Eddy Merckx: The Cannibal

Author: Daniel Friebe
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448146682
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Book Description
'The whole point of a race is to find a winner... I chose to race, so I chose to win.' For 14 years between 1965 and 1978, cyclist Edouard Louis Joseph Merckx simply devoured his rivals, their hopes and their careers. His legacy resides as much in the careers he ruined as the 445 victories - including five Tour de France wins and all the monument races - he amassed in his own right. So dominant had Merckx become by 1973 that he was ordered to stay away from the Tour for the good of the event. Stage 17 of the 1969 Tour de France perfectly illustrates his untouchable brilliance. Already wearing the yellow jersey on the col du Tourmalet, the Tour's most famous peak, Merckx powered clear and rode the last 140 kilometres to the finish-line in jaw-dropping solitude, eight minutes ahead of his nearest competitor. Merckx's era has been called cycling's Golden Age.It was full of memorable characters who, at any other time, would all have gone on to become legends. Yet Merckx's phenomenal career overshadowed them all. How did he achieve such incredible success? And how did his rivals really feel about him? Merckx failed drug tests three times in his career - were they really stitch ups as he claimed? And what of the crash at a track meet in Blois, France that killed Merckx's pacer Fernand Wambst, which Merckx claimed deeply affected him psychologically and physically? Or the attack by a spectator in 1975? Despite his unique achievements, we know little about the Cannibal beyond his victories. This will be the first comprehensive biography of Merckx in English, and will finally expose the truth behind this legendary man.

Eddy Merckx

Author: Daniel Friebe
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0091943167
Category : Bicycle racing
Languages : en
Pages : 370

Book Description
For 14 years between 1965 and 1978, Edouard Louis Joseph Merckx simply devoured his rivals, their hopes and their careers. His legacy resides as much in the careers he ruined as the 445 victories; including five Tour de France wins and all the monument races; he amassed in his own right.

Eddy Merckx

Author: Daniel Friebe
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0091943140
Category : Cyclists
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Book Description
"The whole point of a race is to find a winner ... I chose to race, so I chose to win.' For 14 years between 1965 and 1978, Edouard Louis Joseph Merckx simply devoured his rivals, their hopes and their careers. His legacy resides as much in the careers he ruined as the 445 victories - including five Tour de France wins and all the monument races - he amassed in his own right. So dominant had Merckx become by 1973 that he was ordered to stay away from the Tour for the good of the event. Stage 17 of the 1969 Tour de France perfectly illustrates his untouchable brilliance. Already wearing the yellow jersey on the col du Tourmalet, the Tour's most famous peak, Merckx powered clear and rode the last 140 kilometres to the finish-line in jaw-dropping solitude, eight minutes ahead of his nearest competitor. Merckx's era has been called cycling's Golden Age. It was full of memorable characters who, at any other time, would all have gone on to become legends. Yet Merckx's phenomenal career overshadowed them all. How did he achieve such incredible success? And how did his rivals really feel about him? Merckx failed drug tests three times in his career - were they really stitch ups as he claimed? And what of the crash at a track meet in Blois, France that killed Merckx's pacer Fernand Wambst, which Merckx claimed deeply affected him psychologically and physically? Or the attack by a spectator in 1975? Despite his unique achievements, we know little about the Cannibal beyond his victories."--Publisher's description.

Half Man, Half Bike

Author: William Fotheringham
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 1613747268
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Book Description
First published in Great Britain in 2012 as Merckx, half man, half bike by Yellow Jersey Press"--T.p. verso.

Merckx 69

Author: Jan Maes
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1472910648
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Book Description
A fascinating insight into one of the greatest road cyclists of all time at the pinnacle of his career, featuring previously unpublished reportage photography.

Merckx 525

Author: Frederik Backelandt
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781934030899
Category : Cyclists
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Eddy Merckx is revered as cycling's living deity. He gobbled up a record 525 race wins during his fearsome 14-year professional career. This book celebrates this awe-inspiring man through a new collection of previously unpublished photographs, showing his transformation.

Merckx

Author: William Fotheringham
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0224091956
Category : Cyclists
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Book Description
Eddy Merckx is to cycling what Muhammad Ali is to boxing or Pele to football: quite simply, the best there has ever been. Throughout his professional career Merckx amassed an astonishing 445 victories. This title presents his story.

L'album d'Eddy

Author: Kadir Guirey
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783869305486
Category : Bicycle racing
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
"That Belgian, he doesn't even leave you the crumbs, he's a cannibal!" Christian Raymond In cycle racing there have been some amazing feats, stories of comeback and daring, of victory and tragedy, of personal sacrifice and bad luck - and then there is the story of the greatest cyclist that ever lived: Eddy Merckx. This extraordinary Belgian notched up an incredible 525 victories in a career that spanned just over thirteen years. No surprise then, that even his teammates nicknamed him "The Cannibal". Eddy Merckx was from a different time, a time when professional cyclists raced all year round, from the cold early season classics, to the hot summer grand tours. Today professional bike riders specialise in one event, yet Merckx was a true all-rounder, equally at home in the velodromes of Ghent as on the French Alps. He won all of the major bike races and more; the Cannibal was unique. This photographic collection is unique too, because it is the story of Eddy Merckx as seen by a fan. L'album d'Eddy does not show considered portraits or typical finish line celebrations, but intimate and personal images of Merckx. This book depicts races including the Tour de France and the 1971 World Championships in Barcelona, and shows many of the riders of the time such as Raymond Poulidor, Roger Swerts and Herman van Springel. The origin of the album remains a mystery: all we know about its possible owner is the inscription on the inside cover: "Bien sportivement - M. Louis LeCouf" which is signed by Eddy Merckx.

Jan Ullrich

Author: Daniel Friebe
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1509801561
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 634

Book Description
Jan Ullrich: The Best There Never Was is the first biography of Jan Ullrich, arguably the most naturally talented cyclist of his generation, and also one of the most controversial champions of the Tour de France. 'Magnificent' – Matt Dickinson, The Times 'A superlative biography as well as social and sporting history' – Observer In 1997, Jan Ullrich announced himself to the world by obliterating his rivals at the Tour de France and becoming Germany’s first ever winner. Everyone agreed: Jan Ullrich would dominate the future of cycling. But he never quite managed it. This is a gripping account of how unbearable expectation, mental and physical fragility, the effects of a complicated childhood, a morally corrupt sport and one individual – Lance Armstrong – can conspire to reroute destiny. Acclaimed journalist Daniel Friebe takes us from the legacy of East Germany’s drugs programme to the pinnacle of pro cycling and asks: what price are you willing to pay for immortality?

The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman

Author: Harry Pearson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472945034
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
***SHORTLISTED FOR THE TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2020 – CYCLING BOOK OF THE YEAR*** ***LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019*** 'A joy.' – Ned Boulting Every nation shapes sport to test the character traits it most admires. In The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman, committed Belgophile and road cycling obsessive Harry Pearson takes you on a journey across Flanders, through the lumpy horizontal rain, up the elbow juddering cobbled inclines, past the fans dressed as chickens and the shop window displays of constipation medicines, as he follows races big, small and even smaller through one glorious, muddy spring. Ranging over 500 years of Flemish and European history, across windswept polders, along back roads and through an awful lot of beer cafes, Pearson examines the characters, the myths and rivalries that make Flanders a place where cycling is a religion and the riders its lycra-clad priests.