Eddy Merckx: The Cannibal (43 page)

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Merckx’s jubilation after winning the amateur World Championship road race in Sallanches in the French Alps in 1964. He was 19 at the time.

Rik Van Looy, Merckx’s team leader and tormentor at Solo-Superia in 1965. Merckx would leave Van Looy’s number after just one season but their feud titillated Belgian cycling fans for years.

Barry Hoban, left, and Merckx enjoy the shelter of some unorthodox headgear and a moment’s light relief in Paris–Nice in 1966.

A dazzling sprint gives Merckx his first major victory in the 1966 Milan–San Remo ahead of Adriano Durante (far left) and Herman Van Springel (right). He would triumph on San Remo’s Via Roma a further six times.

Riding alongside the Italian ‘King of Cool’ Gianni Motta on his way to victory in the 1966 Milan–San Remo. At this stage in their careers, the smart money was still on Motta becoming a dominant force in major stage races.

Merckx’s inexperience caused the crash that ended his first Tour of Flanders in 1966. Barry Hoban escaped with the distinct impression that the Belgian wunderkind still had much to learn.

Merckx wins in a blizzard on the Tre Cime di Lavaredo in the 1968 Giro. It was, Merckx has claimed ever since, his greatest victory in the mountains of a major tour.

From left to right, Felice Gimondi, Merckx and Vittorio Adorni soak up the applause on the final Giro podium in Naples in 1968.

Merckx with his wife Claudine, who he had married the previous
December, after his first victory in Paris-Roubaix in April 1968.

‘Merckx, you’re the strongest’ says the banner on the Via Roma. No one could have argued otherwise by the spring of 1969.

Merckx is the first rider on the start ramp in his first Tour de France in 1969. He would go on to win the Tour by just under 18 minutes and take all four prize jerseys.

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Hostility towards Merckx would take a while to infect the French public – and even longer to blunt the enthusiasm of schoolchildren like these ones awaiting the arrival of the 1969 Tour.

Showing the first signs of strain near the top of the Aubisque on his way to maybe his most famous Tour de France stage win in Mourenx in 1969.