The surname carries weight. Axel Merckx, whose father won the Tour de France five times, has told Belgian broadcaster RTBF’s cycling podcast “On connaît nos classiques” that his country is too quick to turn on its biggest star rider.
“We’re very quick in Belgium to tear down our champions,” Merckx said.
“We’re the best at it. In France, they’re adored. In Belgium, you win three races, you miss one, and you get torn apart.”
What the critics are actually pointing at
The record Merckx is defending is not an obvious target for a backlash. Evenepoel finished second overall at the 2026 Tour de France for Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe with two stage wins, taking a solo victory on Stage 15 ahead of Tadej Pogačar and then dominating the Stage 16 individual time trial. In Montreal in September he won a fourth straight world time trial title, tying the all-time record of four shared by Fabian Cancellara and Tony Martin. He had already added the European road race title earlier in the season.
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The autumn is where the critics found their opening. Evenepoel came 12th in the elite men’s road race at the Montreal World Championships, 25 seconds behind American winner Brandon McNulty. He finished fifth at the Grand Prix de Montréal 48 hours later, then came fourth at Il Lombardia, 1:20 behind 20-year-old Paul Seixas, unable to answer the Frenchman’s decisive attack on the Civiglio climb that handed Seixas his first Monument.
Merckx hits out at the online pile-ons
Merckx reserved his sharpest language for the anonymous attacks on Evenepoel that have followed each of those autumn results on social media. He described the pile-ons as “genuinely scandalous” and said reading some of the comments had broken his heart.
For Merckx, the autumn results do not erase what came before.
“I think we should be able to appreciate the rider he is,” he said.
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