# Axel Merckx

Axel Eddy Lucien Jonkheer Merckx (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 Hagens Berman Jayco.
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31st overall, however it was later discovered that Landis had failed a doping control after stage 17 and the Tour win was revoked.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. He won his last race at Lommel, in August 2007.
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".
Merckx is the owner and directeur sportif of the Hagens Berman Jayco team.

## 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).
As of April 2024, Merckx was in a relationship with American cyclist Chloe Dygert, with whom he lives in Belgium.
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.

## 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 Road race, National Road Championships
    1st 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 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 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

| Grand Tour | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
| Giro d'Italia | — | — | — | 19 | — | — | 25 | — | — | — | — | — | DNF | 50 |
| Tour de France | — | — | — | — | 10 | DNF | — | 22 | 28 | DNF | 21 | 39 | 30 | 62 |
| Vuelta a España | — | 21 | 17 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Legend :
| — | Did not compete |
| DNF | Did not finish |