ANALYSIS | Eddy Merckx turns 80: What was his greatest moment?

Eddy Merckx turns 80 this week, a milestone for a man widely regarded as the greatest road cyclist of all time. Known as “The Cannibal” for his incredible appetite for victory, the Belgian dominated professional cycling in the 1960s and 1970s like no one before.

His career tally of 525 wins includes an unequalled 11 Grand Tour titles, 19 Monument classic victories, and three world championship wins, a palmarès that remains the gold standard in the sport. As the cycling world celebrates Merckx’s 80th birthday, it’s a perfect moment to look back at five of his most legendary moments on the road.

From epic mountain victories to cobbled destruction, these episodes illustrate why Merckx’s legacy towers above all others on two wheels. In this article, we revisit five defining road racing moments of Eddy Merckx’s career. They span the arc of Merckx’s reign, from a breakthrough in the Dolomites, to unprecedented dominance in the Tour de France, to conquering the fiercest one day “Hell”, and finally to the ultimate triple crown of cycling.

Together, these moments paint a portrait of a champion whose competitive fire knew no limits. So, happy birthday Eddy, and here are some of his greatest ever moments…

Halfway through the 1968 Giro d’Italia, a 22-year-old Eddy Merckx announced himself as a Grand Tour force with an extraordinary ride in the Dolomites. The stage was to Tre Cime di Lavaredo, a towering trio of peaks, and Merckx, whilst a prodigious talent, was viewed by some as a fast finisher lacking the stamina for a grand tour.

He shattered that notion on this brutal mountain.

Launching an attack despite the blizzard, Merckx methodically hunted down the breakaway riders one by one. Many of the sport’s finest climbers were left struggling in his wake on the icy slopes. At the summit finish, Merckx crossed the line alone, triumphant and shivering from the cold. That day, Merckx decimated the GC men, and Felice Gimondi finished over six minutes behind the Belgian, and in tears…

This was the spring board of Merckx’s reign as the King of Cycling. He crushed his rivals in the most treacherous of conditions, and then went on to win the race with four stage wins too.

If 1968 announced Merckx’s Grand Tour potential, the 1969 Tour de France confirmed his absolute supremacy. Riding his debut Tour, Merckx delivered one of the most dominant performances in the race’s history. He seized the yellow jersey early and never relinquished it, and won an incredible six stages on his way to victory.

The 17th stage was one of the most important, and it included the Col du Tourmalet. Merckx summited the infamous climb with over a 45 second lead, and eventually won the race by…

8 minutes.

Yes, you read that right, eight whole minutes. What makes this Tour win even more impressive, is that Merckx rode the rest of the edition with hypoglycaemia, showing that he was a warrior as well as a pure winner.

Paris-Roubaix is always grim, but in 1970 it was especially so. Heavy rain, and illness for Merckx, meant victory seemed unlikely. But, in reality, it was never in doubt.

Merckx attacked with just over 30km until the finish, and went on to win the race by nearly 5 and a half minutes. This was the Belgian’s second time winning the Hell of the North, and he went on to win it again in 1973. But his 1970 was most special due to the fact his winning margin of 5 minutes and 21 seconds remains to this day the largest winning margin at the race.

If it wasn’t for his 1974 campaign, his 1973 campaign would probably be his most memorable. In fact, during a 19 day period, Merckx won four of the early season spring classics, including the monuments in Liege and Paris-Roubaix.

That year, he targeted victory at the Vuelta for the first time, and once again he won a whopping six stages on his way to his sole Vuelta title. Let’s take this moment here to note an eery similarity between Merckx and Tadej Pogacar, as Merckx seemed to win many grand tours with a total of six stage wins, as Pogacar did at both the Giro and Tour in 2024.

Back to Merckx and 1973, just four days after the Vuelta the Belgian was at the start line of the Giro. So, essentially Merckx did a six week grand tour with just four rest days in between! Would the short lay off have any affects on Merckx? No!

In fact, Merckx lead the entire race, becoming just the third man to win the Giro having lead the entire race.

If one single season could epitomize Merckx’s greatness, 1974 stands above the rest. In that year, Eddy Merckx accomplished the coveted “Triple Crown” of cycling, winning the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France, and the UCI Road World Championship in the same calendar year. Merckx’s 1974 campaign was the pinnacle of an already illustrious career.

He began by claiming the Giro d’Italia in the spring, adding yet another maglia rosa to his collection despite suffering from pneumonia. Come July, he was at the Tour de France starting line, hungry to regain the yellow jersey after not contesting the 1973 edition. Over three weeks, Merckx battled a new generation of rivals and triumphed once more in Paris, earning his fifth Tour de France victory.

But Merckx wasn’t done. In late August, he travelled to Montreal, Canada, for the World Championships road race, and there, the Cannibal delivered one more masterclass. In a race of attrition, Merckx powered into the decisive move and sprinted to the finish ahead of the world’s best, earning the rainbow jersey for the third time in his career.

By winning cycling’s Triple Crown in 1974, Merckx achieved what many consider the ultimate calendar-year accomplishment in road cycling. Since Merckx achieved the feat in 1974, only two other riders have gone on to do so, Roche (1987) and Pogacar (2024).

Each of these five moments illuminates a different tale of Eddy Merckx’s greatness. Whether battling blizzards in the high mountains, crushing the competition with unheard of dominance in the Tour, taming the cobbled hell of Roubaix, sweeping up Grand Tour titles at will, or conquering the world stage, Merckx displayed an unwavering will to win and an ability to excel in every circumstance.

The fact it has taken 50 years for us to even compare a rider to him (Tadej Pogacar) emphasises just how special a rider Merckx was. In most other sports, a new GOAT comes around every few generations, or there is at least a debate. In cycling, it has taken us half a century to start the debate, and that is simply because Merckx set the bar so high all those years ago.

What we mustn’t forget is that Merckx was also a track specialist too! In fact, he was a three time European track champion (two in Madison, one in the Omnium), which shows just how talented the Belgian was with two wheels.

Merckx was a true professional before anyone else, and that combined with his natural ability was what saw him crush his competition. Before the modernised, super-scientific world or modern cycling, Merckx was the King of a sport where the hardest, fastest, and most mentally strong riders would come out on top. Whether Pogacar surpasses him or not, we will never see another Eddy Merckx ever again.