Former champion Merckx fractures hip in bike crash

Eddy Merckx, the most successful rider in the sport of cycling, suffered a fractured hip in a fall from his bike on Monday, according to Belgian media reports.

The 79-year-old winner of 11 Grand Tours, was cycling with a group when the incident happened near Hombeek, Mechelen. The Belgian retired in 1978, having also won three World Road Championships and was the first rider to win the Triple Crown.

"He immediately knew he had something. He felt a lot of pain," his wife Claudine told reporters.

Merckx will undergo an operation at a hospital in Herentals, the same hospital which treated double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel last week after the Belgian rider dislocated his collarbone in a crash while training.