12 Facts About Axel Merckx

Axel Eddy Lucien Jonkheer Merckx was born on 8 August 1972 and is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer and the son of five-time Tour de France champion Eddy Merckx.

Axel Merckx is team director of UCI Continental team Hagens Berman Jayco.

Axel Merckx did not succeed, but competed in eight Tours de France and finished as the highest-placed Belgian rider six times.

Axel Merckx 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, Axel Merckx signed a contract with Team T-Mobile, where he had started his professional career.

Axel Merckx 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31st overall, however it was later discovered that Landis had failed a doping control after stage 17 and the Tour win was revoked.

Axel Merckx announced his retirement from professional cycling at the end of the 2007 Tour de France.

Axel Merckx won his last race at Lommel, in August 2007.

Axel Merckx's 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.

Axel 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".

Axel Merckx is the owner and directeur sportif of the Hagens Berman Jayco team.

Axel Merckx married Canadian triathlete Jodi Cross in 1997, and they lived in Kelowna, British Columbia.