But how many bikes does a top racer ride in a season? In a decade? There must be dozens or hundreds that he rode in the period this bike would represent, (and this bike has had some restoration/rebuilding since then). Again, watch "La Course en Tete". There are swarms of virtually identical orange "Eddy Merckx" bikes in his garage, on support vehicles, ridden by other team members. Chances of him 40 years later looking at this bike and saying "yep" would be pretty slim.