“I'm doing well” - Eddy Merckx reassures fans in first public appearance since emergency intestinal surgery

Arguably the greatest cyclist of all time, the legendary Eddy Merckx worried the cycling world recently when it was revealed he'd been rushed to hospital for emergency intestinal surgery.

Thankfully, despite looking noticeably thinner, the 78-year-old Belgian was fit enough to return to the public eye on Friday with an appearance at the opening of a new cycling museum at the foot of the Col de la Redoute, with the five-time Tour de France winner reassuring fans "I'm doing well."

Having had a significant part of his intestine removed in the early hours of the 27th of March, the sight of Merckx up and about again is a welcome one. "Everything went well,” son Axel Merckx told RTL having accompanied his father to the museum opening. “He still needs time to recover. You should not forget that he will soon be 79, then things will go a bit slower. He is coming for the first time since the operation outside again. He looks good and doesn't feel bad. It's good to see him back on his feet."

Despite the trials and tribulations of the last month, Merckx has been keeping updated on the happenings in the peloton, with the five-time Liege-Bastogne-Liege winner eagerly anticipating this year's edition. “Stephen Williams amazed me in La Fleche Wallonne - he can aim for the podium. And I hope that our Belgians can also show themselves. It is encouraging that Maxim Van Gils is not afraid of bad weather,” Merckx told SudInfo.

It's Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar who've most caught the eye of the Belgian however. “Even though people say that he saved himself in the Amstel, I thought Mathieu looked a little less fresh there,” he says. “Which is of course perfectly normal, after those efforts in the Tour and Roubaix. Even for such a champion, that starts to weigh on him after a while. That's why I go for Pogacar, because it has the advantage of freshness."