EDWIG VAN Hooydonck said it first. After winning the Tour of Flanders aged just 22 in 1989, the Belgian pleaded with the press. “Please don’t call me the new Merckx,” he cried.
Twenty-nine years later, it was the turn of Remco Evenepoel. After becoming junior time trial world champion, and capping off a truly outstanding junior career, the Belgian was defiant when facing the media. “Being described as the new Merckx is not something I want to hear,” he said. “Please, just stop it,” he later wrote on social media. “Nobody can be a new version of something he or she has never been and never will be. Stop comparing, please.”
Ever since Eddy Merckx retired in 1978, drawing to a close an unmatchable career of 525 wins, including victories in all the Grand Tours, Monuments and just about every track and road race he competed in, the cycling world – especially fans and pundits in
