The 1969 Tour de France was the first which Merckx won, even though he was almost deprived of it by a doctor in Lille who found abnormalities in his heart rhythm. Merckx was cleared to start after medical colleagues said the hearts of endurance athletes were often unusual.
The French historian Jean-Paul Ollivier said: "Faema had become practically a Belgian team through its riders. The crafty Guillaume Driessens had become directeur sportif and performed a psychological exercise of the highest importance, not hiding from anyone that he intended to construct a monolithic block: everyone for Merckx."
Faema drew number one in the draw for places in the opening prologue, a time-trial over 10.4 km at Roubaix. Driessens chose Merckx, a decision which surprised because the first rider has no other performances by which to pace his ride. He lost six seconds to Rudi Altig because of a headwind in the outward stretch that dropped for later starters. But he took his first yellow jersey in his home of Woluwe-St-Pierre at the end of a 15.6 km team time trial. In stage two, ending in Maastricht, Merckx allowed his teammate Julien Stevens to take over the yellow jersey because it is difficult for a favorite to lead the race from the early stages and withstand his rival's attacks for so many days. Merckx reclaimed the lead in stage six on Ballon d'Alsace, in the Vosges region of eastern France where he attacked Roger de Vlaeminck, Altig, Rini Wagtams and Manuel Galera.
Pierre Chany wrote: "At the approach to the Ballon, Merckx came out of the bunch like a bullet ... From the first slopes, he pushed the pace harder and dropped those who'd gone with him, judged a nuisance and of no use. At the summit, Altig had lost two minutes, the main challengers for victory were at 4m 30s, and Désiré Letort, who was wearing the yellow jersey, was relegated by more than seven minutes."
Merckx won the 17th stage, over four cols from Luchon to Mourenx by eight minutes after riding alone for 140 km. He climbed the Col de Tourmalet in a small group including Roger Pingeon and Raymond Poulidor, having dropped Felice Gimondi. On the final bend to the summit, Merckx attacked and opened a few seconds. By the foot of the Col d'Aubisque he had more than a minute and by the top eight minutes. He maintained the pace for the remaining 70 km to Mourenx, an industrial town near Pau. Antoine Blondin wrote of "La planete Merckx." In L'Equipe, Jacques Goddet wrote simply: "Merckxissimo."
He won the general classification (yellow jersey), points classification (green jersey) and the mountains classification. No other rider has achieved this triple in the Tour de France, and only Tony Rominger and Laurent Jalabert have matched it in any grand tour. Merckx also won the combination classification and the combativity award. Merckx led the race from stage six to twenty-two. His 17 minute 54 second margin of victory over second-placed Roger Pingeon has never been matched since. It was the first time a Belgian had won the Tour since Sylvere Maes 30 years earlier, and Merckx became a national hero.
In the 1970 Tour, Merckx took the yellow jersey in the prologue, thrashing his bike. Jean-Paul Ollivier said: "At the peak of effort he looks on his bike as though he is fighting an imaginary enemy. He is a pedaller of violence, but the violence is carefully directed, balanced, transformed into efficient energy. He already sees himself the winner of the Tour."
As the previous year he let the yellow jersey pass to a teammate, this time Italo Ziloli, taking it back after seven stages at Valenciennes. He won the prologue, in road stages, the final time trial and on Mont Ventoux. There he pushed himself so hard that he collapsed while talking to journalists, saying "No, it's impossible!" He was carried to an ambulance for oxygen. His eight stages equalled the record set in 1930 by Charles Pelissier. He won the mountains classification and finished second in the sprinter's classification. He won by 12m 41s over Joop Zoetemelk.
Merckx chose a different preparation for his third Tour de France in 1971. In order to arrive fresher and as well to be in better condition in the autumn, Merckx choose not to defend his title at the Tour of Italy and instead rode two week long stage races, the Criterium du Dauphine Libere and the Grand Prix du Midi Libre, both of which he won the first stage and held on to the lead of both races until the end. Merckx arrived at the start of the Tour which began that year in Mulhouse to the pre-Tour hype which was summed up by former winner Jacques Anquetil who, speaking on French television program "Les Dossiers de l'Ecran" the day before the race began, said he wished that Merckx would be defeated.The only rider of the period to shake Merckx was the Spaniard, Luis Ocana, who lived near Mont-de-Marsan in south-west France. Ocaña cared little for Merckx's reputation and attacked him on the Puy-de-Dome, dropping him but not taking the yellow jersey. Three days later, Ocaña attacked when the race reached the Alps. By Orcières-Merlette he had taken 8m 41s out of the Belgian. By then resentment had built at the way Merckx was winning everything. Chany wrote that "there was a feeling that it would be good for cycling if he lost."
The headline on the front page of Paris-Match was: "Is Merckx going to kill the Tour?" A rider at the Grand Prix du Midi Libre was quoted as saying: "When you know how much Merckx is earning, you sometimes lose the will to make an effort if you're paid in loose change. The resentment left Merckx to chase Ocaña without help.
One rider, Celestino Vercelli, said: "Merckx never let anybody break away. But that day... we don't know ... The start was on an upgrade and he wasn't that brilliant in the beginning. Maybe he was still warming up and his adversaries, Luis Ocaña, Joaquim Agostinho, Joop Zoetemelk, noticed that and decided to break away immediately. It cost him dearly because the stage was long and very hard and there were four or five climbs. He took it badly, because it had never happened to him to be behind and lose so much time. Usually he was the one who was nine minutes in front the others!"
A rest day followed and then a stage from Orcières-Merlette to Marseille. It started with 20 km downhill, followed by 280 km along a valley. Merckx and his team attacked from the start, led by Rini Wagtmans, immediately gaining several minutes. But the speed downhill and the heavier braking needed for bends led rims to overheat, melting the glue that held tyres to the rim. It happened to several riders and Merckx lost some of his teammates as a result.
Vercelli said: "Merckx needed to recover the nine minutes he lost and he meant to do so by arriving in the valley with several minutes' lead with a good group of about eight riders. This way it would have been very difficult for the rest of the peloton behind to catch them in the 280km of the valley. In the 280km of flat road he personally pulled the group for 250km on his own! And of course the peloton behind him went very fast. There were all Merckx's adversaries and they were all interested in catching him. They all worked together for that. It was basically Merckx alone against all the others."
Merckx got to Marseille half an hour faster than the fastest expected time. The entire Kas team finished outside the time limit but were reinstated. Only 1,000 spectators were at the finish early enough. Among those too late was the mayor of the city, Gaston Deferre, who decided to see the finish at the last moment but arrived after the riders had left for the showers and the officials for their hotels. He forbade the Tour to return to the city for the rest of his career. It next stopped in Marseille in 1989, three years after his death.
Despite a stage that averaged 45.4 kmh, Merckx cut Ocaña's lead only to 7m 32s. He waited for the Pyrenees. There, on the col de Mente, hail and rain flooded the road. Pierre Chany said: ... (Merckx) attacked in a rage several times, out of the saddle and bent over his bars, Ocaña in his wake. He multiplied the attacks, changed from one side of the road to the other ceaselessly to get Ocaña off his wheel, but in vain.
Unable to shake off Ocaña on the way up, Merckx tried to do so on the way down. The storm broke at the summit. Pierre Chany said: "... worse than a storm, ... a cataclysm ... hail fell, visibility was zero, brakes no longer worked; riders were taking the descent with their feet on the road to slow them."
Merckx missed a bend, hit a low wall and fell. He got up straight away but two spectators had gone to help him. Ocaña ran into them, crashed heavily and was hit by Zoetemelk and then two other riders who had been following by a few seconds. Merckx who was descending the mountain fell a further two times before hearing what had happened behind him. Ocaña's fall had taken him out of the race and gave the yellow jersey to Merckx, although he declined to wear it next morning in respect for the Spaniard. Merckx won the Tour by 9m 51s over Zoetemelk and 11m 6s over Lucien Van Impe. After the Tour, the Belgian Cycling Federation named the team for the world championships and despite his wish to have several trade teammates on the team, Merckx would only have one trade teammate. In response, Merckx re-arranged his post-Tour schedule and trained with complete resolution to win. On a challenging circuit in Mendrisio, Switzerland Merckx attacked several times and broke away with Felice Gimondi who he beat in the sprint to take his second rainbow jersey.
In 1972, there was anticipation of a rematch between Merckx and Ocaña. The Spaniard insisted that Merckx would never have won but for the crash. Merckx replied: "Ocaña talks too much. I've won the Tour three times. He's never taken the yellow jersey to Paris. I've done the sums: in three rides, he's dropped out twice. With a record like that he should keep his voice down."
Merckx won the prologue at Angers but lost the yellow jersey when Cyrille Guimard won the following day at St-Brieuc. Guimard held the lead for seven stages, despite growing knee pain. Merckx won the stage at Luchon on day eight and with it the lead. He kept the yellow jersey to the end, winning the sprint competition and coming second to Van Impe in the mountains. The battle with Ocaña fizzled out when the Spaniard crashed in the Pyrenees again, falling on the Aubisque, and dropping out with a lung infection on the 15th day.
With four Tour victories, Merckx was approaching Jacques Anquetil's record of five, and the French public was becoming hostile. He had already been whistled at the finish in Vincennes after winning in 1970. For that reason, the Tour organisers asked Merckx not to start in 1973; instead he won the Vuelta a Espana, where he beat Luis Ocana and Bernard Thevenet, and he won the Giro.
By 1974, "the wear and tear was beginning to show," Merckx acknowledged. Yet he still won the Giro, the Tour de Suisse and the Tour de France, including its closing stage in Paris, within eight weeks. Far from challenging Merckx, Ocaña rode the Vuelta with bronchitis, started the Midi-Libre but dropped out, then broke a bone in the Tour de 'Aude. His sponsor, the pen and lighter company, Bic, fired him.
The novelty of the Tour was its first excursion to England, for a criterium up and down an unopened bypass near Plymouth. By the ninth stage, the race looked over. Patrick Sercu had the sprinters' jersey after winning three stages, and Merckx was in yellow. The Dutchman, Gerben Karstens, challenged both by collecting repeated bonuses in the intermediate sprints each day but lost his chance in a war of words as well as wheels when Sercu and Merckx joined forces as rivals against a common enemy. The race then settled in to ride round France in a heatwave. And then, said Chany, came a remarkable attack on the Mont du Chat, above Lac du Bourget.
"Gonzalo Aja had broken away on this very modest second-category climb and Jos Bruvere and Merckx were at the front of the rest of the race as it rode slowly towards the summit, when Louis Caput drove up through the group with a blast on his klaxon. He drew Poulidor's attention and gestured to him to attack. Imagine the surprise to see the Limousin, almost 40 years old, obey instantly. He attacked and, just as surprising, Merckx stayed where he was. The crowd couldn't believe their eyes, seeing Poulidor riding past them a hundred metres ahead of the maillot jaune. The contrast of styles showed the contrast of their powers. The Limousin took the climb as much out of the saddle as in it, his cap askew, without weakening. The Belgian was back-bent on his bicycle, sweat trickling down his face, pushing heavily on the pedals, losing time and showing his new limits in the mountains."
Poulidor's tentative attack didn't succeed and next day he lost five minutes. But he twice more bettered Merckx in the Pyrenees, at St-Lary and on the Tourmalet. Merckx won the Tour 8m 4s ahead of Poulidor and a further three in front of Vicente Lopez-Carril. It left journalists divided about whether they had seen a remarkable comeback by Poulidor or the first signs of vulnerability in Merckx. Michel Pollentier, "at the price of unbelievable contortions (on his bike)", beat Merckx by 10 seconds in the time trial at Orleans just before Paris.
Victory gave Merckx five wins in the Tour, equalling Anquetil. Over the next 25 years, only Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain were able to equal him. Then Lance Armstrong won the Tour a sixth (2004) and a seventh (2005) time.
Merckx's domination in the grands tours ended in 1975. The race started well--he held the yellow jersey for eight days, raising his total to 96--but ended in disappointment.
The finishing climb on the Puy de Dome (12 km, 7% gradient) was the beginning of the end for Merckx. The legendary giant of the Massif Central has provided the Tour with great drama over the years. This year's battle will write another chapter in Tour history. Just over 4 kilometers up the finishing climb, Thevenet charged off the front with Van Impe in tow. The two slowly pulled away from Merckx and Zoetemelk. The race leader, trying to limit his time loss, was forced to do all the work in pursuit of the breakaway. As Merckx tried to close the gap near the top of the climb he was punched by a spectator. Review of French TV film shows the man standing along side the road with his hands at his side. As Merckx passes him the man punches him in the lower right abdomen (not a kidney punch as has been claimed in the past) with as much force as he probably could from launching the punch from a hip position. Most of the force was pushed away as the man's arm was thrown back from the momentum of the movement of Merckx up the hill. Merckx grabbed his side for a second. But, a second later, he had both hands back on the handlebar and was moving at the same speed as he was before the spectator hit him. The image of the spectator is very clear in the film and it is not known whether or not he was identified and charged with assault on Merckx that day. The exhausted Merckx couldn't close the gap. But, he did hold on to finish third, 34 seconds behind Thevenet who was second and, Van Impe who was first. But, the Frenchman had landed a fatal blow that cut into the overall lead and trailed Merckx by only 58 seconds as the Tour headed into the Alps.
After a rest day in Nice, the Tour continued with a 5-climb stage. On the Col des Champs, the third climb of the day, Thevenet repeatedly attacked in an effort to crack the race leader. Gamely Merckx was able to cover all of Thevenet's moves and launched an attack of his own on the descent. Thevenet managed to catch Merckx in the valley just before the Col d'Allos. The always-aggressive Merckx, searching for weakness, attacked again on the Allos. Over the top with a lead, he plunges down the descent. On the narrow bumpy road, Merckx took all the risks necessary to gain time. He sailed through the bottom of the descent with over a minute lead on the Thevenet led chasers. The Cannibal now sets his sights on the final climb to the top of Pra Loup. He had a 2-minute lead on the chasers as the road turned upward.
Merckx was 6 km from putting the race out of reach. However, the long breakaway effort had taken its toll and Merckx begins to slow. Gimondi was the first to catch the leader, then Thevenet, then Van Impe and Zoetemelk. The Frenchman sensed a weakness and sprinted by the tired race leader. Thevenet took the stage win by 1'58” over Merckx and gained the race lead.
Inspired by the maillot jaune, Thevenet attacked on the next stage and rode away from the Merckx group on the classic climb of the Col d'Izoard. He rode alone to win his second stage in a row. Thevenet's win and time gain widen the gap to the now second placed Merckx to 3'20”. There was still one climbing stage remaining in the Alps and Merckx need time gains.
Eddy Merckx has one intention at the start of stage 17 in Valloire, get back the Maillot Jaune. Merckx launched an all-out attack from the starting line, 225 km from the finish at the top of the Col d'Avoriaz. Misfortune struck early when Merckx slid and crashed heavily. Although injured, he quickly remounted his bicycle and continued the race. His injuries include a bruised hip and knee, as well as a broken jaw, but he continued to ride hard. Although struggling to breathe, he refused treatment. By the end of the stage, the injured Cannibal finished third, 2 second ahead of Thevenet. The “never say die” Belgian was fighting all adversities to the end.
Gamely Merckx gained another 15 seconds on the final ITT in Chatel, but the finish in Paris was only four flat stages away. When the Tour reached the final stage, Thevenet had an insurmountable 2'47” lead on Merckx and cruised down the Champs Elysees for his first Tour de France victory. Gracious in defeat the second placed Merckx said, “I tried everything and it didn't work. It's always the strongest that wins, and the strongest is Thevenet.” The winner returned the compliment saying, “Tell me who was second to you and I will tell you the value of your victory.”
He said riding the 1975 Tour did not in itself shorten his career, but "the fact that I continued in the 1975 Tour de France after I crashed definitely did shorten it. My build-up to that race had already been problematical, and actually I wasn't in the best of health when I started it. But after the crash, in which I fractured my cheekbone, I suffered like you cannot imagine possible. I could not take in anything but liquids. I had to race on empty. I had to continue for the sake of the race, for honour and for my teammates. They depended on my prize money. Remember that I still finished second. What I should have done, looking back, was pay my riders what I would have earned out of my own pocket and left the race. Then maybe with my strength rebuilt I could have been competitive in 1976."Merckx began 1976 by winning his seventh Milan--San Remo but missed winning the Ronde van Vlaanderen after falling on the Koppenberg and walking to the top because it was too steep to get back in the saddle. A saddle sore still troubled him and his doctor told him not to ride the Tour.
The 1977 Tour was one too many for Merckx. He suffered on the Col de la Madeleine and lost 13 seconds to Hennie Kuiper on Alpe d'Huez. Didi Thurau, a 22-year-old German, beat him in the Pyrenees and bettered him by 50 seconds in the time trial. With Géminiani, his manager in the Fiat team, he had agreed to ride a light start to the season with the aim of a sixth victory. But having been outridden by both Thurau and Thévenet, he fell ill. Chany wrote:
"In the Alps, Dietrich Thurau paid the bill for his inexperience and his incapacity above 1,500m altitude. He lost the yellow jersey, which passed to Thévenet, in the climb to Avoriaz, where Zoetemelk pulled off a highly athletic performance. Tenth at two minutes to the Dutchman, Eddy Merckx was suffering a little. Forty-eight hours later, between Chamonix and the Alpe d'Huez, the Belgian, ill but determined to defend his reputation, suffered a very long Calvary and finished in a highly pronounced fatigue, a quarter of an hour behind the leaders."
By St-Étienne, Merckx had risen to sixth place and began talking of riding the Tour again in 1978, "stupifying those who heard him and splitting his team," according to Chany. The 1977 Tour collapsed into a doping scandal when Zoetemelk was found guilty. Rumours abounded about others. Thévenet won for the second time and four months later said he had succeeded by taking cortisone. Merckx finished sixth, 12m 38s behind. He never did ride in 1978, the year which produced the first victory by Bernard Hinault, the next to win the Tour de France five times.
In addition to the Tour, Merckx won the Giro d'Italia in 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973 and 1974. Following his 1968 victory, he said he knew he could win the Tour de France. He won 24 Giro stages in his career. His final victory came in a battle with the Italians Gianbattista Baronchelli, who he beat by 12 seconds, and Felice Gimondi, who lost by 33 seconds
Merckx also won the world championship in 1974 for the third time, which only Alfredo Bina and Rik van Steenbergen had done before him, and only Oscar Freire would do after him. Because of his victories in the three most important races of the year, the 1974 Tour de France, The 1974 Giro d'Italia and the 1974 world championship, Merckx won the Triple Crown of Cycling. Since then, only Stephen Roche has been able to do that, in 1987.
Merckx also had an impressive list of victories in one-day races, the Classic cycle races. Among highlights are a record seven victories in Milan-San Remo (absolute record in one classic), two in the Ronde van Vlaanderen, three in Paris-Roubaix, five in Liege-Bastogne-Liege (record), and two in the Giro di Lombardia, a total of 19 victories. He also won the world road championship a record three times in 1967, 1971 and 1974, and most of the major classic races, a notable exception being Paris-Tours.
The only rider to have won all the classics is Rik van Looy, Merckx having missed Paris–Tours. A lesser Belgian rider, Noël van Tyghem, won Paris–Tours in 1972 and said: "Between us, I and Eddy Merckx have won every classic that can be won. I won Paris-Tour and Merkcx won all the rest." Merckx also won 17 six-day track races, often with Patrick Sercu.
Merckx set the hour record in 1972 (right). On October 25, after he had raced a full road season winning the Tour, Giro and four classics, Merckx covered 49.431 km at high altitude in Mexico City. The American writer, Owen Mulholland, wrote:
"At 8:56 exactly, Eddy Merckx began his great ride. A bell was sounded each lap. If he were on schedule he should be crossing the start line as it sounded. After the first two laps Eddy was a quarter lap up! Giogi Albani, who had the job of standing where Merckx actually was when the bell was rung, had a hard time keeping up! Merckx's first kilometer passed in 1m 10s and five kilometres in 5m 55.7. Already Eddy was 14 seconds up on Ole Ritter's record to this point. Onlookers couldn't believe their eyes. A second five kilometres in 5m 58s obliterated Ritter's 10km time by five seconds. Ritter's 20km time was eclipsed by 11 seconds. And remember, Ritter had set his records on a special ride separate from his hour attempt. Compared to Ritter's hour pace, Merckx was 35s ahead at 20km. Albani urged Merckx to slow a bit, and he did, dropping to a 6m 7s per 5km pace for the next seven five-kilometre segments. Around 35km Merckx showed signs of being human. He fidgeted on his seat and the grimace on his face revealed the superhuman effort he was making. There was never a question of his taking the record; the only question was by how much. Far from fading, his last two kilometres were reeled off in 1m 13s and 1m 12s. Still, he could barely speak when he first dismounted. Pictures of the moment show his face a mask of pain. It wasn't long, though, before Eddy regained his normal composure and was able to answer question."
Merkcx said: "But for the back injury, yes I would have done many more metres. Regarding specialised training, I did all that I could. I consulted sports doctors, who had experience with sport at altitude, because I did my record in Mexico City. I trained on the home trainer with an oxygen mask, breathing the same mixture of air that I would find at altitude. I also used all of the best equipment that was available to me. Speaking as a bike enthusiast I would have liked to have had a go on the equipment they used for the record in later years, though. Also I would have gone further on a modern indoor track. In Mexico it was outdoors, where the wind is always a problem. You wait for the best conditions, but in the end you have to take what there is."
All told, Merckx set the following records: most career victories by a professional cyclist (525); most victories in one season (54); most stage victories in the Tour de France (35); most stage victories in one Tour (8, in 1970 and 1974, shared with Charles Pelissier in 1930 and Freddy Maertens in 1976); most days with the yellow jersey in the Tour de France (96); the only cyclist to have won the yellow (overall leader), green (best sprinter) and polka-dot (best climber) jerseys in the same tour; most victories in classics (28); most victories in a single classic (seven, Milan-San Remo) and most Grand Tour victories (11).
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