This Wednesday, our colleagues from HLN relay comments made by the five-time winner of the Tour de France in a podcast recorded at the end of 2023. In it, Eddy Merckx confides that he was a cycling enthusiast/passionate but that he would no longer like run in the current pelotons. The reason ? “Now everything is much more controlled and directed. You should know that my first racing bikes weren't even customized. They took a bike off a rack and I had to start running with it. So I won my first world title on an ordinary standard bike”confides the former rider, who adds that he took great pleasure in preparing his bike himself.
Eddy Merckx had emergency surgery: more than a meter of intestine was removed
Another current aspect also bothers Eddy Merckx: “Honestly, I wouldn't have liked to run today. Because I wouldn't have been able to participate in all the competitions. I just loved running too much. If I had been told at the time that I didn't have the right to participate in a classic… No, I can't imagine myself in that world today.”
“The Cannibal” here of course refers to the lighter program of the runners, who only concentrate on one or the other racing objective. “Today they have about 80 days of racing. I had a year where I ran for 195 days. You can no longer compare. Young riders now are so used to this”confides “The Ogre of Tervuren” again.
