The Cannibal Thread - Eddy Merckx

[DJR]

5 - Eddy Merckx - Top of his game

Professional career  - 1971 to 1976 - Team Molteni
At the end of 1970, team Faema folded and Merckx moved to another Italian team, sponsored by Molteni, a salami manufacturer.
1971: A third consecutive Tour and second world championship
In 1971 Merckx did not race the Giro d'Italia.  At the spring classics, and particularly at Paris Rubaix Merckx suffered from extreme bad luck (5 flat tires) but he still added wins: Giro di Sardegna, Paris-Nice, Milan-San Remo, Tour of Belgium, Omloop Het Volk, Giro Lombardia and Liege-Bastogne-Liege! He also won his 2nd rainbow jersey at the UCI World Road Championships.
His 1971 Tour de France started with a team time trial that Molteni won, but from there on was marked by mishaps, illness, punctures and several crashes. On stage 9 both Merckx and Ocaña, who was leading the race, crashed. Ocaña was forced to retire due to his injuries but Merckx could continue and thus took the lead. The next day Merckx declined to wear the yellow jersey out of respect for his rival. It earned him a reputation as a gentleman cannibal.
1972: Breaking the hour record plus a Giro–Tour double
In 1972 Merckx won both the Tour De France and the Giro Italia again, but if you look at his other races it is amazing that he rode at all.
In the Paris-Nice, Merckx broke a vertebra in a crash. Against the advice of a doctor, he continued the next day, barely able to ride out of the saddle, but lost the race and finished second overall. He still won Milan-San Remo Liège-Bastogne-Liège and La Flèche Wallonne. In Paris-Roubaix, he crashed again, further aggravating the earlier spinal injury.
The attempt to break the 1 hour record took place in Mexico City at an outdoor track that was chosen due to the higher altitude and thus less air resistance. Merckx suffered severely, but managed to ride a distance of 49.431 km for a new record. After finishing he was carried off on a stretcher and was quoted as saying that the pain was "very, very, very significant”. Quite a statement coming from the toughest man on two wheels!

 

Edit: I almost forgot to say, the picture below is with Tullio Campagnolo, who supplied the groupsets and wheels for the Colnago frames of team Molteni.

Edited September 15, 2018 by DJR

[eddy]

it's because none of the rest have ever officially* finished the Funride World Champs

 

eddieargus.png

 

 

 

 

Shoeeee.

 

Maybe they should have got Groot, not Klein, Constantia to sponsor that shirt.

 

He looks like he swallowed his soigneur...    

[DJR]

6 - Eddy Merckx – Summit of the top of his game

Professional career - 1973 to 1974 - Team Molteni

1973: A Giro–Vuelta double
The racing load of this period amazes me - during a span of nineteen days in 1973, Merckx won four classics including Omloop Het Volk, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and Paris-Roubaix. Later in the year he added Paris-Brussels, Grand Prix des Nations and Travers Lausanne. He won the Giro di Lombardi but tested positive for doping and was disqualified.
He decided to race the Vuelta a Espana and the Giro d Italia that year and miss the Tour de France. Merckx won a total of six stages on his way to his only Vuelta a Espana title. Only 4 days after finishing the Vuelta, Merckx lined up to start the Giro d Italia. He won the opening two-man time trial and won the race after leading from start to finish, a feat only done twice before. Merckx also became the first rider ever to win the Giro and Vuelta in the same calendar year.
1974: Completion of cycling's Triple Crown
In the 1974 season Merckx failed to win a spring classic for the first time in his career, mostly due to illness. His Giro d Italia was a struggle for the same reason, but he still managed to win his 5th one.
2 Days after the Giro he won the Tour de Suisse. After finishing the race, Merckx had surgery to remove a syst. 5 Days later he started the Tour de France with a still open wound that bled throughout the race. Merckx finished with eight stage wins and his fifth Tour de France victory, equaling the previous record.
By winning the 1974 UCI World Championship road race, Merckx became the first rider ever to win the Triple Crown of Cycling, which consists of winning the Tour de France, Giro d' Italia, and the World Championship road race in one calendar year. It was also his third World Championship title, making him the third rider to ever be world champion three times.
At the end of 1974 it was clear that injury, illness and years of racing was starting to take its toll. The Cannibal was no longer invincible!

 

Edited September 12, 2018 by DJR

[DJR]

The more I look at the pictures, the more I think it should be called the "Great White Handlebar Tape" era!    

[Kranswurm]

The more I look at the pictures, the more I think it should be called the "Great White Handlebar Tape" era!    

Ha ha...and the 80s

I had white tape,hoods and saddle on my first Cannondale

[DJR]

7 - Eddy Merckx - Over the summit

Professional career - 1975 to 1976 - Team Molteni

1975: Second place at the Tour
Merckx started 1975 well with victories at Milan-San Remo, Setmana Catalana di Ciclisme and Amstel Gold, but soon, he suffered again from illness and was forced to miss the Giro d Italia. He struggled, suffered and finished 2nd in the Tour de France, but after that Merckx still managed to win the Tour of Flanders and his 5th Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
1976: A record seventh Milan-San Remo
His 1976 season started with a record seventh victory in Milan–San Remo, but then injury plagued him throughout the season. He rode the Giro d Italia but failed to win a stage for the first time in his career. Following the Giro disaster, Merckx and team Molteni pulled out of the 1976 Tour de France altogether.
In the first two months of his off-season, Merckx spent the majority of his time bedridden. Molteni ended their sponsorship at the end of the season.

[DJR]

8 - Eddy Merckx - Downhill

Professional Career - 1977 to 1978 - Fiat France and C&A

Many expected Merckx to retire after the disastrous 1976 season and the loss of the Molteni sponsorship. However, Fiat France became the new sponsor for his team.
Merckx agreed to ride a light spring season in order to save himself for a chance at a sixth Tour de France victory. He won no races in the 1977 spring classics.
At the 1977 Tour de France he admitted his poor form and anxiety about old injuries. He managed to hold on to second place overall for two weeks, but then lost thirteen minutes on the stage to Alpe d Huez alone. He finished the Tour in 6th position.
In the time after the Tour, Merckx raced twenty-two races in a span of forty days (crazy), not winning anything. At the end of 1977 Fiat ended their sponsorship of the team and again Merckx was expected to retire.
However, the department store C&A announced that they would sponsor a new Merckx team for 1978. His plan for the season was to race one last Tour de France and then ride several smaller races for appearances. He raced a total of five races in 1978 and his last victory was in an omnium track event.
By then it was clear that he was not going to make a come-back and Merckx announced his retirement from the sport in May 1978, at the same time also cancelling his Tour de France plans. He explained that the doctors advised him against racing.
The age of the Cannibal was over! Or was it?

[DJR]

9 - Eddy Merckx - A New life in cycling

Eddy Merckx Cycles
After retiring from racing in 1978, in 1980 Merckx started a high end road racing bicycle manufacturing company based in Brussels, Belgium. What made Eddy Merckx different from other ex-racers was that he made his frames in his own factory and to his own design while others often had frames made for them and just lent their famous names to it. Today it is still considered one of the most prestigious bicycle brands, possibly the only from outside of Italy.
Merckx got the idea to build bikes from Ugo De Rosa, who had built bikes for Merckx throughout his career, often to his specifications. After retiring and prior to starting his company, Merckx went to Italy, and got himself trained in the art of making bikes by De Rosa who later also visited him in Belgium to train his first employees. The two remained friends for life.
Merckx started his factory in an old farm stable in Meise, a small town on the outskirts of Brussels, and lived in the next door farm house. Later, the company moved to nearby Zellik, where it remains until today.
Among his first employees were some of his former Molteni teammates and his former team manager. The company still continues the tradition to hire former professional riders to work for them. Some say that this is partly the reason why their bikes are always competitive and on the sharp end of the racing field. Merckx specialized almost exclusively in thoroughbred racing bikes and made no leisure bikes.  
The company almost went bankrupt a few times but despite the financial problems the brand became highly regarded and successful. Eddy Merckx bikes were used by several top-level cycling teams in the 1980s and 1990s. His greatest breakthrough probably came with Merckx sponsoring the 7-Eleven (later Motorola) team and a young and upcoming Lance Armstrong. Suddenly Merckx bikes were on the podium, in the worldwide news and every team wanted to ride them. Merckx helped the USA team break into European competitive cycling and they helped him build a word wide bike brand.
At first Merckx made steel frames. Later on, he successfully switched over to aluminium, titanium (briefly) and carbon fibre, always staying at the forefront of developing technology. Merckx spent a lot of effort on the geometry, quality and safety of their bikes which are not only known for their competitiveness, but also for great stability and reliability at speed. The rigorous testing on the Belgian cobbled roads ensured a breed of bike that can handle everything any race could throw at it. 
In 2008, after 28 years of personally running the company, Eddy Merckx himself resigned and sold his shares, but still remains involved in design and testing. Currently the brand is owned by Race Productions, also the owner of Ridley, another Belgian bike brand. Thus the brand remains alive and at home in Belgium, but only time will tell whether it regains its former glory.

 

Edit: Seen below building frames with Ugo De Rosa. And of course Lance Armstrong riding a team Motorola Merckx Corsa Extra.

Edited September 15, 2018 by DJR

[DJR]

Sorry for the long-winded bits, those with ADD, just look at the pictures

[DJR]

10 - Eddy Merckx - Cannibal remembered

His Legacy
Merckx is widely regarded as the greatest and most successful cyclist of all time. Due to his dominance in the sport the period during which he raced is often called the Merckx Era.
He rode well in all 3 the Grand Tours as well as in the one-day classics. He was a very good time trialist, climbed and sprinted well and could more than hold his own on the track. He was known for an aggressive racing style characterized by constantly attacking and never riding defensively.
Over 18 years as a professional, he won 445 of the 1585 races he entered (almost 30% – an extraordinary career winning rate!). The decade between 1967 and 1977 Merckx raced between 111 and 151 races per year. At the top of his game, in 1971, he raced 120 times (every 3 days on average, not even taking the off-season into account - an incredible racing load) and won 54 of the events (a winning ratio of 45% - out of this world!), the most races any cyclist has ever won in a single season.
He is one of only three riders to win all five Monuments of Cycling (Milan–San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris–Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Giro di Lombardia). He finished his career with nineteen victories in the monuments, more than any other rider. He won a total of twenty-eight spring classics and only missed out winning one.
Merckx became the third rider to win all three Grand Tours (Tour de France, Giro d Italia and Vuelta Espana). He holds the record for most Grand Tour overall victories with 11, along with the record for most stage wins across all three Grand Tours with 64. He has won the most Giro d Italia / Tour de France doubles (in the same year) with three. This is considered near impossible because the two major races are so hard and so close together. He was also the first rider to win all three major classifications – the general, points, and mountains classifications – in one Grand Tour at the 1968 Giro d' Italia, and again at the 1969 Tour de France. This has only been done twice since. He shares the record for most victories at both the Giro d' Italia and Tour de France, with five wins at each. In those races he also holds the record for most days spent in the race leader's jersey at 78 and 96 respectively. He was the first rider to win cycling's Triple Crown (Tour de France, Giro d Italia and World Road Championship) which has only been accomplished one other time.
Merckx was given the nickname "The Cannibal" by the daughter of a teammate who commented on Merckx not allowing anyone else to win, to which his daughter referred to Merckx as a cannibal. He liked the nickname. In Italy, he was known as "il mostro" (the monster).
In the era after Eddy Merckx, cyclists tended to specialize in one or two races or disciplines. Very few, if any, attempted the sheer number and variety of races, let alone try to win them all. It became standard practice to aim peaking for one Grand Tour per year and to allow lesser team members to shine at the smaller races. The top racers picked their fights carefully to maximize the chance of winning one main race. Merckx’ approach was the opposite – he raced everything, from a local town kermesse to the Tour de France, as if it wanted to devour the opposition!
Cannibal indeed!

[Loose cog]

Still one of my favourite riding bikes!

[DJR]

11 - Eddy Merckx - The dark side

Doping

This is the black mark on his amazing career, but which cannot be swept under the carpet.
While Merckx was leading the 1969 Giro d'Italia, he tested positive for an amphetamine. He was disqualified and suspended for a month. Merckx claimed innocence and said that his samples were mishandled. After the incident, several conspiracy theories emerged including that the urine that tested positive wasn't Merckx's. Days later the UCI removed the suspension.
In 1973 Merckx tested positive for Norephedrine after winning the Giro di Lombardia. The drug was present in a cough medicine that the Molteni doctor gave him. Merckx was disqualified from the race, was given a month suspension and fined. He admitted his fault in taking the medicine but said that the name Norephedrine was not on the bottle of cough syrup he used.
In 1977 Merckx tested positive for Pemoline, a stimulant, at La Flèche Wallonne. The Belgian cycling federation gave him a fine and a one-month suspension. Merckx said he would appeal the penalty, and that he only took substances that were not on the banned list. He never appealed as he came to the end of his racing career.
Many years later, Merckx admitted he took a banned substance, citing that he was wrong to have trusted a doctor. He never documented the exact circumstances, what he took or when.

 

(Couldn't help myself adding a picture of Lance Armstrong riding a Motorola Eddy Merckx.)

 

[EvanB]

 

My new Leader i got yesterday

[DJR]

My new Leader i got yesterday

A Motorola Corsa Extra, like Lance is riding above, that is what I'm building with the Dura Ace groupset I got from you. Should be done in the next few weeks.

[DJR]

12 - Eddy Merckx - The private Eddy

Personal
Eddy was born on 17 June 1945, into a Belgian middle class family. He was christened Eduard Louis Joseph Merckx and brought up speaking Flemish, but learnt French in school. During his childhood the family owned a grocery store, but times were tough in the years immediately after the 2nd World War.

He married Claudine Acou in 1967. In the early years she often handled the press for her husband, because he was shy, something he overcame as his fame grew. They have a daughter and a son, Axel, who also became a professional cyclist. Axel won a bronze medal in the 2004 Olympics road race and rode several Giros and Tours.

For a cyclist, Eddy was quite tall at 1.85m and quite heavy with a racing weight of about 75kg.

King Albert of Belgium gave Merckx the title of baron in recognition of his cycling and ambassadorial contributions to the country. In Italy, Merckx was given the title of Cavaliera. He was named Commandeur de la Legion d Honneur by the French. Eddy is said to be immensely proud of these titles, but never uses them and still lives a very ordinary life. He is an art lover and collector and once said that his favorite artists are Magritte and Salvador Dali.

Now in his 70s, he still cycles regularly, despite having a pacemaker. He is still plagued by the many injuries from crashes during his racing years.

Closer to my home, Eddy rode the Cape Argus in 2015 as part of a charity drive. 

 

"Fluit, fluit, my storie is uit" (This part Eddy, a Flemish speaker, will easily understand   )

Edited September 14, 2018 by DJR

[bikebloke]

The more I look at the pictures, the more I think it should be called the "Great White Handlebar Tape" era!    

 you wore the white tape to show you where a pro who didnt fiddle with your own greasy dirty bits because you had a mech to do your fiddling for you ...........or because you where a giant wannabe  

Edited September 14, 2018 by bikebloke