Originally Posted by donrhummy
One question: when Merckx said "right till your ass falls off," was he referring to riding insanely long distances, or riding with increasing, insane intensity?
OK, he didn't exactly say that, but something to that effect. I recall reading that about him once. And remember he was a 20-34 year old pro cyclist - not a 48 year old amateur hack like myself. So you have to take the whole Merckx thing with a huge grain of salt. Mainly it's an excuse to ride a stupid amount of miles and justify it to your weenie pals : ).