I started racing in 1972. The standard road bike at that time used 120mm rear spacing for a five-speed block, but guys were using six-blocks with frames spaced at 126mm. Merckx had ridden for Peugeot in prior years; he rode on the same Peugeot squad as Tom Simpson before his death on Ventoux in 1967. Simpson's Peugeot actually looked like a real PX-10, but Merckx's "Peugeot" was built by Masi and looked like it!

In his first tour in 1969, Merckx rode for Faema (a maker of espresso machines that liked to sponsor bike teams, a forerunner to Saeco). He was so successful with Faema that his fans made up an acronym for the sponsor: "Faites attention! Eddy Merckx arrive!" (look out, here comes EM). Not sure who built the bike with his name on it in Faema colors (white with red trim), but it would be one of the usual Italian suspects. Tubing would likely be Columbus SP (the heavier grade). Of course, when he was sponsored by Molteni, all his bikes were in Molteni meat packing colors, orange with blue trim.

In the time trials, they just used the same steel road bikes (but likelky built with the lighter Columbus SL tubing), but with much lighter wheels (28-spokes), lighter components, and less handlebar tape (since they would only be in the drops, and bare aluminum looks more slippery to hands and to wind than cotton twill bar tape). They might also wear silk track jerseys (remember silk track jersies?!!!) tucked into their shorts. Interesting fact: back in the days of cotton handlebar tape, the team leaders (if not the whole team) got their bars retaped for every stage. The pros all used white tape, probably Tressostar.

L.