In 1969 Merckx crashed in a derny race (a race that uses motorized bicycles) in Blois towards the end of the season. A pacer and a cyclist fell in front of Merckx's pacer, Fernand Wambst. Wambst died instantly, and Merckx was knocked unconscious. He cracked a vertebra and twisted his pelvis. He said his riding was never the same after the injuries. He frequently adjusted his saddle while riding--including coming down the col de la Faucille on the way to Divonne-les-Bains--and was often in pain, especially while climbing.He said: "The crash in Blois was terrible for me. From that day cycling became suffering. I had stitches in my head and was scraped and bruised all over, but those injuries healed. I was lucky in a way in that I could have been killed, but the problem that crash gave me was the damage it did to my back. What happened was that my hips were knocked out of line with my body. It meant that my legs were also out of line with the rest of my body. After that day I could never sit comfortably on my bike again. I tinkered with my position and changed my frame angles. I would keep many bikes, all subtly different, all ready to race on, but I never found comfort. Before Blois I cannot say that I suffered in a bike race. The Tour de France even. I just pressed on the pedals when I wanted to, that was all I had to do. After the crash it was never the same. The pain changed from day to day, some days I would weep on my bike, on others it was OK. One time, towards the end of my career, it was so bad that I was riding up the Alsemberg hill in Brussels, and I wondered if I was going to get to the top. I thought that I might have to get off and walk, and it isn't a very steep or a very long hill. My back became my weakness. It still affects me today. I cannot jog to keep fit because of my back."
Merckx has condemned doping but he tested positive three times. The first time was in the 1969 Giro d'Italia where he tested positive for the stimulant Reactivan at Savona, after leading the race through 16 stages. He was expelled from the Giro. The controversy began to swirl when his test results were not handled in the correct manner, they were released to the press before all parties (Merckx and team officials) involved were notified. Merckx was very upset, and to this day, protests his innocence. He argued there were no counter-experts nor counter-analysis. He said the stage during which he was allegedly using drugs was easy so there was no need.
He said: "At the time, the controls weren't reliable and I wasn't able to defend myself. They had started on the analysis and the counter-analysis during the night, without anyone from my team's being present. They had, they said, tried to get my manager, Vincenzo Giacotto, by phone, but he hadn't left his room all evening. The following morning, I was in my racing clothes, ready to leave, when they came to tell me I was positive and therefore excluded from the Giro."
Wrote Marcel de Leener from Belgium: "I've never seen sporting opinion so inflamed. Even members of parliament have got themselves involved in the affair; the Opposition has questioned the minister of public health in the Lower Chamber, the Cabinet is in an uproar, the Foreign Minister has questioned his opposite number in Italy. In the streets, in factories, in offices, in public transport, they talk of little else."
The Italian federation stuck by its findings but the Belgians refused to agree and it took four hours of debate in Brussels for the professional section of the Union Cycliste Internationale to quash his sentence. The president of the Fédération Internationale du Cyclisme Professional was Felix Levitan, organiser of the Tour de France. It was diplomacy and, "let us be frank, hypocrisy too", reported Cycling. The hearing praised the Italians and accepted their evidence; however, Merckx was cleared to ride the Tour.
De Leener said: "If on the one hand they have recognised the skill and competence of the doctors in charge of the controls in the Giro, they also took into account the fact that Eddy Merckx had never been found guilty of this before. In other words, they judged the affair sentimentally, with their hearts, instead of considering all the dry facts. If this were not Merckx, would all these artifices have been resorted to? No, without any shadow of doubt, no."
Belgium's Prince Albert sent his personal plane to bring Merckx back home.
Merckx was also found positive after winning the Giro di Lombardia in 1973. He had taken Mucantil (iodinated glycerol). He said in 2007 that he wanted the Union Cycliste Internationale to give him back his victory.
He said: "I was disqualified for taking a syrup which had been taken off the list of forbidden products. It was Dr Cavalli, of Molteni, who prescribed it to me a bit lightly (un peu legerement). And he admitted his error publicly. Looking back, I can't see why they could disqualify me for such a ridiculous and inoffensive product as norephedrine."
The World Anti-Doping Agency removed norepehedrine phenylpropanomaline from the list of banned drugs in 2004. Then he was caught after taking Stimul in the 1975 Flèche Wallonne. Merckx said: "That, I can't deny. I was positive along with around 15 others. I was wrong to trust a doctor."
In 1977 the Belgian doctor, professor Michel Debackere, perfected a test for pemoline, an amphetamine-like drug, and caught three of the biggest names in Belgium: Merckx, Freddy Maertens and Michel Pollentier.
Because of his doping record, the organisers of the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart asked Merckx to stay away. The decision was criticized in the press and by the UCI. When he confirms his stance against doping, Merckx points out that cycling is unfairly treated compared to other sports.
In the 1990s, he became a friend of Lance Armstrong and supported him when he was accused of drug use, stating he rather "believed what Lance told him than what appeared in newspapers".
Merckx's last victory was a criterium at Kluisbergen on July 17, 1977. His last race was the Omloop van het Waasland, at Kemzeke on March 19, 1978. He finished 12th. He had already abandoned the Omloop, exhausted. His sponsor, the clothing chain C&A, had supported his team only after long and difficult negotiations and did not intend to continue next season. Merckx told his soigneur, Pierrot De Wit, during their journey home that he had ridden his last race. De Wit argued but Merckx announced his decision at a press conference in Brussels on May 18, 1978.Merckx said: "I am living the most difficult day of my life. I can no longer prepare myself for the Tour de France, which I wanted to ride for a final time as a farewell. After consulting my doctors, I've decided to stop racing."
Having retired, Merckx has a bicycle factory (above) which carries his name. He said: "I am certain that the bicycle will once more fill a social role and again become a means of transport and not just an object of leisure. Once cars had chased it out of towns and, for several years, the concern of our leaders was to make it easier to drive cars by enlarging roads and leaving space for nobody else. Now they're in the process of undoing all that and, even if the change varies from country to country, I can see that there is a whole new way of political thinking. In Germany, Belgium and the countries of the north, the changes are already visible. In the Latin countries it's an idea that's making progress."
Merckx is a race commentator on RTBF television. He was coach of the Belgian national cycling team during the mid-90s, and part of the Belgian Olympic Committee. Merckx is still asked to comment as an authority. As such, he was advisor for the Tour of Qatar in 2002. He lives in Meirse, Vlaams-Brabant.
In December 1967 Merckx married Claudine Acou, a 21-year-old teacher, daughter of Lucien Acou, trainer of the national amateur team. The couple married at the town hall in Anderlecht, a suburb of Brussels. The mayor said: "Sometimes I am envious of cycling champions. When they win, there is always a pretty girl to give them a kiss. For my part, no one kisses me when I have a good win, so I'm going to profit from this occasion by kissing the bride now." The witnesses to the marriage were Merckx's manager, Jean van Buggenhout, and a cabinet-maker from Etterbeek, who taught Merckx to ride a bike. The religious service which followed was in Merckx's local church rather than his bride's. Merckx's mother asked the priest, Father Fabien, to celebrate the ceremony in French, a choice that ended up being a contentious issue in Belgium. The priest said: "You are now started on a tandem race; believe me, it will not be easy." The couple have two children: a daughter (Sabrina) and a son, Axel, who also became a professional cyclist.
In 1996 Albert II King of the Belgium, gave him the title of baron. In 2000 he was chosen Belgian "Sports Figure of the Century". In March 2000 he was received by the Pope in the Vatican.
Merckx is known as a quiet and modest person. Three of his former riders have worked in his bicycle factory and join him during recreational bike tours. When he finished third behind Father Damien and Paul Janssen in the Greatest Belgian contest, after being one of the favourites, he said: "I would have been outright ashamed to have ended up in front of Damien."
Merckx has become an ambassador for the foundation, named after the Catholic priest, which battles leprosy and other diseases in development countries. Merckx is also an art lover. He said: "I love fine art. My favourite artist is Rene Magritte; he is a Belgian surrealist. I once owned a Miro, which was stolen. Salvador Dali is another favourite of mine. I find that kind of art fascinating and very thought-provoking."
n May 2004, he had an esphagus operation to cure stomach ache suffered since he was young. He lost almost 30 kg and took up recreational cycling again.
No comments:
Post a Comment