Cycling: Legend Merckx adamant sport is 'clean'

Cycling legend Eddy Merckx is confident the sport is "95 per cent clean", but also warned against reading too much into last year's absorbing Tour de France.

Many observers have said that the gripping race, won by Australian Cadel Evans, was a sign that the sport's anti-doping crackdown over the past few years is having the right effect.

But Merckx, who won five Tours de France, said that the slower overall pace up the mountains might be due to something as simple as the weather conditions.

"The speed is nothing to do with the (doping) controls," he said.

"It depends on also the weather - headwinds or (tailwinds).

"If you look at the Galibier stage and what kind of wind it was, it was a headwind, it was strong.

"Andy Schleck won the stage and I don't think they go slower now than before."

The 18th stage that finished on top of the famed Galibier pass in the Alps was a crucial point in the Tour.

Schleck launched a daring solo charge but Evans was able to restrict his losses and, two days later, came second in the Grenoble time trial to take the overall lead.

Merckx said cycling would always have its cheats, but it was no different from the wider world.

"No sport is 100 per cent clean - I think 95 per cent of the cyclists are clean," he said.

"In the normal world, not everybody is clean."

Merckx is in Adelaide this week as an official guest of the Tour Down Under, the opening race of the WorldTour calendar.

The Tour will also mark the international debut for the Australian GreenEDGE team.

"If you think back to the days of Phil Anderson, when there were very few Australians to now when you have a Tour de France winner in Cadel Evans, a professional team in GreenEDGE, and classics winners in Stuart O'Grady and Matt Goss - the sport is bigger and bigger in Australia," Merckx said.

"And I think the team is doing everything right. They have strong riders, good staff and a solid backing.

"I think they can be very successful."

- AAP