that won’t stop us, though<\/a> \u2013 but Poga\u010dar’s insatiable appetite for victory is reminiscent of that of Merckx.<\/p>\nPoga\u010dar is currently cantering to a fifth Tour de France victory (that would draw him alongside Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indur\u00e1in) \u2013 at 27 years old. <\/p>\n
The Slovenian has also won 13 Monuments (to Merckx’s 19) and only Paris-Roubaix evades Poga\u010dar if he is to join Belgian trio Merckx, Rik Van Looy and Roger De Vlaeminck as the riders to have won all five of cycling’s biggest one-day races.<\/p>\n
In terms of total victories, however, there’s a clear winner \u2013 Merckx finished his career with 525 wins, while Poga\u010dar sits on 125 (at the time of writing).<\/p>\n
Eddy Merckx’s wins, in numbers:<\/p>\n
Total victories: 525
\nTour de France overall wins: 5 (1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974)
\nTour de France individual stage wins: 34
\nGiro d’Italia overall wins: 5 (1968, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974)
\nGiro d’Italia individual stage wins: 24
\nVuelta a Espana overall wins: 1 (1973)
\nVuelta a Espana individual stage wins: 6
\nMomument wins: 19<\/p>\n
Milan-San Remo \u2013 7 (1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1976)
\nTour of Flanders \u2013 2 (1968, 1975)
\nParis-Roubaix \u2013 3 (1968, 1970, 1973)
\nLi\u00e8ge\u2013Bastogne\u2013Li\u00e8ge \u2013 5 (1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975)
\nGiro di Lombardia \u2013 2 (1971, 1972)<\/p>\n
Elite World Championship road race wins: 3 (1967, 1971, 1974)<\/p>\n
Why was his nickname ‘The Cannibal’?
\n![\"Eddy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-1157642715.jpg\")
“Me again?” Getty Images<\/p>\n
Merckx’s \u2018Cannibal\u2019 tag came from his all-consuming competitiveness. No following the unwritten rules by letting someone else win a stage if he was ahead.<\/p>\n
If he had a beef \u2013 with other cyclists, the press or race organisers (most notoriously at the 1969 Giro d\u2019Italia, when he was banned following a dubious \u2018drug test result\u2019 \u2013 he was later cleared) \u2013 his legs usually did the talking.<\/p>\n
The Merckx of vintage race photos is aloof, focused. On the podium, he\u2019s nonchalant, with a told-you-so smile. Those to whom he has granted rare interviews report an affable man, quick to laugh, always in control.<\/p>\n
When did Merckx retire, and what happened next?
\n![\"Eddy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-1560808857.jpg\")
Merckx, pictured here with Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme in 2023, has remained highly influential. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Merckx retired at only 32 in 1978, having made modest earnings compared to today\u2019s riders \u2013 a fact that he is keenly aware of, but has evidently coped with.<\/p>\n
Since then, he has stayed in cycling. In 1980, he formed Eddy Merckx Cycles, making bikes that were used in pro races, but he sold his majority share in 2008 (the brand survives today thanks to a buyout by Belgian Cycling Factory, Ridley\u2019s parent company, in 2017). He coached various teams and is still one of cycling’s most influential figures.<\/p>\n
Merckx grew up speaking French and Dutch \u2013 his parents ran a grocery shop in Brabant \u2013 and is popular in both Flanders and Wallonia, his country\u2019s two sometimes-adversarial main parts. So, we might add \u2018social unifier\u2019 to his achievements.<\/p>\n
Sorry Adolphe Sax, Audrey Hepburn, Jacques Brel, Ren\u00e9 Magritte et al \u2013 Eddy Merckx might just be the world\u2019s most famous Belgian, too.<\/p>\n
So, a victory machine who conquered all on every surface and a voracious appetite that could not be sated, no matter how many wins he racked up. That\u2019s why Eddy Merckx is held in such regard.<\/p>\n
More Tour de France questions answered<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddy Merckx. The Cannibal. The GOAT. As with Muhammad Ali in boxing or Pel\u00e9 in football, if people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-707144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2286080861.jpg\")
Tadej Poga\u010dar leads the 2026 Tour de France by more than four minutes. Getty Images<\/p>\n