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Many were track events (which are possible to win multiples of in the same day) and 1-day races but over his career Merckx won an unprecedented 545 races, more than twice as many career victories as any other pro cyclist ever. Wining an individual stage in a stage race, like the Tour de France, doesn't count. You have to with the entire competition to count on the career total.

In 1969, his inaugural Tour de France, he won five of the six competitions on offer, including the overall General Classification and its "Maillot Jaune" (yellow jersey). He went on to win the TdF four more times and was on his way to a sixth when an irate French fan sucker-punched him during the race, causing liver damage and a bruising diaphragm. He still managed to hold on to second place.

Because Merckx was so hungry for any win he could get, and because he would attack when he already had an insurmountable lead, he was nicknamed "the Cannibal."

I shook his hand in 1982 at a bicycle trade show

Did Tom Davidson break the guys hip, or perform the surgery?