As someone who has a bookshelf groaning with volumes dedicated to a certain now-non-Tour de France-winning Texan and even three autobiographies of Mark Cavendish, it has always seemed odd to me that books dedicated to the Greatest Cyclist of the 20th Century, according to the UCI, are fairly scarce in English, or pretty much any other language. There is an old joke that the only famous Belgians anyone can name are Hercule Poirot and Tintin and both are fictitious. However, not only has Belgium produced celebrated cyclists (and, of course, many notable people in other fields) but it has given us the best one of all: douard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx. Merckx 525 is a particularly good book published by Velopress 15 years ago that gives us his accomplishments in visual form and is well worth seeking out, even at a price.This week has seen many plaudits and hosannas as Baron Eddy celebrated his 80th birthday. Although no longer running a bicycle factory, he still rides, even if not immune to the kind of accidents mortal cyclists experience when he fell of his bike after slipping on a railway track in the rain last December. He clearly takes a very active interest in the sport and this week even encouraged Tadej Pogaar and Remco Evenepoel to go for the One Hour Record, a record that Eddy once held with a superhuman effort in Mexico City in 1972, a record that stood for a dozen years.The story begins with Eddy, born…
Pez Cycling News