Sports Eye

By October 22, 2019Opinion, Sports Eye

Cycling great Eddy Merckx falls, hospitalized

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

LAST Monday morning (October 14) I was surprised to learn through Eurosport (internet) that my age contemporary and cycling idol Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx suffered a bad fall during his physical fitness riding with his friends that made him suffer a serious head injury and had to be rushed to a hospital in Dendermonde, Belguim. As of this writing (October 17), latest report from Belgian press says he’s fitted with ‘pacemaker’ and appears to have shown improvement, conscious and feeling better based on his wife Claudine’s statements.

I wish my all-time hero in world cycling, well.

Diehard cycling aficionados like me surely know who Eddy Merckx is in the field of the two-wheeled event. He rose to fame when he won the amateur 1964 World Road Race Cycling Championship. Turning professional in 1965, his big triumph started in 1969 when he won his first Tour de France title and his domination of the sport from thereon was really unbelievable. He started wining numerous world cycling laurels: Tour de France and the Tour of Italy five times each! The two big Tours were being run in 21 days until now and are considered the two big Tours by the world scribes as the world’s toughest, longest, richest and the most prestigious bikefest.

Aside from winning the two prestigious Tours, he also bagged the World Road Race championship three times from 1965 to 1977 that earned him the moniker “Cannibal” by the press people, him as the greatest cyclist ever produced in this planet due to his sterling accomplishments in his generation that included Europe’s countless one day races, especially the world’s well-known Paris Roubaix and Milan-Remo races. I agree. He also won the eight-day Paris-Nice Tour three times, Tour de Mediterranean, Tour de Catalunya that pushed the European scribes to call him “Cannibal.” He was also a seven-time winner of the (now) defunct Grand Prix des Nations, an annual individual time-trial race participated in by the best cyclists in the world, similar to the 40-kilometer individual-time-trial (ITT) Olympic event. If professional cyclists were not barred in the Olympics during his prime, unlike now, I would think that he would have been a seven times gold medalist winner, too, in the 40-kilometer ITT and again, in the four-kilometer pursuit track race. Yes, ITT was his forte and really unbeatable during his time.

I followed his career in our national dailies. Even the king of his country Belgium admired him, too, for his unequalled performances that earned prestigious accolades to his country. After retiring, he worked with Tour de France organizers ASO until 2017 and his legacy was celebrated at the Grand Depart of this year’s Tour de France in Brussels on the 50th anniversary of his coveted yellow jersey, symbol of Tour de France overall leadership.

When I suffered a traumatic cycling accident on September 9, 2001, I had a strong feeling that like Merckx, I may no longer be able to do long distance exercises even (maybe) just for fun. Cycling is one of the riskiest sports and only the young warriors who dare to ride can compete for fame and for fortune.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Likewise you younger people,, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” There humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. 1 PETER 5: 5-6

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