Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike by Fotheringham William

Author:Fotheringham, William [Fotheringham, William]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781409018957
Publisher: Random House UK
Published: 2012-03-21T16:00:00+00:00

Faema was dissolved in the autumn of 1970 after the death of Vincenzo Giacotto from lung cancer during the Tour de France of that year. Merckx and the bulk of his entourage moved to the Molteni squad, a longstanding Italian set-up sponsored by a family-run sausage company based in Arcore, near Milan. Molteni had expanded rapidly since the 1950s and their team had been founded in the early 1960s. In 1970 Molteni had won Milan–San Remo through Michele Dancelli – one of the riders Merckx overcame in the finish sprint of his first victory in the race – but Dancelli had moved on when Merckx and company arrived.

Driessens came along as directeur sportif – for the time being – sharing his duties with Giorgio Albani. The Italian, known as Il Professore, was, like Giacotto, a contemporary of Coppi as a professional and had been a confidant of Eberardo Pavesi, Gino Bartali’s legendary manager at Legnano. Molteni’s budget was substantial and the team had other leaders, notably Van Springel, who had been signed before the team had landed Merckx. They also hired the sprinter Marino Basso, and the blond Dutchman Rinus Wagtmans, who had finished fifth and sixth in the last two Tours de France. It was a far stronger squad than Faema, although the other leaders would not last long at Merckx’s side.

In 1971, Merckx enjoyed a decent enough early spring, winning the Tour of Sardinia with an escape on the last stage in pouring rain that left his adversaries shivering. He added Paris–Nice for the third year running after leading from start to finish, with Ocaña third, and went on to win his fourth Milan–San Remo. This was a fine piece of teamwork in wet conditions: an early ‘selection’ on the Turchino Pass, a further sort-out along the coast when Merckx himself reduced the leaders to seven, including two teammates, Jos Bruyère and Jos Spruyt. After a brief intervention from Gimondi, the Molteni pair engineered the final break on the Poggio and launched their leader.

A solo escape in Het Volk six days later took the victory tally for March to nine, but April was more fraught, in spite of a victory in the Tour of Belgium, in similar snowy conditions to the previous year. Merckx could be beaten when the opposition were there in numbers and worked together to foil him, as happened in the Tour of Flanders. He was not immune to mechanical problems, such as the five punctures that lost him that year’s Paris–Roubaix. There was a certain desperation about the other riders: Merckx noted that when he punctured, they all started racing. When he had ridden back to the field, they would slow up. ‘The fifth time, I felt out of breath,’ he said afterwards.

The build-up to the Ardennes Classics, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and Flèche Wallonne, was not propitious: a spot of stomach trouble – probably picked up during a flying visit to Italy to negotiate with Molteni over whether he should start the Giro – and a boil on the backside.

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