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50 free Eddy Merckx trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Eddy Merckx trivia quiz covers the whole career of the man most people call the greatest cyclist ever: the grocer's son from Brussels who won 80 amateur races, turned pro with Rik Van Looy's team in 1965, took Milan-San Remo a year later and then simply did not stop, finishing with 525 wins, eleven Grand Tours, all five Monuments (each at least twice), three world titles and the hour record. It asks about the famous moments: the 1969 Giro doping expulsion, the solo over the Tourmalet that same July, the derny crash at Blois that killed his pacer, the record 5:21 winning margin at Paris-Roubaix, the Mexico City hour, the 1974 Triple Crown, the spectator's punch on the Puy-de-Dome in 1975, and how a teammate's daughter came up with 'the Cannibal'. It ends with the bike company, the barony, the Tour of Qatar and the cameo in Asterix in Belgium. Every answer is checked against Wikipedia's article on Merckx and each explanation adds one further fact. Built for cycling fans, Tour de France watchers and quiz nights that want more than 'which Belgian won everything'.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01By what nickname is Eddy Merckx best known?
The Cannibal
In Italy he was il mostro, 'the Monster'; the Badger was Bernard Hinault.
Q 02Who actually coined his famous man-eating nickname?
A teammate's daughter
Christian Raymond complained that Merckx let nobody else win; his daughter said he was a cannibal, and Raymond passed it to the press.
Q 03How many Grand Tours did Merckx win, still a record?
11
Five Tours de France, five Giri d'Italia and one Vuelta a Espana; he also holds the record for Grand Tour stage wins with 64.
Q 04How many professional road races did Merckx win in his career?
525
He entered more than 1,800 races in total; in 1971 alone he won 54 of the 120 he started, still a single-season record.
Q 05In which Belgian village was Merckx born on 17 June 1945?
Meensel-Kiezegem
The family moved to Sint-Pieters-Woluwe in Brussels the next year to run a grocery shop; a statue was unveiled in his birthplace in 2015.
Q 06What business did Merckx's parents run in the capital's Woluwe-Saint-Pierre district?
A grocery
Young Eddy tried boxing, football, basketball and table tennis before settling on cycling; his idol was Stan Ockers.
Q 07How many races did Merckx win as an amateur before turning professional in 1965?
80
He won the amateur world road race in Sallanches in 1964 and finished twelfth in the Tokyo Olympics road race the following month.
Q 08Which Belgian star led the Solo-Superia team Merckx joined as a professional in 1965?
Rik Van Looy
Merckx left after one season, saying Van Looy and his teammates mocked his eating habits and taught him nothing.
Q 09Which Monument gave Merckx his first major professional victory, in 1966?
Milan-San Remo
He attacked on the Poggio and won a four-man sprint; he would win the race a record seven times.
Q 10How many times did Merckx win the Italian Monument that opens the classics season, still the record?
Seven
His wins came in 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1975 and 1976, the last of them his final Monument.
Q 11Which was the only major one-day classic Merckx never won?
Paris-Tours
His best there was sixth in 1973; Noel van Tyghem, who won it in 1972, joked that between them he and Merckx had won every classic going.
Q 12Which Grand Tour was Merckx's first, won in 1968 with the Faema team?
The Giro d'Italia
He took the pink jersey on the Tre Cime di Lavaredo stage and became the only rider ever to win the Giro's general, points and mountains classifications together.
Q 13Which substance did Merckx test positive for at the 1969 Giro, getting him expelled while leading?
Fencamfamine
Q 21Which Monument did Merckx finally win in 1971 to complete the set of all five?
Giro di Lombardia
He attacked on the descent of the Intelvi Pass; he remains the only rider to win all five Monuments at least twice.
Q 22Where did Merckx set the world hour record on 25 October 1972?
Mexico City
The altitude reduced air resistance; he covered 49.431 km and described the pain afterwards as 'very, very, very significant'.
Q 23What distance did Merckx cover in his 1972 hour record?
49.431 km
He went out too fast, was 28 seconds ahead of record pace after 10 km, faded, then recovered to add almost 800 metres to the old mark.
The result was announced to the press before Merckx knew; the UCI lifted his suspension within weeks on the 'benefit of the doubt'.
Q 14On which climb did Merckx launch his legendary solo attack during stage 17 of the 1969 Tour de France?
Col du Tourmalet
He crossed the summit 45 seconds clear, ignored orders to wait, and finished eight minutes up despite hypoglycaemia in the last 50 km.
Q 15Which unique feat did Merckx achieve at the 1969 Tour de France?
Won the general, points and mountains classifications
He also took the combination classification, six stages and the most-aggressive-rider award; nobody has repeated the treble at the Tour.
Q 16What happened to Merckx at a derny-paced omnium in Blois on 9 September 1969?
A crash that killed his pacer
His pacer Fernand Wambst died of a fractured skull; Merckx suffered a displaced pelvis and later said he 'was never the same again'.
Q 17By what margin did Merckx win the 1970 Paris-Roubaix, still the biggest in the race's history?
5 minutes 21 seconds
He was fighting a cold, the race started in heavy rain, and he attacked 31 km from the finish.
Q 18How many stages did Merckx win at the 1970 Tour de France, equalling the record for a single Tour?
Eight
He was given oxygen at the summit of Mont Ventoux and won overall by more than twelve minutes.
Q 19Which Italian team did Merckx ride for from 1971 to 1976 after Faema folded?
Molteni
The team's doctor later prescribed the cough medicine behind his 1973 Lombardia positive.
Q 20Which Spanish rider's crash on the Col de Mente while leading the 1971 Tour made Merckx refuse yellow?
Luis Ocana
Merckx had lost eight minutes to him days earlier with stomach trouble; the crash came in a thunderstorm on a left-hand bend.
Q 24In 1973 Merckx skipped the Tour de France to win which two Grand Tours back to back?
The Vuelta and the Giro
He was the first to do that double, and led the Giro from start to finish, a feat previously managed only by Binda and Girardengo.
Q 25How many times did Merckx win the Vuelta a Espana?
Once
His single win came in 1973 with six stage victories, despite Luis Ocana's best efforts.
Q 26Merckx became the first rider to complete cycling's Triple Crown in 1974. What does it consist of?
Giro, Tour and world road race in one year
Only Stephen Roche in 1987 and Tadej Pogacar in 2024 have matched it.
Q 27How many times was Merckx world road race champion?
Three
1967 in Heerlen, 1971 in Mendrisio and 1974 in Montreal, where he outsprinted Raymond Poulidor.
Q 28What did a spectator named Nello Breton do to Merckx on the Puy-de-Dome during the 1975 Tour de France?
Punched him in the back
Merckx vomited after the finish and was later found to have an inflamed liver; he lost that Tour to Bernard Thevenet, his first defeat in six starts.
Q 29Who beat Merckx to win the 1975 Tour de France, the only Tour he finished without winning?
Bernard Thevenet
Merckx cracked on the final climb the day after the punch, then broke a cheekbone in a crash but still rode to Paris in second.
Q 30How many Tour de France stages did Merckx win in his career?
34
Only Mark Cavendish, with 35, has more; Merckx also holds the record of 96 days in the yellow jersey.