Axel Merckx

Infobox Cyclist
ridername = Axel Merckx


image_caption =
fullname = Axel Merckx
nickname =
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1972|8|8
country = BEL
height = 1.91 m
weight = 77 kg
currentteam = Retired
discipline = Road
role = Rider
ridertype = All-rounder
protourrank =
amateurteams =
amateuryears =
proyears = 1993
1994
1995-1996
1997-1998
1999-2000
2001-2002
2003-2005
2006
2007
proteams = Motorola
Telekom
Motorola
Polti
Mapei
Domo-Farm Frites
Davitamon-Lotto
Phonak Hearing Systems
T-Mobile
majorwins = Giro d'Italia, 1 stage
GP de Wallonie (2001)
Tour de l'Ain (2003)
flagicon|BEL National Champion (2000)
updated = February 16, 2007

Axel Merckx (born August 8, 1972 in Uccle), is a former Belgian professional road bicycle racer retiring from the sport in August 2007. Since he began his professional career in 1993, he has won an Olympic Bronze medal and competed in 8 Tours de France, finishing in 6 as the highest-placed Belgian rider. During the 2006 Tour he announced that he signed a new contract for one extra season with Phonak, (to be renamed iShares). He also mentioned that this will 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 T-Mobile Team, the same team where he started his professional career.

Despite several strong years of racing, including winning the Belgian national championship in 2000, Merckx is probably still more famous for being the son of five-time Tour de France champion Eddy Merckx than for any of his cycling exploits. Despite being overshadowed by his father's formidable record, Merckx has repeatedly vowed to make his mark by accomplishing feats Eddy never managed - including a Tour de France stage win at the top of Alpe d'Huez and a win in the Paris-Tours World Cup race - but has yet to make good on these promises. He has a large number of fans in Belgium, and would undoubtedly engender a great deal more goodwill if he were ever to achieve either of those elusive wins.

One place where he has overshadowed his father is at the Olympic Games. Merckx won the bronze medal in the road race during the 2004 Games in Athens. In the final kilometre, he moved off the bunch with a canny move, thus getting a result his father never accomplished. Eddy Merckx was unable to compete in the Olympics through the prime of his career as it was then restricted to amateurs.

A good climber, Merckx is probably at his best in the mid-altitude mountain ranges, notably the Massif Central and the Ardennes. His favorite race, and the one he feels best in, is Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He is also always aiming for a Tour de France stage win, and can often be found in long breaks. His sprinting capacities are not that strong, so he is often beaten at the finish.

Merckx announced that he would be retiring from professional cycling at the end of the 2007 Tour de France.cite web
url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2007/tour07/news/?id=/news/2007/jul07/jul28news
title=Merckx says farewell with final break
date=July 28, 2007
author=Brecht Decaluwé
publisher=Angoulême
accessdate=2007-07-27] . He cycled, and won, his last race in Lommel, Belgium in early August 2007.cite web
url=http://www.davitamon-lotto.com/site2007/EN_ind_nieuws.php?id=375
title=Axel Merckx wins after Tour criterium at Lommel
date=August 7, 2007
accessdate=2007-08-07]

Merckx married Canadian triathlete Jodi Cross in 1997, and currently resides in Kelowna B.C. He has two children, Axana and Athina Grace (born June 30, 2005).

Because his father Eddy Merckx has been made a baron (as personal title, but his nobility is hereditary), Axel Merckx also belongs to the (untitled) nobility. As such, he is officially referred to as Jonkheer Axel Merckx. [ [http://www.dhnet.be/print_popup.phtml?section=dhinfos&id=125476 25.000 nobles en Belgique] . La Dernière Heure / Les Sports (DH Net) July 11 2005.] [ [http://www.liberales.be/cgi-bin/show.pl?column&ameyeadel&print Afschaffen van de adelstand] Website of Liberales denktank.] [ [http://www.koningkeizerrijken.info/adel.htm Koning en Keizerrijken] Het geheim van de Adel.] The honorific Jonkheer is roughly comparable to the British honorific "Sir". However he is not often cited like this.

2005 Tour de France

In the 2005 Tour de France Merckx finished 39th in the General Classification, as best-placed Belgian. In breakaways and when blocking the peloton together with his team, he often sets the tempo, both for his personal honor and to serve the team. Like 2004, in 2005 Davitamon-Lotto focused on the green jersey (Robbie McEwen) and on a top-ten place (Cadel Evans), so Axel's role became more that of a super-domestique, fetching bidons and keeping his team-mates out of the wind.

There were two stages very important for Merckx: (Briançon - Digne-les-Bains) on July 14 (Bastille Day), because his father won that same stage on July 9, 1969, and (Albi - Mende) on July 21, the Belgian national holiday.

Stage 12 saw an initial escape with Merckx in it. Later Thor Hushovd and Stuart O'Grady joined in, and on the Col du Corobin it was Merckx's task to keep the pace up by breaking away and throw them off to minimize McEwen's green jersey point loss. At the same time, the Davitamon-Lotto domestiques like Johan Vansummeren, Christophe Brandt and Mario Aerts rode fast (this might seem a strange tactic), to catch Hushovd and O'Grady. After the sprinters were left behind, Merckx tried to focus on the stage win, but on the top of the Col du Corobin David Moncoutié broke away, and raced to the finish. Merckx finished 7th, but might have kept up with Moncoutié if he hadn't spent his energy on throwing both sprinters off.

In stage 18, on the very steep finish at Mende-Aérodrome, Merckx, together with Cédric Vasseur and Marcos Serrano, dropped the other members of the breakaway, but later was dropped himself by a very strong Serrano, who took the victory. Merckx was disappointed (by showing a hand gesture) in Vasseur, who unchivalrously took the 2nd place (without even sprinting) before a pretty exhausted Merckx, because he did nearly no work during the breakaway and "stole" the victory.

Palmarès

;1993 - Motorola "(stagiare)";1994 - Team Telekom;1995 - Motorola;1996 - Motorola: GP Sanson;1997 - Polti;1998 - Polit: Bayern Rundfahrt - Stage 3: Clásica de San Sebastián - 2nd: Tour de France - 10th place;1999 - Mapei-Quick Step;2000 - Mapei-Quick Step: Belgium National Road Race Championship: Tour du Région Wallonne: Giro d'Italia - Stage 8;2001 - Domo-Farm Frites: Grand Prix de Wallonie;2002 - Domo-Farm Frites: Paris-Nice - Combativity competition: Vuelta a Andalucía - 2nd;2003 - Lotto-Domo: Tour de l'Ain;2004 - Lotto-Domo: Bronze medal (3rd place);2005 - Davitamon-Lotto: Dauphiné Libéré - Stage 5;2006 - Phonak Hearing Systems;2007 - T-Mobile Team

References

External links

*trapfriis|belgium.Merckx.htm

Persondata
NAME= Merckx, Axel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Retired road bicycle racer
DATE OF BIRTH= 1972-08-08
PLACE OF BIRTH=Uccle, Belgium
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=