chasm54

Really? You ask this in a forum rather than simply look up his palmares?

Merckx was a great time-triallist, a very good but not great sprinter, a climber who could crush all but the absolutely great, and a rouleur who repeatedly annihilated the opposition in the classics. His career statistics are close to incredible. In his most successful years ( which came after an horrific crash that left him with a twisted pelvis) he won 50% of the races he entered, and he raced more than 100 times a year.

The man was a colossus. Buy William Fotheringham's recent biography. A top, top rider is quoted in there as saying that coming second to Merckx counted as a victory.