Then again, one of the surprises about Merckx is how vulnerable and insecure he appeared to be. His fragility manifested itself in his fastidiousness about his equipment—he was forever tinkering with his saddle height, and even on the Pra Loup stage changed bikes three times before the first climb—and, says Friebe, in his tendency to “whinge” about his physical state. As Thévenet, who liked Merckx, said: “The only issue I had with him was the way he was always complaining about some injury or ailment. It got tiresome, because he’d say that then win anyway. So it became like the boy who cried wolf. We just used to roll our eyes. ‘I’m hurting here. I’m hurting there…’ ‘Yeah, sure you are, Eddy…’”