Has Anyone Read The New Eddy Merckx Book?

[LemondFanForeve]

Anyone have any reviews of it yet?

[chasm54]

If you mean "Merckx - half man, half bike" by William Fotheringham, yes I have read it.

Knowledgeable and well-researched, as you'd expect from this author. Not the greatest read - I liked his biography of Coppi better - but interesting and worth having, if you're into the history of the sport.

And it reminded me just how prodigious Merckx was. In a relatively short career he won close to 500 races. For five successive years in the early seventies he won more than fifty races a year. And on top of all that racing, in an era when all the pros rode huge mileages in training, he trained harder than almost anyone. Day after day, being paced by a motorbike, slogging it out. A very hard man.

I warmed to him, too. One of the reasons he raced so much was that he thought the leading professionals had a responsibility to entertain, to race often. He thought it was unprofessional not to give of his best for the fans. And he liked winning, of course...