Top 55 Eddy Merckx Quotes

It’s difficult for him, carrying the name. But Axel is doing what he likes to do, and for me, if Axel’s happy, I’m also happy.

I sleep very well, thank you.

I don’t know if Armstrong will find it hard to get into normal life. You can’t really compare our cases. He is a racer, too, but he has had cancer and has found other things in life which are important.

I really worked hard and overcame mental barriers to achieve those records.

I always rode for myself.

I’ve never been that bothered by numbers; the history of cycling evolves and follows its own course.

I cycle two or three times a week.

I raced from 1 February to 31 October every year, competed for everything.

With a wife and two children to support, I didn’t have enough money for me to do nothing. So I started my business.

When you are number one, the pressure is on you. It’s not only physical but mental. You become tired.

I find it difficult, the method of working in the cycling union, the lack of professionalism.

I’d have no problem with Cavendish winning 34 or 35 Tour stages.

No doctor is going to tell me I can’t finish the Tour. I will never give up.

I always thought Mario Cipollini was difficult to beat but I think Cipollini would have found it very hard against Cavendish.

We were not rich. We did not go to the Cote d’Azur or skiing. Our only vacation was to the North Sea. I had to pay for my bicycle every month, but we always had food.

I’m not saying that every time I race I go to the very limit of my strength. But when the opportunity appears I consider it immoral not to take them.

I agree it is the most important, but cycling is not only about Tour. If everybody thinks like Armstrong, there will be only one race.

I always had and I still have that special desire in me to be the best.

It is not enough to have talent alone. You will have to train hard and motivate yourself to do your best. You should learn to live for your sport.

Cycling is a sport of the people. How many people in the world have never been on a bike? Not many.

If I’m going to have to do all the work, I might as well do it alone.

Absolutely, in stage races, Froome is better than Eddy Merckx. Maybe he can win five, six Tours de France, but my focus wasn’t only on the Tour de France. I was riding all year.

It’s important in life to do what you like to do, no?

I hated losing. Being defeated made me sick, I couldn’t stand it.

I have great memories, but I’m not terribly nostalgic.

I was a more aggressive rider than Armstrong. I would attack more often. He waits for the other guys, then counter-attacks.

I have no regrets at all. With all the races I won, what regrets could I possibly have?

In my time also when you do good, Frenchmen don’t like it.

You know when you are in the peloton and you come near the Ventoux, nobody’s speaking anymore, you can hear a fly, because it’s always very quiet because everybody’s afraid about the Ventoux, because it’s a hard climb.

I still cannot walk around anywhere in Belgium.

You know the cycling federation in the U.K. did a good job of going around schools and scouting young riders. The Belgian federation is not like that. It is asleep.

The Tour is the No. 1 event in cycling.

I earned more than other riders, but even in my best year I never grossed more than about $300,000.

I don’t like it when people say I was the best ever. It’s silly. I am not the best ever. I was the best of my time.

After his success in the Tour of Italy and Tour de France in the same year, Pantani certainly made mistakes – but he was targeted by Italian justice who never let him go. I believe it was that that destroyed him.

If you win once, you want more. You are not satisfied.

I didn’t win any bunch sprints. But I won in solo breakaways, I won time-trials, I won in the mountains.

I do not want to continue cycling until I am 35. I want to make something else out of my life, too. There are other things besides a bike and racing.

I wore the yellow jersey 96 times. It is the best memory of my career. It still gives me goosebumps.

I do not plan to go on cycling until I am completely tired and finished.

I have decided to give up competition. I cannot train properly for the Tour de France which I had hoped to ride for the last time as apotheosis to my career. Doctors are forbidding me to ride anymore in high level competition and I bow to them.

No sport is 100 per cent clean – I think 95 per cent of the cyclists are clean. In the normal world, not everybody is clean.

You need just as much drive to be a good businessman as you do to excel as an athlete.

The day when I start a race without intending to win it, I won’t be able to look at myself in the mirror.

You can only be the best of your time. I was the best of my time.

Ride as much or as little, or as long or as short as you feel. But ride.

I always had a strong lieutenant to help me, but Hinault doesn’t need one.

If you have big talent and don’t train it’s all over.

The sport will benefit when star riders start races.

No, riding in the Peloton is more frightening than riding in the park.

The smaller races were where you made your money.

All those races, all those victories and losses, it’s as if they happened to someone else.

I think I was three or four when I first rode and four when I first crashed.

My wife is a much better tourist than me.

You had to be strong in the head… training, training and training. That is the only way, even if you have big talent.