Eddy Merckx has become the sixth rider to have a Paris-Roubaix cobbled sector named after him, with the three-times winner of the Hell of the North present at a special ceremony on Thursday in northern France.
The often decisive 1.8 kilometre-long Camphin-en-Pévèle sector, which first formed part of Paris-Roubaix in 1980, two years after Merckx's retirement is now known as Secteur Eddy Merckx.
The Belgian follows in the wheel tracks of three other winners of the Hell of the North, Frédéric Guesdon, Marc Madiot, John Degenkolb, Bernard Hinault and Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle, who already have sectors on the Paris-Roubaix course.
"It's 50 years since I won Paris-Roubaix for the last time and so to see so many people here is very nice," Merckx said, with a special event also held in the Roubaix indoor velodrome on Thursday evening.
“It's an emotional moment. This is how you stay immortal,” Merckx told sporza.be prior to the ceremonial unveiling of a column with a plaque bearing his name at the start of the Camphin-en-Pévèle.
The Mons-en-Pevele is ‘sector five’ of this year's 29 sectors of cobbles that countdown during the 256.6 kilometre race. It is 19 kilometres from the finish in Roubaix, and appropriately enough given Merckx nationality, is just 500 metres away from the Franco-Belgian border.
In an interview with Francebleu.fr Merckx recollected his three Roubaix victories, saying the 1973 edition was particularly tough, with a lot of rain.
“I think it’s the Queen of the Classics, a very, very tough and special race. You have to be strong, crafty and know how to absorb the impact of the cobbles," Merckx said of Paris-Roubaix.
"Afterwards you are aching so much and your joints are suffering so badly that you need quite a few days to recover. I remember very well how much my hands and back hurt after each race.”
“I recall all three wins very well, the first because I was wearing the World Champion’s jersey, the second because I won with a gap of over five minutes, a gap that no-one had ever managed before, and the third because the weather conditions were so bad. The three are all different, all incredible.”
Various former pros were present at the ceremony, including Australian Stuart O'Grady, winner of Paris-Roubaix in 2007, who is the race director of the Tour Down Under.
