Just in case he's lurking on the forum, I thought it'd be nice to wish him a happy B'day.

Just in case he's lurking on the forum, I thought it'd be nice to wish him a happy B'day.

Cyclingnews.com included these comments:
"The Belgian, who is fit and looking as lean as he did in his racing days..."
Something radical and drastic must have taken place over the winter. Eddy's been a Thanksgiving day balloon for many, many years. "Jolly" is the word that comes to mind.

edit. A quick search brought up another cyclingnews.com story.

"Merckx was then asked about his own health, and the secret of his sudden weight loss last year. "Ha, there's all those things people say. Some even say I got a stomach "ring" put in so I could lose this weight. What really happened is that I had an operation on the oesophagus because I had been troubled by serious heartburn for quite some time. This caused me to be awake for hours during the night and the situation also made me eat less and lose weight to start with. Simultaneously I was starting to get into an exercise routine and I watched my diet. After retiring from pro cycling, but liking great food and a beer, the weight stacked on easily. I weighed 113 kg at one stage; it had to come off, now I'm back down to 85 kg."