Two weeks after his emergency surgery for a bowel obstruction, cycling legend Eddy Merckx appears to have returned to form. He appeared last week at the inauguration of a bicycle museum in Aywaille, Belgium. In a podcast recorded at the end of 2023, the Belgian spoke about his current vision of cycling and admitted that he would not like to be a runner today.
“I can’t imagine myself in this world today”
“Now everything is much more controlled and directed. You should know that my first racing bikes weren’t even customized. They took a bike from a rack and I had to start running with it. So I won my first world title on a normal standard bike”confides the ex-cyclist, who liked to prepare the bikes himself before races.
Not being able to compete in all competitions is also something he doesn’t like about today’s cycling. “Honestly, I would not have liked to run today. Because I didn’t want to take part in all the competitions. I just loved running too much. If I had been told back then that I had no right to participate in a classic… No, I can’t imagine in this world today.agrees Merckx.
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“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 are now so used to this,” concludes “Cannibal”.
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