Tomorrow in Belgium, the week dedicated to celebrating Eddy Merckx will conclude, who turned 80 last June 17th. Much has been said about this extraordinary champion and much more can still be said, but there are aspects that perhaps more than others deserve to be known and that belong to the intimate and family sphere of the Cannibal. That incredible desire to win in every race has a precise motivation that can be traced back to the years when Merckx was a child and in his earliest years as a cyclist, when he was still a teenager.

Few probably know that Eddy Merckx was a hyperactive child diagnosed with ADHD, that neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by attention difficulties, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Today, ADHD is well known and children who show its symptoms receive much support: it must be absolutely emphasized that ADHD has nothing to do with cognitive aspects and often children with attention deficit and hyperactivity are extremely intelligent.

However, one must imagine a hyperactive child in the 1950s: Merckx did not know how to channel his hyperactivity, and his behaviors were often punished by his father, who to calm his crises would habitually put his head under the cold water tap, or make him bang his head on the sink, or give him resounding slaps. So one must enter the mind of little Eddy and understand his relationship with the family that poorly saw and poorly managed his perpetual restlessness.

"You're good for nothing - his father would repeat to little Eddy - in life you will never accomplish anything good". These are the harsh words that Merckx would constantly hear from his father at a tender age, words that were almost always accompanied by punitive acts. Everything he heard about himself, over time, triggered an indomitable need to prove his worth. From these episodes, a hunger was born that would never be satisfied, with an uncontrollable desire to demonstrate everything he could do and offer. This state had to first find absolution at home and then in the world outside the domestic walls. When Eddy Merckx managed to get a bike, he had the opportunity to prove first of all to his father that he could do something good, and these extraordinary capabilities were immediately grasped by the parent, who immediately became his first fan.

The Merckx family was humble and everyone worked in the grocery store they owned, and when young Eddy managed to win over his father, he found himself facing a mother who hated cycling for its danger and absolutely wanted her son to abandon the idea of becoming a cyclist and continue his studies.

But she too was eventually forced to surrender in the face of that talent: "If you win the race tomorrow, you can leave school". And so it happened. Merckx, who was 16 years old, won with a four-minute advantage over the second-place finisher and was able to dedicate himself completely to cycling.

It was at this exact moment that his role in the family completely changed. He who had always been considered the last, the problematic child who could do nothing, suddenly became the best.

Everything revolved around his career: food was prepared specifically for him, his father would clean his bicycle, and even his brother Michel and sister Micheline had to accompany him everywhere. The commitment of his family ensured that Eddy became a true champion. But that desperate thirst to make it, he always carried inside himself. That desire to be the best, the strongest, and the most skilled, he felt in every race, and just as he had to prove his skill to his father as a child, Eddy Merckx in every race found himself facing the need to prove his worth to everyone else.

The Cannibal won not only because of his extraordinary physique, but for motivations that are superior to any other force. This was said by Merckx himself to his biographers and is collected in the book celebrating his 80 years: "Eddy Merckx. De Ultieme Biografie", written by Johny Vansevenant together with Merckx. This book starts precisely from his childhood and that suffering that led him to become the strongest of all.