📍Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Brussels, Belgium
1946 – 1965“Eddy Merckx was born in June 1945 in Meensel-Kiezegem, a farming village in Flemish Brabant, and in 1946 his family moved to Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, a residential suburb on the eastern side of Brussels, where his parents, Jules and Jenny, took over a small grocery shop. Jules was a carpenter by trade, and the family was not well off; they lived above and behind the shop, sometimes sleeping several to a room, and Eddy helped serve customers and deliver groceries on his bike. He got his first bicycle at four and rode it everywhere through the suburban streets. He was an intensely competitive boy who played football, basketball, table tennis and even boxed, and hated losing at anything. At thirteen he bought his first racing bike with the tips he earned delivering groceries for his father. His parents wanted him to finish his education, but school held no interest for him compared with cycling, and his parents eventually accepted his dream. In the summer of 1961, at sixteen, he got his racing licence and rode his first official race, finishing sixth; in October that year, he won for the first time, at Petit-Enghien. He became world amateur champion in 1964 and turned professional in 1965. Nicknamed the Cannibal for his hunger to win, he won the Tour de France five times, the Giro d'Italia five times and more races than any other cyclist, and is widely seen as the greatest cyclist of all time.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today