Today, June 17th Eddy Merckx turns 70. The greatest cyclist of all time, no doubt about that, but a decent human being too –ask his former teammates and competitors. This may be a fitting opportunity to relate the following anecdote.

After his career, longtime teammate Jos Deschoenmaecker (an excellent climber and as such an invaluable help to Eddy in many mountain stages) found a job in some steel factory . One day he suffered a terrible accident there in which he lost all the fingers of his right hand. Eddy was the first person to visit him in hospital and try to cheer him up a little. When Jos expressed serious doubts as to ever being able to go on a sunday ride again with Eddy and the others, Merckx reassured him saying he’d think of something. He then phoned the Campagnolo factory and asked them to design a customized brake- and shiftsystem (front & rear brakes, FD & RD) which could be controlled by only the left hand – which they promptly did, making two old friends very happy indeed.

Jos has always maintained that -apart from his family- Eddy is the most important person in his life .



R-E-S-P-E-C-T + happy birthday!