As he celebrates his 80th birthday, Eddy Merckx has thrown out a challenge to the modern peloton: he wants Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel to take on the Hour Record.
In an interview with Le Soir marking the milestone, Merckx reflected on his own 1972 record-setting ride and encouraged cycling’s current stars to follow in the footsteps of Tour de France legends past. “My career would not be complete without the Record,” Merckx said, recalling the effort it took to set a distance of 49.431km at altitude in Mexico City. “At the end of 1972, I felt tired, I wasn’t in form, but after three weeks of specific preparation in Italy, I was recovered. We crossed the Atlantic to Mexico and it all worked out well. But I suffered a lot. After that effort, I could barely walk for a week.”
Since Merckx’s time, the Hour Record has continued to be a target for some of the sport’s top names, including Miguel Indurain, Bradley Wiggins, and Filippo Ganna, the current holder with 56.792km. But for Pogačar and Evenepoel, Merckx believes the opportunity would carry special meaning. “The Slovenian is the best, the most versatile rider out there,” he said. “But Remco has incredible aerodynamics. It would be wonderful if they tried this challenge.”
Photo Credit: GettySo far, neither rider has expressed serious interest in going for the Hour. In fact, UAE Team Emirates sports manager Joxean Fernández Matxin said earlier this year that the idea has never even come up in conversation. “With Pogačar, it’s a very different kind of cycling,” Matxin told Cyclingnews. “Since I first met him in 2017, we’ve never once talked about track racing. Never.”
Evenepoel, for his part, hasn’t mentioned it publicly either. His current focus is firmly on the Tour de France, where expectations are modest but rising after a strong fourth place at the Critérium du Dauphiné. Belgian pundits such as Philippe Gilbert believe the podium is a realistic goal, but acknowledged it will be tough to match Jonas Vingegaard and Pogačar over three weeks. “It would be magnificent if he gets on the podium,” Gilbert said, “but better than that, it’s going to be very hard against those two.”
Pogačar, meanwhile, arrives at the Tour as the clear favourite in Merckx’s eyes. “He’s the man to beat,” Merckx told Le Soir. “What I saw him do this spring was impressive. I hope that Vingegaard is going better than he was earlier in the year, before the crash at Paris-Nice. As for Remco, he hasn’t raced much since his accident in December, but he might have a lot of energy stored up. Still, in the high mountains, it won’t be easy to follow the World Champion.”
Beyond the Tour, Merckx’s wider birthday reflections were also shaped by tributes from other greats, including Gilbert himself, who recalled the significance of Merckx attending his final race. “Eddy came even though he wasn’t feeling great. That meant a lot to me,” Gilbert said. Former pro Frédéric Amorison compared Merckx’s global stature to the likes of Pelé, and journalist Stéphane Thirion noted that talking about Merckx’s career couldn’t be done in a few sentences: “We could do an entire show on him – 24 hours wouldn’t be enough.”
In a conversation between Gilbert and Merckx published this week, the Belgian icon spoke with quiet clarity about his legacy. He drew a line between the hunger that drove him in every race, and what he now sees in Pogačar. “Pogačar reminds me of what I tried to do in every race,” Merckx said. Yet even with that comparison, there was a word of caution. Gilbert and others pointed out that Pogačar’s increasingly relaxed public persona has started to raise eyebrows, with comments during the Dauphiné about rushing the finish to catch the women’s Tour de Suisse finish seen as ill-judged. “He should return to how he used to communicate,” Thirion suggested, while Gilbert added: “You must never forget to stay humble and respect your rivals.”
Still, Merckx’s central message remained one of inspiration. For a rider like Pogačar or Evenepoel, he believes that chasing the Hour Record would add something enduring to their already remarkable careers. “They should try for it,” he said plainly.
Fifty-three years after his own record-setting ride, the Cannibal still knows how to stir the peloton.
