Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx

Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx, fondly known as Eddy Merckx was born on 17^th June 1945. He is a former professional road and track bicycle racer from Belgium who is known to be an iconic figure in the world of road and track cycling. He is famously known as "The Cannibal" and the "Cycling God".

Some of his major career achievements:

• Holds a total of 525 career victories, most by a professional cyclist
• Won 34 times the Tour de France individual stages between 1969 and 1975
• Bagged a gold medal in Amateur’s road race category, at the 1964 UCI Road World Championships, held in Sallanches
• Won a gold medal in Professional road race category at the 1967 UCI Road World Championships, held in Heerlen
• The only cyclist to have won the General Classification, Points Classification and Mountains Classification in the Tour de France in 1969.
• Claimed a gold medal in Professional road race category, at the 1971 UCI Road World Championships, held in Mendrisio
• Bagged a gold medal in Professional road race category, at the 1974 UCI Road World Championships, held in Montreal
• 8 stage victories in one Tour de France, in 1970 and 1974
• He has 28 classics victories under his belt.
• Claimed 7 victories in One Single Classic Event at Milan–San Remo
• He holds the record for most victories in Grand Tours (11).
• Became track champion 3 times at the European Championships
• Claimed Belgian Madison Championship titles 7 times (with Patrick Sercu)
• He has the credit of breaking the World Hour Record with an unparalleled distance of 49.431 km.
• He has 5 Tours De France, 5 Giro d’Italia, 3 World Championships, and 7 Milan–San Remos titles.
• Honoured by being appointed the Commander of the Legion of Honour in the year 2014