iGuana had the honour to digitize 51 different Tour de France yellow jerseys that are currently on display at the KOERS Museum van de Wielersport (KOERS Museum of Cycle Racing) in Roeselare, Belgium at the temporary Merckx 51 Exhibition in the World Champions Room. The 51 yellow jerseys are now available online in 3D on the Merckx 51 expo website. You can click on each jersey to view it in 360° format and discover the story behind each! This year marks 100 years since the creation of the legendary Yellow Jersey (maillot jaune) of the Tour de France and the 50th anniversary of Eddy Merckx’s first Grande Boucle victory. As a tribute to this achievement and to Eddy Merckx’s career, the Tour kicked off in Belgium this year, with the Grand Départ that took place in the city of Brussels.

The Merckx 51 expo was organized by the KOERS museum to pay homage to Eddy Merckx, the undisputed Belgian champion of bicycle racing nicknamed “le Cannibale” (the Cannibal). Eddy Merckx still holds the record, having won the Yellow Jersey (maillot jaune) 111 times. For the Merckx 51 expo, KOERS brought together a peloton of 51 yellow jerseys, from the yellow jersey of Louison Bobet (1955) to Greg LeMond (1989) to Greg Van Avermaet (2018), the jerseys of Bernard Hinault (1985), Antonin Magne, Wout Wagtmans (1954), Marco Pantani (1998),… The centrepiece of the exhibition is, of course, the yellow jersey with the “magic” number 51 – the original maillot jaune of Eddy Merckx from the Tour de France 1969. The digitized 3D jerseys are now part of the KOERS museum’s digital collection, making it easily accessible to everyone who is passionate about the sport, its amazing history and its legends.

In addition to the digitization of the yellow jerseys for the KOERS museum, iGuana also took part in another exciting project related to the 50th anniversary of Eddy Merckx’s first Tour de France victory. We digitized photo negatives that were subsequently used in the photo album by Tonny Strouken “50 jaar Merckx: Jubileum van een Tourlegende” (50 years of Merckx: Anniversary of a Tour Legend). The first copy of this book / album, containing 88 exclusive photos by Tonny Strouken, was presented to Eddy Merckx in June 2019 at the Atomium in Brussels.