10/01/2003: On the occasion of a 6-day press conference the two cycling legends were added to the Walk of Stars.
The one was named "cannibal" and the other was crowned the "6-day emperor". They were Eddy Merckx and Patrick Serçu whose sports resumés abound with world and European championship titles and victories at international road and track races. In the 70s these two Belgium cyclists were the dream team on the 6-day track. The two together won 15 6-day races, one of them in 1977 in the Olympic hall in Munich.
The one was named "cannibal" and the other was crowned the "6-day emperor". They were Eddy Merckx and Patrick Serçu whose sports resumés abound with world and European championship titles and victories at international road and track races. In the 70s these two Belgium cyclists were the dream team on the 6-day track. The two together won 15 6-day races, one of them in 1977 in the Olympic hall in Munich. Apart from 6-day events these two friends usually went their separate ways, at least in their professional life: Eddy Merckx (born on 17 June 1945), who ended his professional career in 1978 - is still the greatest and most successful road racing cyclists of all times.
He took part in 1800 road and circuit races and won about 600 of them. The "cannibal", as he was called on account of his unconditional will to win, was World Road Race Champion several times and won both the Tour de France (1969/70/71/72/74) and the Giro d'Italia (1968/70/72/73/74) five times each. His successes in 1974 are unforgettable when he won the Giro and the Tour and became world champion all in one season. Nowadays Merckx is also a successful race bike manufacturer who sells his attractive bicycles all over the world.
Contact with the "road" is still kept by his son Axel who belongs to the Belgium professional team Lotto-Domo, which in turn is managed by Serçu's son Christophe. Patrick Serçu (born on 27 June 1944) in contrast dominated on the track. He was World Sprint Champion, Olympic Gold Medallist and European Champion several times over. He took part in as many as 224 6-day races and won 88 of them. And just like Merckx on the road, Serçu is the most successful 6-day cyclist of all times.
He competed in 6-day races with almost 30 different partners, with his friend Eddy Merckx having a special position. Even today a deep friendship bonds these cycling stars of earlier years. Serçu finished his active cycling career in 1983. But the "6-day emperor" stayed loyal to cycling sport and 6-day races and he works as manager and sport director of the 6-day races in Gent and Bremen. The sport director of the Munich 6-day race, Sigi Renz, accompanied his old companions into the Olympic hall where Merckx and Serçu pressed their hands and a cycling shoe into the cement.