Axel Merckx

{{Infobox cyclist

| name = Axel Merckx

| image = Axel Merckx.JPG

| caption = Merckx in 2006

| fullname = Axel Merckx

| nickname =

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1972|8|8}}

| birth_place = Uccle, Belgium

| height = {{convert|1.91|m|ftin|abbr=on}}

| weight = {{convert|77 |kg|lb|abbr=on}}

| currentteam = {{UCI team code|HBA}}

| discipline = Road

| role = {{Unbulleted list|Rider (retired)|General manager|Team manager}}

| ridertype = All-rounder

| protourrank =

| amateuryears1 =

| amateurteam1 =

| proyears1 = 1993

| proteam1 = {{UCI team code|MOT|1993}} (stagiaire)

| proyears2 = 1994

| proteam2 = {{UCI team code|THR|1994}}

| proyears3 = 1995–1996

| proteam3 = {{UCI team code|MOT|1995}}

| proyears4 = 1997–1998

| proteam4 = {{UCI team code|POL|1997}}

| proyears5 = 1999–2000

| proteam5 = {{UCI team code|MAP|1999}}

| proyears6 = 2001–2002

| proteam6 = {{UCI team code|DFF|2001}}

| proyears7 = 2003–2005

| proteam7 = {{UCI team code|LTS|2003}}

| proyears8 = 2006

| proteam8 = {{UCI team code|PHO|2006}}

| proyears9 = 2007

| proteam9 = {{UCI team code|THR|2007a}}

| manageyears1 = 2009–

| manageteam1 = {{UCI team code|HBA|2009}}{{cite news|url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-approves-axeon-pro-continental-status/|title=UCI approves Axeon Pro Continental status|website=Cyclingnews.com|date=4 December 2017|access-date=25 January 2018}}

| manageyears2 = 2011

| manageteam2 = {{UCI team code|RSH|2011}}

| majorwins = Grand Tours

:Giro d'Italia

::1 individual stage (2000)

One-day races and Classics

:{{nowrap|National Road Race Championships (2000)}}

| show-medals = no

| medaltemplates =

{{MedalCountry|{{flagu|Belgium}}}}

}}

Axel Eddy Lucien Jonkheer MerckxÉtat présent de la noblesse belge, 4th series, 2003 /2014 (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 {{UCI team code|HBA}}.{{cite web|url=https://www.uci.org/road/teams/TeamDetail/14258/1001895/257|title=Hagens Berman Axeon|work=UCI.org|publisher=Union Cycliste Internationale|access-date=2 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200402195525/https://www.uci.org/road/teams/TeamDetail/14258/1001895/257|archive-date=2 April 2020}}

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.{{cite web

| url = http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/road/2007/tour07/news/?id=/news/2007/jul07/jul28news

| title = Merckx says farewell with final break

| date = 28 July 2007

| author = Brecht Decaluwé

| publisher = Angoulême

| access-date = 27 July 2007

}} He won his last race at Lommel, in 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=7 August 2007

|access-date=7 August 2007

|url-status = usurped

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090721043954/http://www.davitamon-lotto.com/site2007/EN_ind_nieuws.php?id=375

|archive-date=21 July 2009

}}

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".{{cite web|url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/french-senate-releases-positive-epo-cases-from-1998-tour-de-france|title=French Senate releases positive EPO cases from 1998 Tour de France}}

Merckx is the owner and directeur sportif of the {{UCI team code|HBA}} team.{{cn|date=August 2023}}

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|date=June 2019}}

As of April 2024, Merckx was in a relationship with American cyclist Chloe Dygert, with whom he lives in Belgium.{{cite web|url=https://www.cyclingweekly.com/racing/i-want-to-be-the-best-in-the-world-sitting-down-with-chloe-dygert|title='I want to be the best in the world' - sitting down with Chloé Dygert}}

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.[http://www.dhnet.be/print_popup.phtml?section=dhinfos&id=125476 25.000 nobles en Belgique]. La Dernière Heure / Les Sports (DH Net) 11 July 2005.

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 20px Road race, National Road Championships

: 1st 20px 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 20px 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 15px 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=

class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
scope="col" \| Grand Tour ! scope="col" \| 1994 ! scope="col" \| 1995 ! scope="col" \| 1996 ! scope="col" \| 1997 ! scope="col" \| 1998 ! scope="col" \| 1999 ! scope="col" \| 2000 ! scope="col" \| 2001 ! scope="col" \| 2002 ! scope="col" \| 2003 ! scope="col" \| 2004 ! scope="col" \| 2005 ! scope="col" \| 2006 ! scope="col" \| 2007
style="text-align:center;" ! scope="row" \| File:Jersey pink.svg Giro d'Italia \|— \|— \|— \|19 \|— \|— \|25 \|— \|— \|— \|— \|— \|DNF \|50
style="text-align:center;" ! scope="row" \| File:Jersey yellow.svg Tour de France \|— \|— \|— \|— \|style="background:#ddddff;"\|10 \|DNF \|— \|22 \|28 \|DNF \|21 \|39 \|30 \|62
style="text-align:center;" ! scope="row" \| File:Jersey gold.svg Vuelta a España \|— \|21 \|17 \|— \|— \|— \|— \|— \|— \|— \|— \|— \|— \|—

class="wikitable plainrowheaders"

scope="col" | Grand Tour

! scope="col" | 1994

! scope="col" | 1995

! scope="col" | 1996

! scope="col" | 1997

! scope="col" | 1998

! scope="col" | 1999

! scope="col" | 2000

! scope="col" | 2001

! scope="col" | 2002

! scope="col" | 2003