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Axel Merckx

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Axel Merckx
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 teamHagens Berman Jayco
DisciplineRoad
Role
  • Rider (retired)
  • General manager
  • Team manager
Rider typeAll-rounder
Professional teams
1993Motorola (stagiaire)
1994Team Telekom
1995–1996Motorola
1997–1998Team Polti
1999–2000Mapei–Quick-Step
2001–2002Domo–Farm Frites–Latexco
2003–2005Lotto–Domo
2006Phonak
2007T-Mobile Team
Managerial teams
2009–Trek–Livestrong[1]
2011Team RadioShack
Major wins
Grand Tours
Giro d'Italia
1 individual stage (2000)

Stage races

Tour de l'Ain (2003)

One-day races and Classics

National Road Race Championships (2000)
GP de Wallonie (2001)
Medal record
Representing  Belgium
Men's road bicycle racing
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 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]

In his professional career (1993–2007), 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

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]
1992
1st Stage 9 Tour de l'Avenir
1995
2nd Sint-Truiden
6th Overall Tour Méditerranéen
8th Overall Danmark Rundt
1996
1st GP Sanson
3rd Giro di Lombardia
4th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
6th Brabantse Pijl
7th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1998
2nd Overall Bayern Rundfahrt
1st Stage 3
2nd Clásica de San Sebastián
2nd Subida Urkiola
10th Overall Tour de France
1999
3rd Road race, National Road Championships
4th Tour du Haut Var
9th Overall Tour Méditerranéen
2000
1st Road race, National Road Championships
1st 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
9th Overall Volta a Catalunya
10th La Flèche Wallonne
2001
1st Grand Prix de Wallonie
1st Ronde d'Aix-en-Provence
3rd Brabantse Pijl
5th Trofeo Laigueglia
7th Coppa Sabatini
7th Route Adélie de Vitré
2002
2nd Overall Vuelta a Andalucía
6th La Flèche Wallonne
2003
1st Overall Tour de l'Ain
3rd Overall Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt
3rd Overall Hessen–Rundfahrt
4th Overall Tour of Belgium
2004
3rd Road race, Olympic Games
5th Brabantse Pijl
2005
1st Stage 5 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
3rd Brabantse Pijl

References

[edit]
  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.
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