Merckx

(Christophe Hermans and Boris Tilquin, Belgium, 2025)

Eddy Merckx (born 1945) is more than a champion cyclist; in his time of unprecedented sporting victory during the 1960s and ‘70s, he represented the fusion of Belgium’s distinct French and Dutch cultures.

Christophe Hermans and Boris Tilquin have assembled this loving portrait of a somewhat shy, reserved star – a person who, in his professional role, pushed himself to extraordinary limits of pain and endurance in events including the Tour de France.

Even after suffering inevitable accidents and injuries, Merckx found ways to overcome adversity through sheer perseverance and dedication. His ambivalent personality, we learn, combined his father’s iron will and his mother’s generosity.

This documentary, drawing on extensive TV archives, concentrates on Merckx’s peak period – from early competitions to a 13-year run of international triumphs. He retired, on medical advice, in 1978. Although still alive today (in his early 80s) and active at various levels of the sport, the later career of Merckx is not the concern of the film.

We are allowed, however, some precious glimpses into his home and family life, first as a child and later as a married man. Can the risky, extreme, glamorous, tension-filled world of cycling replace the everyday joys and pains of a normal existence? Merckx implicitly probes this question.

© Adrian Martin 16 December 2024