckx: Froome will win the Tour again as he has no real rivals

“It’s the… it’s a French souvenir!” Merckx laughs. “There are idiots everywhere, but the majority understand sport.

“I can imagine what he [Froome] was feeling. You don’t forget it, but at the same time, the important thing is who wins.”

Will to win

Considering Merckx’s reputation as a rider, is it not slightly ironic that he has let so much of his memorabilia disappear?

To us, Eddy Merckx was a man who was relentless in his quest for victory; a rider nicknamed ‘the Cannibal’ by the daughter of one of his team-mates because he devoured everything and everyone around him. You don’t get a name like that for being generous.

“I’ve had it since birth,” he explains. “When I was little I played football and I wanted to win. I played basketball and I wanted to win. I played cards… and I wanted to win.

“I don’t know how to lose,” he adds. “It’s not that I fear losing, I’m just a bad loser.”

It often came across as aloofness or insouciance but the hallmark of Merckx’s dominant riding style was actually a product of anxiety as much as it was greed.

Even when commanding an enormous advantage over his rivals Merckx often worried that it wouldn’t be enough.

There was the 1969 Tour of Flanders where he attacked brazenly with almost 45 miles to go, leading his manager Guillaume Driessens to drive up alongside him in his Peugeot 404

team car in a mad panic and shout at him to stop. He didn’t, and he won.

The report in this magazine at the time called it “another shattering victory which had reduced all but a handful of his contemporaries to the level of tourists.

“The extraordinary Merckx was so strong,” it added, “that he was able to ride the last 70km on his own, in glacial rain and against the wind.”

How they used to train: Eddy Merckx's chain gang

He might have been the greatest male road racer ever, but Eddy Merckx also built one of the best teams

Eddy Merckx in 10 questions

To mark the great man's birthday earlier week, we want to see how well you know The Cannibal in this

It was a style of racing that came to be dubbed la course en tête — a triple-entendre that can be translated as ‘racing from the front,’ ‘racing above all else’ and ‘racing stuck on your mind’.

The most clear example of this is his most famous day on a bike, the 17th stage of the 1969 Tour de France. With over eight minutes’ overall advantage over his nearest rival, Merckx attacked alone down the Col du Tourmalet, soloed the Col d’Aubisque and won by almost eight minutes at the finish in Mourenx. Once again it delighted the Cycling headline writers.

“All the way, every way, it’s Merckx,” they said.

“Master in every sphere… Eddy Merckx, the complete champion, has the Tour de France in his pocket,” the report added, re-emphasising that Merckx “made his rivals look simply ridiculous”.

It was tantamount to pulling his rivals’ trousers down around their legs, although it was probably not always Merckx’s intention to embarrass them in such a way.

>>> Icons of cycling: Plum bike shop, Ghent

Eddy Merckx is his father’s son. Today he suggests that his attitude and work ethic were inherited from his dad, a grocer and shopkeeper in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre on the edge of Brussels.

“The important thing is to remain yourself, and never to believe that you’ve made it, you always have to work,” he says. “I believe that the most important thing is to keep your two feet on the ground and never believe that you’re the best and that there’s nothing left for you to do.

“You have to ask questions of yourself every year, at the start of each season. And I found at the start of each year that there was a certain anxiety I had, there would be other riders who would be good or new young riders entering the ranks… It’s not like someone getting a diploma at university to be a pharmacist all his life [Merckx’s brother, Michel, is a pharmacist]. If you’re a cyclist, every year you start anew, and you have to get your diploma again at the end of every year.”

In the end, though, all that course en tête just wore him out. Riding from 1965 to 1978, Merckx’s 13-year career was relatively short considering that two of his contemporaries, Raymond Poulidor and Joop Zoetemelk, enjoyed careers of 17 and 18 years respectively.

>>> Pro cycling face mash-ups: can you tell who’s who?

He says now that he knew the writing was on the wall when, in the 1975 Tour, he was punched by a spectator on the Puy-de-Dôme and later fell in the Alps, breaking his jaw. He continued to second place (and the financial rewards), still attacking his rivals, but was never the same again.

“The only regret was that I finished the 1975 Tour,” he says. “Afterwards, all my problems stemmed from that.”

There’s a quote attributed to Merckx from 1972 that does a very good job of summing up his attitude to cycle racing. He had just ridden over the Col d’Izoard and down into Briançon, winning a classic stage that echoed the legendary rides of Fausto Coppi and Louison Bobet, whose memorials stood on the upper slopes of the climb’s famous casse déserte.

It was a ride which cemented his place in the pantheon of greats, in particular for the nostalgia-fuelled French press and public.

“People talked to me about the casse déserte and Fausto Coppi’s monument fixed to a rock,” Merckx said at the time. “I didn’t see any of that; I’m sorry but I was too busy.”

It’s one quote that captures the hype and expectation surrounding Merckx, his general lack of interest in the romance of the sport and his total devotion to winning.

It also points to his human side. He says sorry, as if he understood that he wasn’t always the champion that people want him to be. Because the public, especially outside Belgium, never loved Merckx like they loved Poulidor, the eternal second, or like they today love Peter Sagan, the cheeky, charismatic Slovak with a reputation for coming second.

Merckx was respected, but he was too good, too dominant, and too flawless to be loved. He might have been the man who didn’t know how to lose, but ultimately Merckx could never win the public’s heart.

Carefree charisma

Perhaps that has changed. These days Eddy Merckx is curating his Sagan-esque cheeky side. He’s not pulling wheelies and dressing up in fur coats, but he has the carefree attitude of a man who commands the same aura he did when he was racing and knows he doesn’t need to work for a living any more.

At times it sounds like his main preoccupation is stopping himself from getting bored.

He was tempted over to London for a recent cycling exhibition when organisers took his bucket list and prepared a weekend of activities to keep him occupied.

Having been picked up from the train station in a Maserati sports car, he went to a track day, watched Chelsea play Norwich City from the directors’ box at Stamford Bridge, went down to meet the players, and then went wine tasting in the capital.

But then boredom must be a problem for someone of Merckx’s ilk. If boredom isn’t the right word, then a sense that whatever he achieved from 32, his age when he retired in the spring of 1978, nothing would ever equal or exceed his achievements in cycling. Talk about a midlife crisis.

It’s no good Merckx waiting for a successor either. There has never been a rider like him before or since, and nor will there be. Cycling has changed. John Degenkolb will never win the Tour and Chris Froome isn’t going to win Paris-Roubaix any time soon.

Eddy Merckx is, and will remain, the best rider of all time.

Today Merckx is involved with his bike business once again (see below) after it was taken over by new majority shareholders Diepensteyn, a firm specialising in Belgian heritage brands like Palm beer and a range of castles and stately homes.

But his role is limited to an ambassador and creative adviser and, like everything else, it cannot fill the space left by bike racing.

“It’s a satisfaction when you see that you’ve made something of a good enough quality that the pros are happy to ride it,” Merckx says. “The employees were happy when an Eddy Merckx bike won something. For me it gave me pleasure too, but it’s not the same thing as winning yourself. But it’s nice.”

Yet just as Eddy Merckx the bike racer was never comfortable resting on his laurels, Eddy Merckx the 71-year-old isn’t entirely comfortable in retirement either.

He’s still out there, looking to the next task confronting him and trying to win at it. In his case that challenge might just be living the life of a normal man at last.

“Age doesn’t change anything,” he says. “It happens to everyone, doesn’t it? You have to make the most of life, make the most of being a grandparent, and be grateful that you’re still able to ride a bike.”

Back in the bike business

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lBD39aNQBk&feature=youtu.be

Eddy Merckx is a perfectionist, in particular when it comes to his bikes. After his infamous crash in 1969 on an outdoor track in Blois, and subsequent injuries, he became an obsessive tinkerer, forever adjusting his measurements. In the film A Sunday in Hell, Merckx stops several times to adjust his saddle height mid-race.

Merckx started his bicycle company in 1980 with help from Ugo De Rosa, the legendary Italian frame-builder who crafted many of Merckx’s bikes (to his very exacting requirements) during his post-injury career.

Eddy Merckx Cycles provided bikes for teams such as 7-Eleven, Motorola and Quick Step but after issues with tax, financial mismanagement and a falling out with former majority shareholders, Dutch footwear giant Brantano, Merckx sold up and took a step back. Now though, with new owners, he’s back on board.

As a further measure of the weight of the Merckx name, the current boss, Dutchman Rob Beset, recalls his cycling-mad father crying when he told him over the phone that his son was going to work for Eddy Merckx.

“It sounds a bit emotional, but he’s very warm to work with,” says Beset. “With him it’s very clear, he has his opinions and statements and is open to discuss them.”

The company has now turned annual losses into profit, and recently poached chief development officer Rolf Singenberger from BMC to work principally on its new EMX-525 model. This year the company also produced the EDDY70, a limited edition steel-framed bike with special edition Campagnolo Super Record.

>>> Icons of cycling: Campagnolo Super Record derailleur

Johan Vranckx, a frame-builder at the company for 35 years, made just 70 by hand. Number one went to Eddy himself and the remaining 69 sold for €14,000 each.

Eddy Merckx rides an electric bike?

Just before interviewing Eddy Merckx we’re told by one of the company bosses that he has one of their prototype electric bikes. Somewhat sheepishly we ask him, “Eddy, we hear that you ride

an electric…”

“Well, I have an electric bike, but more often I go out on a normal bike,” he interjects. “When I go out with my mates I go out on a normal bike.”

Merckx now rides purely for pleasure, often out with his old team-mates and contemporaries Jos Spruyt, Roger Rosiers, Jos De Schoenmaeker and Willy Vekemans.

No longer does he lead them on epic winter training runs from one end of Belgium to the other and back. These days it’s a 75km run to the cafe.

“We stop the ride where there’s a cafe where they have a big Berkel, a machine to cut San Daniele ham from Italy, and we stop for some ham and a beer or a glass of wine, that’s what’s important these days. And now, winter is for resting.

“Cycling was always about the pleasure of riding a bike,” he adds. “And now it’s the same, the pleasure of riding without the constraint of having to win. Although, I still look out for any idiots who might crash in front of me.”

Widely seen as the best cyclist ever to grace two wheels, Eddy Merckx celebrated his birthday this week, and as such we have dedicated our cycling quiz to the great man.

Across his highly-decorated career he won all three Grand Tours - and three times accomplished the Giro-Tour double. He was victorious in every Monument Classic at least twice, and earned his nickname 'The Cannibal' thanks to his aggressive riding style in every race he entered.

>>> Eddy Merckx: the man behind the legend

Despite some controversies along the way, cycling fans would be hard pushed to make the case for any other rider being superior to Merckx and his career achievements.

Due to his ability to win Classics and Grand Tours alike, we are very unlikely to see a rider of his calibre again.

Away from riding, he has been elevated to the status of baron in his native Belgium, and launched a successful bicycle manufacturer that carries his name.

Test your knowledge of Eddy Merckx

By Thomas Parker

Eddy Merckx could face corruption charges after being accused of involvement in irregular purchases of equipment from his cycling company by Belgian police.

Belgian-based newspaper La Dernière Heure reports that the prosecutor believes the five-time Tour de France champion has to be tried for irregular procedures in 2006 and 2007 in relation to his previous duties within the Cycles EddyMerckx business.

The accusation relates to the purchasing of 46 bikes for the cycling squad of the Brussels-Midi police force, where Merckx is accused of using false documents.

It is also reported that Merckx is suspected of rewarding a police officer a cut price deal on a top of the range carbon-fibre bike and giving a bike to the police officer's wife.

>>> Eddy Merckx: the man behind the legend

The police officer allegedly gave Merckx inside information around the rival bidders of the negotiations, in order to win the 46-bike contract, thought to be worth around €15,000.

The officer in question has strongly denied these allegations. Merckx told La Dernière Heure that he had “nothing to say”, continuing with “we’ll see what happens.”

The judicial inquiry, that began in 2007, was only recently completed and has now been transferred over to the public prosecutor based in Brussels, but has not yet produced a final charge involving the case.

>>> Celebrate Eddy Merckx’s 70th birthday with a limited edition £11,500 bike (video)

If charged, Merckx could be faced with up to between two and ten years in prison for the bribing an official.

Eddy Merckx founded Cycles EddyMerckx two years after his retirement from his highly successful 18 year career. He stepped down for his role as chief executive of the company in 2008.

The man widely recognised as the greatest cyclist of all time – Eddy Merckx – says he can’t wait to see Sir Bradley Wiggins race in front of his adoring fans at Six Day London.

Merckx won almost everything his sport had to offer during the 1960s and 70s – including five Tour de France titles - and is a huge admirer of Olympic champion Wiggins, one of the modern greats.

Wiggins, who was the first Brit to win the Tour de France in 2012, is set to ride alongside his close friend Mark Cavendish at Six Day London in October at a venue which holds special memories for the 36-year-old.

The last time the British duo raced at the Lee Valley VeloPark together, back in March, they won Madison gold at the Track World Championships and Wiggins also smashed the UCI One Hour Record there in June.

The reunion of Wiggins and Cavendish at Six Day London has been the talk of cycling this week and one of those looking forward to October’s event is Merckx.

"Wiggins has won three Olympic golds on the track, one on the road, world titles on the track and road and the Tour de France, he's a truly great champion," said Merckx.

"Just look at how fast he rode the hour record, it was a staggering performance and no-one will break that for a long time now in my opinion.

"British cycling is blessed right now with Wiggins, Froome and Mark Cavendish. They've always had great riders, now they've got great champions. It's a very exciting time.”

Six Day London takes place between 25-30 October 2016 at Lee Valley VeloPark on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Half term fun, with or without the kids. Tickets on sale now at www.sixday.com

Six Day London will see some of the world’s finest riders race across a number of different formats during the course of six days, all to the soundtrack of a top-level DJ and with beers flowing in the stands.

Last year was the first time Six Day racing had returned to these shores in 35 years and the 2016 edition is expected to be even bigger and better.

"At Six Day racing, you’re very close to the riders," added Merckx, who won 17 Six Day races around the world during his career.

“On the road the riders fly past you and you barely see them, but on the track, they pass you every 250 metres. It’s completely different. It’s a great atmosphere because you have sprints as well, people going off the front to try and get a lap, and there’s great support.

"It's a special atmosphere, like a football match, and a great chance to see the big names up close."

Cycling legend Eddy Merckx believes that having disc brakes in the professional peloton is 'irresponsible' and 'life-threatening' in the wake injuries reportedly caused by them at Paris-Roubaix.

Movistar's Fran Ventoso suffered a deep cut to his lower left leg in the cobbled Classic on May 10, which he said was caused by one of the 16 disc brake-equipped bikes in the peloton.

Subsequently, the UCI suspended its testing of disc brakes and Merckx agrees with the decision to remove them from the peloton.

"Having disc brakes in the peloton is irresponsible, it's even life-threatening," he told Sporza. "The only advantage you have is when it rains. But with a disc brake your wheel is heavier and it's more dangerous."

Several riders have spoken out about the dangers of disc brakes, including Ventoso in an open letter after his accident.

"Disc brakes should have NEVER arrived into the peloton, not at least as we know them right now," Ventoso wrote.

"I haven’t met any rider who has run out of braking power with traditional brakes; I haven’t known anyone who didn’t see his wheels skidding when you brake with all power you’ve got, no matter traditional or disc brakes. Then: why using them?"

“The Muur is a rendezvous with your character,” Eddy Planckaert, 1988 Tour of Flanders winner

Every year, on the first Sunday in April, the 92 metres of the Muur van Geraardsbergen separate one man from history. Ninety-two metres, that’s all the height that the second last climb in the Tour of Flanders gains. Ninety-two metres that selects a winner of the most charismatic of bike races in front of the sport’s most fanatical fans.

Wielervolk they call them. The bike fans of Flanders. They love the sport of cycling, warts and all. Some love it to distraction, and to join them on the Muur is to worship inside their cathedral. The atmosphere builds for hours as they wait, like electricity building before a storm. When the first riders thunder past the fans are redlining with hysteria.

The lightning flash of colour passes so quickly and the Muur breathes again, relaxing into 364-day torpor as just another quiet road over a hill. Sanity is restored. Fans, who moments before were baying like hounds become fathers and mothers again, sons and daughters. The moment has passed, until next year.

>>> Tour of Flanders: Latest news and information

Muur means wall in Flemish and the words ‘the Wall shall choose the winner’ have passed into Flemish folklore, even if they aren’t literally true. Sometimes one man has forged ahead on the Muur and won, while just as often a group force their way clear of the rest and the winner of the Tour of Flanders comes from that group. Whichever, the fact that the Muur is at the end of a series of strength sapping cobbled climbs, its closeness to the finish and the sheer toughness and uncompromising nature of it as a cycling challenge make it the most iconic climb of this iconic race.

Columbia directeur sportif Allan Peiper, who now lives in Geraardsbergen, has a long history with Flemish racing, and with the Tour of Flanders. He sums up the Muur best when he says, “On a number of occasions in Flanders I was strong enough to make the front group at the bottom of the Muur, but only once was I strong enough to still be there at the top.”

Real Classic

Other races use the Muur, but it is most closely identified with the Tour of Flanders. The race is a true Classic, a long haul over tough terrain that gradually erodes the frontrunners until only the strong remain. Then comes the Muur. At the bottom a select group ride in hope. But this is the severest test they have met all day, and one by one they slip out of contention, victims of the Muur and victims of vicious attacks from the men who are the real contenders.

The race starts with a relatively short and flat run from Bruges to the Belgian coast, where the wearing down process begins as the riders fan out across the wide flat roads in response to the cutting wind blowing in off the North Sea. This is the unseen phase of the race, the one that’s all graft and no glory, as teams fight to keep their favourites safe along the coast and inland towards the ridge of hills that makes up the Flemish Ardennes.

The ridge isn’t high, the tops barely scrape though the 100-metre contour, but the hills on its northern side are the jagged teeth of the Tour of Flanders. Up one, along the ridge, down and up another; the race rips itself apart on the ridge every year. Climb follows climb until there is a lull before the Muur. Here the race pauses, poised, riders and fans draw breath and hope. The Muur will decide, the winner will come from the first few over the top.

It hasn’t always been so. The Ronde van Vlaanderen, as the Flemish call it, began in 1913 and its first editions were long circuits on bad roads. Only as the race got older did it venture into the Flemish Ardennes, and when it did the Muur was just another climb. It was tried out in 1950 and stayed for three years. But then the race switched to using the Kloosterstraat ascent. It climbs the same ridge in Geraardsbergen, but slightly to the north. The Muur finally returned in 1970, and now a Tour of Flanders without the Muur would be like chips without mayonnaise.

“The Tour of Flanders is not a subtle race,” says the 1988 winner Eddy Planckaert. “You have to ride near the front all day; fight with your elbows, shoulders and even sometimes with your hands to be in a good place for the climbs. Then you must go hard on the climb and keep it going over the top because the really strong riders attack there. And you have to keep doing that time after time until the end. The Ronde takes character and strength but not too much thought.”

Which way?

The Tour of Flanders road book says that the Muur starts on Oudebergstraat and is 475 metres long, but in reality this is half way up. It is the crux of the climb, where the hostilities on race day take place. To go earlier on the Muur would be folly for a racer, but the full Muur can only be experienced from the very bottom of the climb.

You’ve seen it on TV. The riders climb a humped bridge over railway lines. It looks temporary but has been there for as long as locals can remember. A short descent and the green bridge over the river Dender.

And then it starts; Brugstraat, a tiled pedestrian free-for-all most days of the year.

Slowly the gradient increases. Flick left and right into the market place. The Gothic town hall is on the left and St Bartholomeus Church on the right. The cobbled road climbs past bars and cafes, many serving Geraardsbergen’s contribution to the cuisine of Flanders, the Mattentart, a pie made with fermented milk.

Geraardsbergen is old, part of the Land Van Aalst, which pre-dates the ancient Kingdom of Flanders. In the 11th century it became part of Flanders and grew to become a fortified city centred on St Adrien’s abbey. This was so important that the town became known as Adrienopolis.

A sharp left turns onto Vesten, a two-lane cobbled highway at the top end of the town’s commercial area. The gradient begins to bite on this long straight stretch of the climb. A sharp right onto Oudebergstraat (Old Hill Street) and the real Muur begins. The road sweeps left, right and left again, really beginning to pull on the legs as it steepens all the way.

Past a statue, an impression in bronze of the bike fans of Flanders. Past a gable end exhibition of black and white photographs taken by Steven Van Vletteren as part of his dedication to the fans. This is their place. Further up the climb a stone bears a poem by a Flemish writer about Eddy Merckx. Another, attached to the cafe near the top, is called Flandriens. Flandrien being a mark of respect the Flemish pay to those who show the characteristics they hold in high esteem.

The Muur as a sporting challenge is tolerable until a sharp right where the houses give way to trees. No one builds here, the ground is too steep. A bollard in the middle of the road prevents cars from going any further. They take it away on race day but the following vehicles still aren’t allowed up here.

This is two-wheeled terrain, the essence of the Muur. No buildings, no pavement, just a whaleback of pave going straight upwards. The cobbles are bad but not as bad as they were. In 2004 the town council laid new cobblestones at a cost of one and a quarter million euros, although that was offset by selling off the old ones at 2.5 euros each.

The road is unmerciful, and it was treacherous in bad conditions before it was re-laid. “There used to be a line to ride,” says Eddy Planckaert, “a line worn by the tyres and by people walking up there. It was a line of smoother cobbles, you could see it and if you followed it the Muur was easier. Not much, but easier. But if it rained the line was no good, it was too worn, too slick. You had to ride at the edge where the roughness gave some grip.”

That line has gone and with it, the real experts say, a bit of the Muur’s character. The cobbles don’t camber as much from the road centre now, and they are much more even. In the past potholes and subsidence lay in wait for the unwary. “The line used the camber best, which is why there were falls when it was wet. If you went off line and couldn’t find a good place on the edge you had little control over you bike,” says Planckaert.

Now the Muur is a little fairer, but it is still incredibly tough and selective. The hardest part, a pitch of 19.8 per cent, is quite near the top. Then comes a sharp left with a sheer earth bank on its inside. The classic Muur photos are taken here. The trees cast an unusual light, flashes pick out the riders eyes, and their eyes tell their Flanders story. Moving forward or slipping back, burning with thoughts of victory or growing dim with the realisation of defeat.

Then the gradient eases. There is a sudden moment of flat before the last ramp. Until 1981 this was it, this was the top of the Muur, but now the route loops around a chapel standing on what looks like a man made mound at the top; the Kapelmuur. This is the last gasp. There is still an opportunity here for the strong to turn the screw still further. Just enough for the weak to say goodbye altogether.

The best riders lever their way over this final obstacle then down the other side, turn left onto Dreipikkel and launch themselves down Oude Steenweg and towards the Bosberg, the last climb of the Tour of Flanders. The rest manage as best they can. Some ride desperately, still in hope. For others the light has gone, but at least they will finish. “It’s not far,” the good natured in the crowd shout. It’s never far, according to the fans.

Six men of the Muur

Fiorenzo Magni

Four men have won the Tour of Flanders three times; Achille Buysse, Fiorenzo Magni, Eric Leman and Johan Museeuw, but only the Italian, Magni won it three times in succession. Triple winners get called Lions of Flanders after the rampant black lion with red claws on the yellow regional flag. In Italy they call Magni, who is 87 but still very active in cycling, il Leone delle Fiandre.

His Flanders victories came in 1949, 1950 and 1951 and he was the first winner to ride over the Muur van Geraardsbergen on its introduction in 1950. Talking recently about his success Magni said, “All I heard about the Tour of Flanders was bad roads, worse than Paris-Roubaix even, and bad weather, but I thought the race would suit me. I went well in extreme weather, hot or cold. I prepared for it and even used wooden wheel rims because they had some give and didn’t break as easily as the metal ones in those days.”

Eric Leman

Another three-time winner, this fearsome sprinter from West Flanders won in 1970, the year the Muur was reinstated, then won again in 1972 and ’73. He might have won in 1971, but it was a terrible year for him - his wife was killed in a car crash just one week before the race.

Leman was unique, a sprinter who could win three stages in a Tour de France, as he did in 1971, but who was so durable that he had 17 top ten Flanders performances in his career. He was incredibly difficult to beat in his favourite race. Men like Eddy Merckx, Frans Verbeek and Roger De Vlaeminck all tried, but it was so difficult to shake him off.

Anyone who took Leman to a sprint lost it. It’s rumoured that in 1970 his co-escapees Merckx and Walter Godefroot made a pact to attack him in turn after the Muur. It didn’t work, he handled everything they threw at him and beat them both in the sprint. At 27 Leman was the youngest ever three times winner.

Eddy Merckx

It’s hard to pick a Merckx win as being out of the ordinary because he was out of the ordinary almost every day. In the 1975 Tour of Flanders he attacked on the Kwaremont with 100 kilometres to go, simply because he could. Only one man could follow, the super tough Frans Verbeek, and he couldn’t contribute much. Up and down the Flemish Ardennes they went, Verbeek helping where he could but for the most time Merckx set a horrible, infernal, metronomic pace. For a long time their lead was a minute, but then the elastic snapped and the chasers fell back to two, then three, then more.

It was the first year of the Muur-Bosberg combination. From 1970 the Muur had been the final climb. Merckx romped up its slopes increasing the pair‘s lead by another 30 seconds. Verbeek could do nothing by now and with five kilometres to go Merckx rode away on his own to win by 30 seconds from Verbeek.

The next man, Walter Planckaert, was five minutes behind. A few years ago Verbeek told us what it was like riding with Merckx that day; “I’m sure he could have dropped me earlier, and if he had he would have won by 10 minutes. But I think Merckx liked the way I raced, so he made sure that I took second. That way he could thumb his nose at the Flandria riders, which always pleased him,” he said.

Johan Museeuw

Doping erodes credibility like acid. Since Museeuw’s name was connected with a doping inquiry surrounding a veterinarian, Jose Landuyt, all his results are tainted, rightly or wrongly. All the work, all the dedication, all the guts and determination are clouded.

Of course Museeuw won’t see it like that. He lives in the bubble of Belgian cycling where he is still a hero. And that is a powerful drug itself. Maybe Museeuw was clean when he won three times, maybe they were the glorious performances that they looked Maybe not.

Peter Van Petegem

On the two occasions that Van Petegem won the Tour of Flanders, he did it by attacking on the Muurm and each time he beat the same rider into second place. Victory number one came in 1999 when Van Petegem used the Muur to escape with Johan Museeuw. The pair were caught by Frank Vandenbroucke and Museeuw weakened on the run in, allowing Van Petegem a sprint formality against Vandenbroucke. In 2003 Van Petegem attacked again with Vandenbroucke following, only to outsprint him again.

Van Petegem’s cycling life revolved around the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. He rarely rode the mid-week race of the cobbled Classics, Ghent-Wevelgem. It was all for Flanders and Roubaix. He lives on the Flanders route and he puts his successes down to local knowledge. “I knew the route in every condition. That meant I could sometimes relax in what for others is a very nervous race and therefore save a lot of energy,” he says.

Fabian Cancellara

Fabian Cancellara’s attack over the final bends of the Muur in the 2010 Tour of Flanders was equal to anything that the climb has seen in its history. Cancellara had formed an extremely televisual two-up break with Tom Boonen – two national champions, one from Belgium, one from Switzerland – over the Molenberg. Cancellara’s problem: Boonen is a faster sprinter. But Cancellara either sensed weakness in his rival on the Muur, or sensed his own strength, and smoothly accelerated, while Boonen suddenly looked like he was riding through treacle.

By the top, Cancellara was out of sight, having opened a gap which surprised the helicopter TV cameraman, who panned from Boonen as he passed the summit, down the steep ramp off the Kapelmuur, along the flat road to the beginning of the descent. Cancellara had opened a gap of over 150 metres in that short, sharp attack. He went on to win again in 2013 and 2014.

Pro’s eye view

Tour of Flanders winner Eddy Planckaert shares his memories of the Muur

What is your big memory of the Muur?

The noise of the crowds is the impression left by the Muur. It is like riding through a tunnel of noise that you can almost touch. The fans on the Muur have a force together, willing you on. It means that the Muur hurts less than it should.

And when you won, what was your memory from that day?

Phil Anderson’s strength at the end. When we were together I knew I would beat him in a sprint, but so did he. The problem for me was getting to the sprint with him. He attacked so many times, going so hard, I had to dig very deep to hang on. The sprint was always going to be mine though. You can hardly see him in the photograph.

Is the Muur the hardest climb in the Tour of Flanders?

It’s hard, but the Koppenberg is harder. The first climb of the day is also very hard, no matter which one, because riders are fresh and the climb is a change of rhythm. You suffer there. The thing with the Muur is you cannot make a mistake or have a bad time because it is too close to the finish.

What happened on the Muur the day you won?

Anderson, Adrie Van der Poel and I took it together. Anderson mostly set the pace. Hard but steady because it was still too early to try on his own.

Was the Tour of Flanders the race you most wanted to win?

It was the one I grew up knowing I needed to win. I am from Flanders and for the people there it was the most important race. Also my brother Walter won it. The win that gave me most pleasure though was the Tour green jersey. My oldest brother, Willy won it in 1966 and Willy was my hero. When Willy won the green jersey he saved our family. My father had just died, I wasn’t yet 10, Walter was 18, and we were facing financial ruin. Willy came home and put a suitcase full of money on the table, and that saved us.

What advice would you give to a cyclist riding the Muur for the first time?

Pick a gear that you can ride sat down so you keep weight over your back wheel and don’t cut the corners, it’s steeper on the insides. Oh, and stop for a beer in that café at the top.

Belgian cycling great Eddy Merckx left the Tour of Oman, which he co-organises, overnight on Monday after hearing his former national coach and father-in-law had died.

Merckx was coached by Lucien Acou before going on to dominate cycling in the 1960s and 1970s. Through his coach, who was 94, he met his wife Claudine.

The pre-race press conference for the Tour of Oman began one hour late on Monday. "He fell, it's bad," Merckx told Cycling Weekly afterwards. A visibly upset Merckx then left with his son Axel for the nine-hour flight from Muscat to Brussels.

Acou reportedly became ill while going to retrieve the newspaper from the mailbox and fell. He is survived by his 95-year-old wife and daughter Claudine.

Merckx began racing in 1965 and shot to the top with victories in nearly every race. He won all three grand tours, the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France five times each, and every major classic.

In the Middle East, he co-organises the Tour of Qatar and Tour of Oman stage races with Dirk De Pauw. Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) won the Tour of Qatar on Friday. The Tour of Oman began today without Merckx.

Merckx may return on Friday ahead of the final two stages. It is a critical moment for him and De Pauw, who are trying to renew the race's contract for three more years with the capital city of Muscat.

Eddy Merckx has hit out against those found to be guilty of 'motorised doping' following the UCI's confirmation that evidence of a device being concealed inside the bike of a competitor was found during last weekend's Cyclocross World Championships.

Femke van den Driessche is the rider found to have been in possession of the illegal bike during Saturday's Women's Under 23 race but Merckx isn't convinced it is a one-off incident.

>>> British riders voice opinion on motorised doping scandal

Speaking ahead of the Ladies Tour of Qatar, Merckx said: “They have to suspend for life, for me they have to suspend for life.”

“From what I saw yesterday on the television, [it seemed] it was not the first time. They also showed a cyclo-cross on the Koppenberg and it was not normal. For me, it’s the worst thing you can do. You might as well go by motorcycle.”

The current UCI regulations surrounding 'technical doping', which came into effect in January 2015, stipulate that offenders should receive a minimum suspension of six months and a fine of between 20,000 and 200,000 swiss francs.

>>> Everything you need to know about the motorised doping scandal

This is not the first time allegations of this sort have surfaced with Fabian Cancellara raising suspicion as far back as 2010 before Ryder Hesjedal's self-moving bike created controversy four years later.

Nevertheless Merckx believes this is not common practice amongst the rest of the peloton and rejected claims that this incident could be just the tip of the iceberg.

“I don’t think so; I don’t think the other ones are so stupid to do something like that. That can only happen with riders who don’t have experience. What has happened is very bad for cycling,” added Merckx.

>>> Chris Froome: ‘My bikes have been checked for hidden motors a dozen times’

But the five-time Tour de France winner believes this latest form of alleged cheating surpasses that of the chemical kind which has been rife in the sport for years, adding that it should therefore carry heavier sanctions.

“For me it’s more than doping, it’s more than doping. It gives you 50 watts more, or even 100, it depends,” Merckx said. “That’s nothing to do with cycling anymore. That’s motorcycling. They have to go riding with [Valentino] Rossi."

Cycling great Eddy Merckx is backing Chris Froome to win his third Tour de France in four years next July, claiming the Team Sky rider has no real rivals for the crown.

Froome blew the peloton away on stage 10 of the 2015 Tour, beating eventual runner-up Nairo Quintana by a decisive 64 seconds and defending his lead all the way to Paris.

But Merckx says the Colombian's weaknesses in the time trials will be his downfall in 2016, while Froome other main rival, Alberto Contador, will be too old to present a real challenge.

“Of course he’s going to win it again,” five-time Tour winner Merckx said in an interview with L'Equipe. “If it’s not him, then who else?”

He added: “It won’t be Quintana who will worry him, because he’s too limited in time trials. Quintana climbs well, but he’s a bit weighed down, too cautious. Waiting for the penultimate day and Alpe d’Huez [in the 2015 Tour] to attack Froome revealed a lack of calibre.

“As for the others: Nibali won’t be there, Contador will be another year older, Aru I don’t really know… No, on paper, Froome hasn’t really got any rivals.”

With two individual time trials, including a mountain test in the third week, Froome's dominance against the clock is likely to be a leading factor in him retaining his title.

Nibali, who came fourth in 2015, will not likely not have the chance to win his second Tour as he is targeting the Giro d'Italia, leaving Fabio Aru to lead Astana in his debut Tour.

Alejandro Valverde, third in 2015, will also not challenge Froome, with the Spaniard also racing the Giro and using the Tour to gain form for the Olympic Games. His acceptance of playing the domestique role could play into Quintana's hands, though, with Valverde providing a strong motor in the mountains.

Contador, meanwhile, won't be coming into the Tour off the back of winning the Giro in 2016, but Merckx doesn't believe the 33-year-old will have the legs to hold off Froome's assault at another title.

Five-time Tour de France winner Eddy Merckx thinks present champion Chris Froome should look to the track during the winter months to give him an edge over others when the road season starts.

Merckx was a prolific Six Day racer and attributes his early season success to the form those tough track meets gave him.

"Racing on the track was always very good preparation for me," he said.

"The reason I won Milan-San Remo seven times was because I raced during the winter on the track. I was always the best prepared, ahead of all the other riders."

Merckx won Grand Tours and Classics alike, whereas Froome is almost entirely focused on stage racing. Despite this, the Cannibal would love to see Britain's second Tour winner take to the boards.

"It would be great to see Chris on the track, he might even benefit from it and it would be an unbelievable spectacle for the fans to see him so close."

Froome, however, isn't the only British rider Merckx admires, describing Sir Bradley Wiggins as "a truly great champion".

"He's won three Olympic golds on the track, one on the road, world titles on the track and road and the Tour de France.

"Just look at how fast rode the Hour Record, it was a staggering performance and no-one will break that for a long time now in my opinion."

Merckx set the World Hour Record in 1972 and held it for over 11 years. At the time he's reported to have described it as the hardest race he'd ever done, so his praise for Wiggins is well founded.

Joining Merckx at an event to promote the upcoming return of Six Day London was his former racing partner Patrick Sercu.

Sercu is the most prolific Six Day racer of all time with 88 wins to his name. Despite being partnered with Merckx for many of these, he thinks he would have found even more success had Wiggins been around back then.

"Wiggins has everything," he admires. "He's won world and Olympic titles on the track and road, he's won the Tour de France, he's a great Six Day rider and a terrific endurance rider. If I was still riding I’d love to ride with Bradley, but Eddy needs a sprinter, like Mark Cavendish."

Despite riding the Madison with Wiggins at the Revolution Series in Derby earlier this year, Cavendish will be absent from the track this time round due to a shoulder operation following his race ending crash at the Tour of Britain.

How aero is your clothing? 

What Merckx likes best about track racing, and what fans can experience when they go along, is the close proximity between riders and spectators.

"You’re very close to the riders," Merckx enthused. "On the road the riders fly past you and you barely see them, but on the track, they pass you every 250 metres. It’s completely different."

Six Day London is at Lee Valley VeloPark between October 18-23 - tickets now on sale at sixday.com.

Come and see the world's best track cyclists in action and be part of an electric party atmosphere at London's Olympic Velodrome.

The Tour de France returns to the climb of Pra-Loup on Wednesday afternoon, stage 17 of 2015 Tour. It’s the first time since 1980 that the Alpine climb has been included in the race route, though it was the events of five years earlier that cemented the little-used climb in Tour legend.

>>> Eddy Merckx and the 1975 Tour de France

It was 1975, and the Tour hadn’t had a home winner since Roger Pingeon in 1967. In the intervening period, the Belgian Eddy Merckx had triumphed five times, and French fans were starting to tire of his dominance.

Merckx had taken the yellow jersey after winning the stage six time trial, and felt the vitriol of the fans first hand nine days later. Climbing to the finish of stage 14 at Puy-de-Dôme, he was infamously punched in the back by a spectator, in an attack that left him with a bruised liver.

Despite this, Merckx still led the race by 58 seconds going into stage 15. Bernard Thévenet recalls how he tried desperately to attack throughout the stage, including multiple attempts on the Col de Champs.

His efforts seemed in vain when Merckx attacked on the descent of the Col d’Allos, and it looked as though his Tour domination would be continued as he reached the foot of Pra-Loup nearly a minute ahead of his rivals.

Thévenet refused to give up though, and even though he admitted to feeling low on energy, he resolved to make a move on the final climb. Up the road, Merckx was waning, and amazingly Thévenet caught and passed the Belgian before the top, eventually taking 1-56 on the race leader.

It was end of a legend, and the last time Merckx would ever wear yellow as Thévenet defended his lead all the way to Paris, sealing the first of his two Tour de France wins.

It may have escaped your notice, but it's Eddy Merckx's 70th birthday today, and in the age of social media this means riders and races taking to Twitter and Instagram to congratulate the great man.

1. Fabian Cancellara

With three wins at Paris-Roubaix, Cancellara matched Merckx's total in 2013, with a third Tour of Flanders victory the following year giving him one up on one of his racing idols.

2. Tour of Flanders

Merckx won two Tour of Flanders, six years apart in 1969 and 1975, and the guys at the Ronde remembered one of those wins in this classic shot.

3. Tour de France

Of course, it wasn't just the Classics where Merckx excelled. His five Tour de France titles equalled the tally of Jacques Anquetil and has since been matched by Bernhard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.

4. Bradley Wiggins

Wiggins regularly states that his idol growing up was Indurain, but the connoisseur of cycling history took to Instagram to wish Merckx a happy birthday.

5. Giro d'Italia

Not only does Merckx hold the record for most Tour wins, he matched Alfredo Binda and Fausto Coppi's five Giro d'Italia victories in 1974, completing the Giro/Tour double on three occasions.

6. UCI

Cycling's governing body, the UCI, used this iconic picture of Merckx in yellow showing his immense strength in the mountains.

7. Team Belgium

In the mid-90s, Merckx had a spell as coach of the Belgian national team and was part of the Belgian Olympic Committee.

8. Paul Sherwen

Sherwen has been commentating on the Tour de France for some decades now, but the former pro was a fresh-faced 13-year-old when Merckx won his first Tour in 1969.

9. Eddy Merckx Bikes

Post-retirement, Merckx set up his own eponymous bike company, who have created a special limited edition machine for his 70th birthday.

10. RSC Anderlecht

It's not just the world of cycling that joined in the celebrations either, with Merckx's beloved Anderlecht Football Club getting in on the act as well.

Sean Kelly talks about the challenges of the cobbled classics

The best cyclist ever to grace two wheels, Eddy Merckx turns 70 today, and to mark the occasion, we have released an ultimate guide to The Cannibal, which you can order now. It takes a whole magazine to look back at his life on the bike, but here we're looking back at a single defining time in the great man's career: his defeat in the 1975 Tour de France.

Perhaps it seems perverse to suggest the 1975 Tour de France was one of the high spots of Merckx's career. After all, this was the year he suffered his first defeat in the Tour de France. He was also attacked by a spectator and injured his face in a fall. 

But being a champion isn't just about winning. It's also about pride in performance, loyalty to team-mates and a bloody-minded refusal to accept defeat. Those were some of the qualities displayed by Merckx in the Tour of 1975.

The Belgian had rampaged his way through that year's spring Classics, scoring his sixth win in Milan-San Remo, winning the Tour of Flanders for the second time and Liège-Bastogne-Liège for the fifth time. In addition, he placed second in Paris-Roubaix.

He might have triumphed at Roubaix had he not punctured with a few kilometres to go. "I rode like a man possessed to catch the leaders, but by the time I rejoined them Roger De Vlaeminck was away," Merckx recalled.

With this kind of form, Merckx looked a good bet to add another Tour de France to the five he had won already - although, in public at least, he insisted he had no desire to beat the all-time record he held jointly with Jacques Anquetil. "The idea doesn't interest me very much because then people would want me to go for a seventh and then an eighth," he said.

Tour heroes

Just three riders wore the yellow jersey in the 1975 Tour, each of them a star name in his own right. Francesco Moser won the prologue at Charleroi and stayed in yellow until stage five. Then, in the first time trial held over 16 kilometres at Merlin Plage, Merckx put 30 seconds into Moser and donned the maillot jaune.

The race headed south to Bordeaux, where Britain's Barry Hoban was the stage winner, and on to Auch, where Merckx again proved he was master against the watch. Merckx won the 37-kilometre time trial from Bernard Thévenet, who was only nine seconds down, a portent of the challenge to come.

Felice Gimondi and Joop Zoetemelk took the main stages in the Pyrenees and the lamented Gerrie Knetemann won at Albi.

The race finish in Paris was just over a week away as the peloton embarked on stage 14, a mountain time trial, which finished on the 1,400-metre summit of the Puy de Dôme.

Merckx, still in yellow, was battling up the climb when, almost within sight of the finish, a French spectator emerged from the crowd and punched Merckx in the stomach .

"I was about to catch Zoetemelk on the climb," Merckx recalled. "The blow winded me and I took a long time to get my breath back."

Merckx was clearly in distress at the finish, whether from the shock of the assault or the effort of the climb, it was impossible to say.

Later, Merckx would claim that the punch on the Puy de Dôme cost him his chance of becoming the first six-time winner of the Tour. However, after the time trial stage, he was still in yellow, with Thévenet hovering less than a minute down.

Following a rest day, battle resumed with a mountain stage from Nice to Pra Loup. Merckx attacked and dropped Thévenet on the Col d'Allos. As he raced towards the final climb, his hold on the yellow jersey looked to be safe for another day.

But then Merckx blew up in sensational style on Pra Loup. Thévenet, who thought his chance of victory had disappeared, gained new heart as word of the Belgian's collapse spread down the mountain. In a memorable confrontation, the Frenchman caught a suffering Merckx two kilometres from the summit.

Yellow no more

By the time he crossed the stage finish line, Thévenet had turned a one-minute deficit at the foot of Pra Loup to a two-minute advantage at the top.

Merckx had worn the yellow jersey for the last time in his career. He claimed that his breakdown on Pra Loup was caused by medication he had taken to alleviate the effects of the thump he had received on the Puy de Dôme.

As if empowered by the yellow jersey on his back, Thévenet produced the ride of his life next day on the Col d'Izoard. The moonlike landscape of the Izoard was the setting for Thévenet's epic as he put two minutes into Merckx, which virtually assured him of victory in Paris.

Merckx meanwhile ran into more trouble before the stage 17 start in Valloire. Riding to the start he collided with Denmark's Ole Ritter and fell on his face, breaking a cheekbone.

He still rode an aggressive stage, in the vain hope of dethroning Thévenet. But as the days went by, the pain grew worse and he had difficulty eating.

The Tour doctor advised him to abandon, but Merckx was determined to reach Paris no matter what the cost. He was also aware that had he pulled out of the Tour it would have left his loyal team-mates a lot poorer. Without Merckx's second-place prize money and the cash he picked up in the points, mountains and team classifications, the Molteni men would have had little to show for their three weeks' hard labour.

Later, Merckx would say his decision to continue in the Tour was "really stupid. It was a mistake that helped to cut short my career."

Merckx kept on attacking all the way to the Champs-Elysées. But the Tour had been a lost cause since the Alps, where Merckx had suffered his first serious defeat and Thévenet had opened a lead of almost three minutes.

>>> Cycling Legends: the ultimate guide to Eddy Merckx – pre-order your copy now

Show us your scars #3: Bernard Hinault

Tom Simpson is the rider most cycling fans associate with the iconic chequerboard pattern, and indeed Simpson joined the Peugeot team in 1963, the year the jersey was launched (teams sponsored by Peugeot had existed since 1901).

>>> Tom Simpson: a life in pictures

Ask anyone for the image that comes to mind when they hear the word ‘Peugeot’ and they’ll probably describe a black-and-white-clad Simpson in his familiar hunched position, head to one side, eyes burning holes in the road against an awe-inspiring backdrop of high Alps.

Simpson blazed a trail for future British and English-speaking riders to wear the jersey of this most French of teams. Robert Millar turned pro with Peugeot in 1980, as did Stephen Roche the following year and Sean Yates the year after that.

Australians Phil Anderson and Allan Peiper also started their professional cycling careers with Peugeot. All four were graduates of Athletic Club de Boulogne-Billancourt (ACBB), Peugeot’s amateur feeder team, whose ambitious international riders were known as the Foreign Legion.

Steady, Eddy

Considerable though the anglophone accomplishments in the chequered jersey are, let’s not forget the greatest cyclist who ever lived, Eddy Merckx, wore it for two seasons at the beginning of his career, too — the 1966 and 1967 seasons when Simpson was team leader.

Merckx turned pro with the Belgian Solo-Superia team in 1965 but following an unhappy year under team leader Rik Van Looy he moved to Peugeot.

Merckx told our sister magazine Cycle Sport in 2004: “The atmosphere at Peugeot was totally different. All I got from Van Looy and his cronies was ridicule, not one piece of help or advice. They were very unfair. I was still just a naive young boy really. With Peugeot, and especially with Tom, it was different. ‘Step by step Eddy,’ he used to keep saying to me. I was so anxious to improve. Most of all, though, he taught me bravery.”

The two team-mates briefly fell out at the 1967 Paris-Nice when Merckx took an early lead. Once they’d made up Simpson won, helped by Merckx in an epic stage that the Belgian took, giving the Briton the final leader’s jersey.

Merckx of course won all five of his Tours de France once he’d left Peugeot, but ironically it was Frenchman Bernard Thévenet who ended Merckx’s run by winning the Tour de France in 1975 — for Peugeot. Thévenet won a second Tour in the chequered Peugeot jersey in 1977, the team’s last Tour win.

Peugeot became Vêtements Z-Peugeot in 1987 and the classic jersey was replaced with the pop art-inspired blue, yellow and pink design that would become the battledress of Greg LeMond.

This article first appeared in the June 4 edition of Cycling Weekly

We recently asked Cycling Weekly readers who they thought was the greatest cyclist that the world has ever witnessed, and received an overwhelming number of replies.

Many of the names cropped up several times over. Some are racers with bulging lists of wins, others are riders who have achieved greatness through remarkable feats.

Here is a selection of who you think is the greatest on two wheels. Is there anyone that's been missed out? Tell us in the comment box below.

>>> Paul Smith’s five most stylish modern cyclists

Eddy Merckx. The ‘Cannibal’ completely dominated all cycling events from the classics to the grand tours. He even held the UCI Hour record. No other cyclist in history is as well-rounded or dominating - period. End of debate!

John Maruyama

Marianne Vos. Eddy Merckx was amazing but Vos wins at track, cyclo-cross and road. An unbelievable athlete woefully under-heralded outside of cycling due to her sex. She is a true superstar.

Greg Baker

With modern-day specialists in the classics, sprints, track, time trials and grand tours you can't look past Bradley Wiggins. He has performed and excelled in all areas of the sport (even a sprint at the 2012 Tour de Romandie).

Andy Turner

My mate Bill worked as a delivery boy for the local butcher and had a paper round.

Stuart Boyd

Beryl Burton: with no real funding whilst holding a full-time job, she held the 12-hour record for ladies and men for two years. Along with world and national championship titles, she was a real British legend. My heroine and inspiration.

Carl Braithwaite

Graeme Obree for innovation, talent and the will to succeed against all odds. He helped change the thinking behind aerodynamics and bike design. A real inspiration.

Phil Rush

Clayton Cea

John Howard AKA the Energizer bunny. He held more cycling world records than any other cyclist. Land speed, 24-hour indoor on track and rollers, 24 hour outdoor and five or so American national titles.

Scott Ilg

Kevin Costner in American Flyers. As a boy, that was living the dream.

Dean Adriannse

>>> How would YOU improve coverage of bike racing on TV?

Mark Cavendish. My personal hero as a current youth rider, a great sprinter, great track rider, getting better on the climbs and an all-round nice guy.

Aaron Ramsey

Tommy Godwin. He was the first guy do 100,000 miles in 500 days back in 1939, and the record still stands.

Robert Windsor

Lance Armstrong, and here’s why. He may have doped but the dope didn’t ride the bike, he had to do that. He was class on two wheels and as we have all subsequently discovered, probably 95 per cent of teams and riders were at it. What we also forget is what else he actually did for the sport. He was the first to use all the technology and look into bike and apparel design. No one trained the way he did. Both are now the blueprint for the majority of teams and riders today.

Jay Gee

The best cyclist ever is possibly amongst the many clean cyclists whose careers were stomped on and curtailed by riders on performance-enhancing drugs, especially during the EPO years.

Jack Hunt

Eddy Merckx, easy, and a mention for Beryl Burton who if around today would be a superstar, at one time her 24-hour time trial distance was further than the men's distance!

Sebastian Rose

Mario Cippollini - fashion was his statement and he brought it to cycling.

Alex Perez

Any of the Tour winners that competed on fixed gears. They were amazing athletes!

Paul W Banks

John Tomac won many categories in road, cyclo-cross, cross-country mtb, downhill mtb, etc. and he's an all-round nice guy.

Firesheps Sheps

In professional cycling the person wearing the rainbow bands is a god. For this reason anybody wearing a replica rainbow jersey on a recreational ride commits an act of blasphemy. To wear a yellow, green or polka-dot jersey when you haven’t actually earned it in the Tour de France is still a sin, but not deserving of eternal damnation the way wearing an unearned rainbow jersey is.

The blue, red, black, yellow and green bands on the pure white background have a power all of their own. To catch sight of them makes any cycling enthusiast simultaneously catch their breath. This is a jersey that has been worn by the greatest cyclists in the world since 1927. Not by domestiques from an unfancied team, but by actual winners who are stronger than everybody else in the world’s most important one-day race.

>>> Cycling quiz: name the 70s world champion

A rainbow jersey is awarded to the world champion in any cycling discipline run under the UCI’s rules and regulations, which means you might think its power would be diluted.

Not a bit of it. Whatever you think of the UCI, the fervour with which it defends the right of only one rider to display rainbow bands is formidable.

The UCI has intervened in the past to prevent infringements of its rainbow bands rules, which state that until the day before the World Championship of the following year, the world champions must wear their jersey in all events in the discipline, speciality and category in which they won their title, and in no other event. When he or she is no longer world champion, they may wear rainbow piping on jersey collar and cuffs, but again only in the event they won the title. As for rainbow stripes or piping on equipment other than jerseys, those are strictly for the current world champion.

The five colours were originally lifted from the Olympic logo with its five interlocking rings — itself ferociously defended by the IOC — but have now become such a distinctive and beautiful symbol of the very top level of cycling that you can’t blame the UCI for wanting to safeguard their exclusivity.

Thinking of going out dressed as Michal Kwiatkowski? Don’t do it.

Eddy Merckx has backed Alberto Contador to succeed in his quest to win both the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France this season, but Team Sky are reportedly not convinced the attempt will even take place.

Speaking to Spanish newspaper MARCA, five-time Tour champion, Merckx, insisted his form in France was always better if he raced the Italian tour beforehand.

>>> Eddy Merckx’s 70th birthday bike could be yours for £11,500 (video)

Merckx was no stranger to racing two Grand Tours in a season, winning the Giro-Tour double on four of the five occasions he entered both (he was disqualified the other time) and taking both the Vuelta a Espana and Giro in 1973.

"For me, going to the Giro is the best possible preparation for the Tour,” Merckx said. “It is not as fast as the French race, only mountainous. And I know from experience.

“I did much better in the Tour if I had ridden the Giro beforehand. I think the others, Froome, Nibali and Quintana should [attempt the double] too.”

>>> Merckx: Bradley Wiggins ‘cannot afford to fail’ in Hour Record ride

He added: “There is no reason he should get tired. You know all the time that you have between the two races? Seriously, [he shouldn't be] tired at all. You can even go to the Tour of Switzerland. Anyway, he will have more than enough time to recover. That this is cycling, not soccer!”

Meanwhile, Chris Froome’s Tour domestique David Lopez claimed that people within Team Sky would not be surprised if Contador doesn’t even enter the Giro.

Lopez told MARCA on Tuesday: "Contador in the Giro? We at Sky do not believe that he will. In the end he may decide to stake everything on the Tour. It would not be the first time that he says one thing and does another.”

Wind, echelons and splits could define the 2016 World Championships in Doha, the first in the Middle East, explained Eddy Merckx.

"I don't make the weather, but you have much more wind here in Qatar than you'd find in Europe," Merckx said.

"The 2002 Zolder Worlds had nothing, no wind, no climb, nothing. But if you have wind in Qatar... ha! You saw what happened with the women's race on stage two with splits and echelons, and last year, the Tour of Qatar had stages with averages of more than 50km an hour."

>>> Tour of Qatar 2014 stage four: the fastest road race in history?

The cycling great co-owns the Tour of Qatar. He helped the local organising committee win its worlds bid and designed the course, which the national federation partially unveiled yesterday in the capital city.

The time trials are based around Katara to Doha's north. The Under 23, elite men and women road races will cover an 80-kilometre loop to the west and north before completing laps of a circuit in Doha. The 19-kilometre circuit starts and ends in Doha, travels north through Katara over smooth city cobbles and through The Pearl district.

"On the big lap, when you are in the desert, coming back on small roads, that will make it very exciting and can also make the decision. Big names could eliminated already in the first 80 kilometres. If you have wind, a flat tyre at a bad moment, with the wind, you can forget it," Merckx continued.

>>> Eddy Merckx presents 2016 Doha World Championships course

"On the small circuit, it's not straight, you don't have five kilometres of straight roads. In 19 kilometres, we have many turns, and that will make it very exciting. You will have wind coming in from the side, from the front. With a big peloton through the many turns, it'll be hard. But you don't know, you can't say beforehand. Like I said, I don't predict the weather."

Due to the extreme Arab summers and the 2016 Olympics, the Worlds will move back two weeks from September to October 9-16. Merckx added that in that time of the year, it rains. He noted the time when he was in Qatar for the 2006 Asian Games' opening ceremony and for a meeting last October.

"The course will be good for the Belgians, good for the sprinters and classic riders... Especially, two months after the Olympics, and there will be other riders. I don't think the sprinters will prepare for the Olympics, they will have no chance, but they will prepare for the World Championships."

The 2016 Road World Championships in Doha, which runs from October 9 to 16, will make history for being the first in the Middle East, and will suit sprinters and classics riders with its flat and windy parcours.

"It's one for the sprinters and classics riders," said Eddy Merckx, who presented the Worlds course on Saturday in Doha.

"It is flat like in Copenhagen and Zolder, but there will likely be wind and could be rain, and the race could split into echelons."

Brit Lizzie Armitstead won the Ladies Tour of Qatar on Friday thanks to her Boels-Dolman team's work on the wind-swept stage two over the flat and sandy Persian Gulf state.

Tom Boonen (Etixx-Quick Step) has won four editions of the men's stage race thanks to his skills sprinting and riding in echelons.

The 2016 Worlds will be the first in the Middle East for an event that began in 1927. Given the peninsula state is flat, the organiser worked with what sits the Tour of Qatar apart: wind.

The time trial events are based around Katara to Doha's north. The elite men's and women's, and Under 23's road races will cover 80km through the sand-swept countryside west and north of Doha before returning to the capital city to race on a 19km circuit.

"The parcours will include an 80km circuit in the windy countryside to include space for the strong elite teams to create echelons," explained John Lelangue, Director of Sport Operations for the national cycling federation.

"The 19km circuit will run north of Doha through Katara, over nice cobbles, nothing like Paris-Roubaix or the Tour of Flanders, then continue on The Pearl. It's on the seaside, always exposed to the wind and guaranteed to create a hard course for classics riders and sprinters."

>>> All the news from the 2014 World Championships

Instead of late September, the Worlds will take an early October date to avoid the Arab summer and to give space for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

"We have looked over the last 10 years at that October 16 date. It was 35°C in 2014, 36°C in 2013... The average over 10 years was between 31° and 32°. The peak was in 2008, when it hit 38°. That was the exception,” said Lelangue.

"To make sure we are covered, we are working with the UCI and giving attention to the feed zones to make sure every rider gets his feeding. We are also considering motorbikes with water bottles like in the Tour de France or other big races."

Bradley Wiggins must beat the Hour Record if he attempts it this summer because failure would tarnish his palmarès, says Eddy Merckx.

"If you're nobody and you don't beat it, there's no problem, but if Wiggins attacks the Hour Record, he has to beat it," Merckx told Cycling Weekly.

"It was the same way with me because I'd already won the Tour de France two or three times, the Tour of Italy, the classics and things like that. The journalists in Mexico thought I couldn't beat it. I knew that I had to if I went for it. I also felt that my career wouldn't be complete if I didn't break the Hour Record."

>>> How they used to train: Eddy Merckx's chain gang 

Merckx dominated cycling through the 1960s and 1970s and won all three Grand Tours and every major classic. He is regarded as cycling's greatest cyclist ever.

He rode 49.431 kilometres in Mexico City in 1972 when he attempted, and broke, the Hour Record that had been held by greats such as Fausto Coppi and Jacques Anquetil. That record became cycling's benchmark when in 2000 the governing body changed the rules to limit positions and bikes that cyclists could use.

After a rule change in May 2014 that allowed pursuit-style bikes, cyclists began planning and attempting the record again. German Jens Voigt marked his retirement with a ride of 51.110 kilometres. Austrian Matthias Brändle (IAM Cycling) went next and set the current record of 51.852.

Jack Bobridge (Budget Forklifts), however, finished around 500 metres short in his attempt on Saturday in Melbourne. That is something Wiggins cannot afford, said Merckx.

"Wiggins should break it, though. For sure," Merckx continued.

"I agree [he will set an untouchable record]. I think 55 kilometres is too much. It is too much in one hour, even for Wiggins, who's an exceptional athlete."

Wiggins will reportedly attempt the Hour Record in June in the Lee Valley Velodrome used for the 2012 London Olympics. The track runs for 250 metres.

"If I was going to do the hour record again today then I'd do it in a closed velodrome, but on a track like in Moscow, a track that's 333 metres,” added Merckx. “The bigger the track the better it is for pushing through the curves."

The radio station who reported the possibility of a stage finish on top of the giant Cime de la Bonette climb, Dici.fr, have now come up with a more logical, and logistically acceptable, suggestion for where the finish of stage 20 of the 2015 Tour de France will be. It’s the ski village of Pra-Loup at the end of the climb that took the biggest scalp in cycling.

There will be a stage finish in the Ubaye Valley next year, there’s no doubt about that. Every hotel room is booked up there for the night of July 20, and most are the same for the 21st. So that suggests a stage finish in the Ubaye Valley, a rest day in Gap at the eastern end of the valley on July 21, and a stage start there on the 22. That stage could end on Alpe d’Huez, which has been rumoured to be in the 2015 Tour for quite some time.

But why is Pra-Loup being suggested as the stage finish? Because 2015 sees the 40th anniversary of the end of Eddy Merckx’s reign in the Tour de France. The Tour was where Merckx earned his nickname, the Cannibal, and he dominated every time he took part from 1969 to 1974, winning every Tour he started. Whatever the Tour de France threw at him, Merckx beat it, most often with a knock-out blow.

Back in 1975 he looked to be on his way to doing the same, when he was punched by a spectator on the climb of the Puy-de-Dome on stage 14. Merckx lost 34 seconds in the short time it took him to reach the summit after the incident, but he still had the yellow jersey by 58 seconds.

The next stage went from Nice to Pra-Loup. Merckx’s lead was still healthy. He could have ridden cautiously to help his body recover from the bad bruising he’d suffered. Except Eddy Merckx didn’t know what cautious was. He looked in command as the lead group climbed the Col des Champs, then he attacked near the top with 63 kilometres to go.

Merckx descended alone, then flew up and over the Col d’Allos, extending his lead all the way. Then he began the climb to the ski station at Pra-Loup. He was pedalling strongly and had a healthy lead. Pra-Loup isn’t a steep climb, or a very long or very dramatic one; the drama was all with Merckx because he suddenly went into slow motion. For the first time ever in a bike race Eddy Merckx had over-estimated his strength and completely blown up. He was human, after all.

Behind him, Bernard Thevenet launched an attack that splintered the chasing group. He caught Merckx and rode straight past him, not even looking at him. Next up was Felice Gimondi, Merckx’s oldest rival. How Gimondi would have loved to have beaten Merckx in a straight fight, but now he looked across at a man who over the years had also become his friend, who he admired, and who was now in trouble. Gimondi rode alongside Merckx for a while, seeming to try to rally him, but it didn’t work and the Italian had to press on.

Merckx lost nearly two minutes in five kilometres, falling to second overall behind Thevenet at 58 seconds. And next day Thevenet took him to the cleaners, winning in Serre-Chevallier, after crossing the Col d’Izoard splendidly alone in the yellow jersey, to put Merckx 3 minutes and 20 seconds behind him. Merckx carried on valiantly to Paris, despite fracturing a cheekbone in a crash, to finish second. And he attacked Thevenet all the way. But he’d lost his first Tour de France, when he had expected to win his sixth.

Stage 20 will start in Digne, the authorities have confirmed that. Then the route makers have the choice of taking the riders over the Cime de la Bonette, or the Col de Cayolle before finishing in Pra Loup. Or they may replicate the 1975 stage by using the Col des Champs and Col d’Allos before the finish.