Eddy Merckx
born:. Meensel-Kiezegem, Belgium, Jun 17 1945

Eddy Merckx was one of the greats of cycling, claimed by many to be the greatest
of them all. He won not only all there was to win – including five Tours – but did it by riding away from everyone else. His glamour was helped by matinee idol looks: brown eyes with Betty Boop eyelashes, luxuriant dark hair and a shy smile. Sadly, hes looks haven’t lasted; the modern Merckx appears to justify Belgium’s enthusiasm for beer and chips.It was obvious that Eddy Merckx was going to be special when he became amateur WORLD CHAMPION in 1964, aged 19, and therefore still a junior until the end of the season. Within ten years he had won the Tour five times, the Giro d’italia five times and the Tour of Spain once, as well as almost every classic.Until Merckx’s sudden apperance on the scene, Belgium had waited a long time for Tour success. Decades had passed since SYLVERE MAES had won in 1936, with rarely a Belgium on the podium. And then a new phenomenon arrived: Merckx. After turning pro in 1965 he won nine times in his first year and 20 in his second, including Milan-San Remo. In 1967, he rode the Giro, coming ninth and winning two stages including one in the mountains. And then he became professional world champion.The Frence writer JEAN-PAUL OLLIVIER said, ‘chez Merckx, there were no clever tactics, no comouflage, tactical feints. From the first kilometres, ofter, other riders just knew what was about to happen.’ He could ride harder and faster than everyone else, from the spring classics through the major Tours and on to the Tour of Lombardy. Despite his grand superiority he never relaxed and showed little grace even to lesser lights, following on their tails as they led through their home towns. That’s an honour accorded to riders almost automatically but Merckx would ride along as well just to make sure no advantage was taken. His domination led the little-known French rider ChritianRaymond to nickname him ‘le cannibal ‘ after a remark by his daughter, and it stuck.

Merckx won five Tours in a row from 1969, although not consecutive Tours because he didn’t ride in 1973, In 1969 he was first away in the PROLOGUE because his manager, Lomme Driessens, wanted to show him off. There are disadvantages in going first because there’s no one to chase, but the benefits are that there’s more time to relax afterwards. He lost six seconds to RUDI ALTIG in a wind that many riders didn’t have to face, but had the pleasure of taking the yellow jersey next day in his Brussels suburb of Woluwe-St-Pierre.

On day seven Merckx attacked on the BALLON D’ALSACE and retook the lead he had ceded to his team mate, Julien Stevens. He then attacked 200m from the top of the TOUR-MALET, dropped ROGER PINGEON, RAYMOND POUIDOR and others on the descent to Bareges, and had a minute at the foot of the AUBISQUE. By the top he had a staggering eight minutes with50km to go and no more climbs. JACQUES GODDET wrote simply; ‘Merckxissimo’.

He won that 1969 Tour by 18 minutes. He had the yellow jersey; the points title, the mountain competion and best team. Belgium had been waiting 30 years for this and celbrated with Eddy Merckx tea towels, chewing gum, key-rings and T-shirts.

In 1970 he won the prologue, let his team mate ITAL ZILIOLI wear yellow to lessen attacks on the way to the mountains, and then took over to the end. In 1971 he rode for the Molteni team rather that Faema or Faemino, won the prologue and again passed the lead to a team mate, RINI WAGTMANS. But this year he faced his only serious rival throughout his career.

LUIS OCANA had won the Tour of the Basque Country and the Tour of Catalonia and com second to Merckx in the Dauphine Libere. There he had matched him on many of the climbs the Tour would take and he set out to beat him for the biggest prize of all.

Merckx astonishingly, didn’t react when Ocana attacked after 17km on the Tour stage from Grenoble. He, JOAQUIM AGOSTINHO and JOOP ZOETEMELK built a lead of 3:10 before Ocana rode off alone on the col de Noyer at 74km. Merckx and his team chased without help from anyone else but Ocana never stopped gaining and took the yellow jersey by almost nine minutes.

The Belgium tried to take revenge in the Pyrenees but Ocana resisted. Merckx brought them both down when he skidded in running water going down the col de Mente. Coming down just behind, Zoetemelk sweved to miss Ocana’s service car but hit Ocana instead. VINCENT LOPEZ-CARRIL and Agostinho then also ran into him. Ocana left the race in a helicopter and Merckx declined to wear the yellow jersey in his absence the next morning.

The rematch didn’t happen in 1972 because the Spaniard was in bad form, and Merckx didn’t ride in 1973. And then in 1974 he won his fifth Tour, the year an early stage was held in Plymouth, in Britain. He hadn’t won any of the spring classics, for the first time since 1966, and he says that ‘ the wear and tear was beginning to show.’ Even the veteran Raymod Poulidor twice climbed better than him in the Pyrenees. But Merckx won the prologue and, overcoming observations that he was no longer the man he was, he took a further six stages, plus the team TIME TRIAL.

He had won the Tour, the Tour of Switzerland and the Giro d’italia in barely eight weeks.

through the exploits of 5 times Tour De France winner and twice Giro winner Miguel Indurain. Other tour winners who have ridden Pinarello road bikes to victory include Jan Ullrich and Bjarne Riis  and Italian sprinter Mario Cipollini. More recently Pinarello bikes have been used by the Caisse De Pargne Team in all the major tours and One day classic cycle races. Pinarello produce a great range of Top end road cycles with their Top Marque being the legendary Pinarello Prince other top models include the Pinarello Paris and F5 carbon road bikes and the titanium Pinarello Dogma. See below for more details.

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