Well, the Tour is over and the Aussie Cadel Evans took home the jersey. It was a great year for the Tour and every stage had its ups and downs. Eddy, as per the usual, made a few cameos this year. When you look at him now, it’s easy to forget that in 1969, Merckx dominated the Tour de France where he won seven stages and grabbed the Yellow, Points, Mountains and Young Rider jerseys!

Check out more Merckx Mondays below!

Photo Reuters

Europcar rider Thomas Voeckler of France with the leader’s yellow jersey shakes the hand of former champion Eddie Merckx of Belgium during the 18th stage of the Tour de France 2011 cycling race from Pinerolo to Le Galibier-Serre Chevalier July 21, 2011. Leopard-Trek rider Andy Schleck of Luxembourg won the stage while Voeckler of France retained the leader’s yellow jersey. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

A lot has changed since then 1969 and since the Cannibal retired from professional cycling. Andy Schleck went on to win the 18th stage of this year’s tour, the Col du Galibier. I cannot, for the life of me find a photo of Merckx at the ceremony at a decent resolution. Does anyone have a link?

As I’m in the process of moving my MX-Leader from its Dura Ace 7403 to a SRAM group, it’s nice to see Seth’s Faema sporting SRAM Rival. Although the silver rival at least looks more period correct than the Force group! Check out more here at Seth’s Flickr.

Josh from DVS posted this photo of his friend Ethan with Eddy at the tour this year. Check out more at the DVS blog! That’s it for this week’s Merckx Mondays! Check back next week for a Hitachi team bike and other randomness!