Axel Merckx

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Axel Merckx
Axel Merckx.JPG
Merckx in 2006
Personal information
Full nameAxel Merckx
Born (1972-08-08) 8 August 1972 (age 52)
Uccle, Belgium
Height1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight77 kg (170 lb)
Team information
Current team Hagens Berman Jayco
DisciplineRoad
Role
  • Rider (retired)
  • General manager
  • Team manager
Rider typeAll-rounder
Professional teams
1993 Motorola (stagiaire)
1994 Team Telekom
1995–1996 Motorola
1997–1998 Team Polti
1999–2000 Mapei–Quick-Step
2001–2002 Domo–Farm Frites–Latexco
2003–2005 Lotto–Domo
2006 Phonak
2007 T-Mobile Team
Managerial teams
2009– Trek–Livestrong [1]
2011 Team RadioShack
Major wins
Grand Tours
Giro d'Italia
1 individual stage (2000)

One-day races and Classics

National Road Race Championships (2000)
Medal record
Representing Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Belgium
Men's road bicycle racing
Olympic Games
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2004 Athens Road Race

Axel Eddy Lucien Jonkheer Merckx [2] (born 8 August 1972) is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer and the son of five-time Tour de France champion Eddy Merckx. He is team director of UCI Continental team Hagens Berman Jayco. [3]

Contents

In his professional career, he won the Belgian national road race championship in 2000 and a bronze medal in the road race at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Cycling career

Born in Uccle, Axel Merckx became a professional cyclist in 1993, winning the Belgian national road race championship in 2000. He vowed to make his mark by accomplishing feats that had eluded his father, such as winning a Tour de France stage at Alpe d'Huez and the Paris–Tours classic. He did not succeed, but competed in eight Tours de France and finished as the highest-placed Belgian rider six times. His personal best finish was tenth in the 1998 edition.

Merckx won the bronze medal in the road race at the 2004 Games in Athens, breaking free in the final kilometre.

During the 2006 Tour de France, Merckx announced that he signed a new contract for one extra season with Phonak, later renamed iShares. He stated that this would be his last season as a professional road bicycle racer. However, after Phonak announced that it would stop sponsoring the cycling team, Merckx signed a contract with Team T-Mobile, where he had started his professional career. During the 2006 Tour Merckx was instrumental in forcing the pace of the peloton for teammate Floyd Landis who won the Tour. He was oftentimes the only teammate able to stay with Landis and the group of favorites and he initially finished 31st overall, however it was later discovered that Landis had failed a doping control after stage 17 and the Tour win was revoked.

Merckx announced his retirement from professional cycling at the end of the 2007 Tour de France. [4] He won his last race at Lommel, in August 2007. [5]

His name was on the list of doping tests published by the French Senate on 24 July 2013 that were collected during the 1998 Tour de France then retested in 2004. Merckx was not one of then 18 riders named as testing positive for EPO but was on a list of 12 named riders whose test results were listed as "suspicious". [6]

Merckx is the owner and directeur sportif of the Hagens Berman Jayco team.[ citation needed ]

Personal life

Merckx married Canadian triathlete Jodi Cross in 1997, and they lived in Kelowna, British Columbia. They have two children, Axana (born 5 May 2001) and Athina Grace (born 29 June 2005).[ citation needed ]

As of April 2024, Merckx was in a relationship with American cyclist Chloe Dygert, with whom he lives in Belgium. [7]

When his father was made a baron—a personal title—in Belgium, he also received the hereditary title Écuyer (in French) or Jonkheer (in Dutch). Thereby Axel Merckx has also been ennobled. [8]

Major results

1992
1st Stage 9 Tour de l'Avenir
1993
2nd Seraing–Aachen–Seraing
1994
9th Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia
1995
6th Overall Tour Méditerranéen
8th Overall Danmark Rundt
8th Veenendaal–Veenendaal
9th Grand Prix Eddy Merckx
1996
3rd Giro di Lombardia
4th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
6th Brabantse Pijl
7th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
10th Overall Tour DuPont
1997
6th Giro di Lombardia
9th Breitling Grand Prix (with Jörg Jaksche)
1998
2nd Overall Bayern Rundfahrt
1st Stage 3
2nd Clásica de San Sebastián
2nd Subida a Urkiola
6th Trofeo Pantalica
7th Gran Premio de Primavera de Amorebieta
7th Breitling Grand Prix (with Jörg Jaksche)
9th Grand Prix Eddy Merckx
10th Overall Tour de France
1999
3rd Road race, National Road Championships
4th Tour du Haut Var
9th Overall Tour Méditerranéen
2000
1st MaillotBelgica.PNG Road race, National Road Championships
1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Tour de la Région Wallonne
1st Stage 8 Giro d'Italia
3rd Châteauroux Classic
4th Overall Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt
5th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
5th Tour du Haut Var
7th Overall Tour Méditerranéen
7th Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
9th Overall Volta a Catalunya
10th La Flèche Wallonne
2001
1st Grand Prix de Wallonie
3rd Brabantse Pijl
5th Trofeo Laigueglia
7th Coppa Sabatini
7th Route Adélie de Vitré
7th EnBW Grand Prix (with Piotr Wadecki)
9th Road race, National Road Championships
2002
2nd Overall Vuelta a Andalucía
6th Road race, National Road Championships
6th La Flèche Wallonne
2003
1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Tour de l'Ain
3rd Overall Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt
3rd Overall Hessen–Rundfahrt
4th Overall Tour of Belgium
10th Luk-Cup Bühl
2004
3rd Bronze medal olympic.svg Road race, Olympic Games
5th Brabantse Pijl
8th Grand Prix Eddy Merckx
2005
1st Stage 5 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
3rd Brabantse Pijl
4th LuK Challenge (with Marc Wauters)

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour 19941995199619971998199920002001200220032004200520062007
Jersey pink.svg Giro d'Italia 19 25 DNF 50
Jersey yellow.svg Tour de France 10 DNF 22 28 DNF 21 39 30 62
Jersey gold.svg Vuelta a España 21 17
Legend
Did not compete
DNF Did not finish

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References

  1. "UCI approves Axeon Pro Continental status". Cyclingnews.com . 4 December 2017. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  2. État présent de la noblesse belge, 4th series, 2003 /2014
  3. "Hagens Berman Axeon". UCI.org. Union Cycliste Internationale. Archived from the original on 2 April 2020. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  4. Brecht Decaluwé (28 July 2007). "Merckx says farewell with final break". Angoulême. Retrieved 27 July 2007.
  5. "Axel Merckx wins after Tour criterium at Lommel". 7 August 2007. Archived from the original on 21 July 2009. Retrieved 7 August 2007.
  6. "French Senate releases positive EPO cases from 1998 Tour de France".
  7. "'I want to be the best in the world' - sitting down with Chloé Dygert".
  8. 25.000 nobles en Belgique. La Dernière Heure / Les Sports (DH Net) 11 July 2005.