2012

On ne peut évaluer Merckx, sans évoquer son amour immodéré du cyclisme, sa dévotion, son respect des traditions. Champion emblématique des premiers directs télévisés ou sa photogénie faisait merveille, Merckx était partout présent ou résonnaient les grandes orgues du calendrier mondial. Il y avait le prédateur impitoyable des classiques et le despote éclairé des grands Tours. Le Tour de France un opéra? Il en était le ténor, inspiré. Le Giro une liturgie? Il en fut le prophète, empanaché dont le souvenir hante encore le théâtre enneigé des Trois Cimes de lavaredo. A son palmarès, 525 courses, 32 classiques, 96 maillots jaune, 76 maillots roses. Et un record de l'heure que Bernard Hinault n'a jamais osé tenter. Merckx était multiple, orchestral, pour résumer, inimitable.Philippe Brunel.Leader de la rubrique cycliste à l'Equipe où il a débuté en 1977 sous la coupe de Jacques Goddet qui l'avait choisi en 1987 pour recueillir ses dernières chroniques sur le Tour de France. C'est en 1980 qu'il découvre le Tour d'Italie, comme envoyé spécial, et le Tour de France en 1982. Au total il a suivi plus de soixante dix grands Tours, dans le compagnonnage étroit des champions.Journaliste écrivain, il est également l'auteur de "Vie et mort de Marco Pantani" , de "Rouler plus vite que la mort" et de trois romans remarqués par la critique dont "La Nuit de San Remo" traduit en Italie.

Merckx is the normIn Dutch we have a word for an extraordinary and exceptional performance: 'Merckxiaans' or 'Merckxian'. 'The Cannibal' won his races in every way possible. Eddy Merckx is the lighthouse of the sport. Just take a look on YouTube and watch how he won Milano-Sanremo seven times; it will give you an image of his near-boundless capabilities and skills. No one descended faster on the Poggio than the – 75 years old this year – Eddy Merckx. He was simply the measure of all things. The norm. The standard. The world started to know him in the Giro of 1968. In that year he rode, unleashed, to the summit of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo and he won the first of his 11 Grand Tours. Merckxian victories galore. For example, in the Tour de France, he left the summit of the Tourmalet for a solo of 140km until Mourenx. In the Tour of Flanders he decided on a solo of 70km. He did not always win in a time trial, but he did break the World Hour Record in 1972 with an absolute minimum of preparation. If he had to, Merckx won bunch sprints, but he wasn't a natural sprinter à la Franco Bitossi. After a back-breaking grueling classic (he won 32 of them!) the four-time World Champion (once as an amateur, three times a pro) was also one of the fastest cyclists in the world. 'Merckxian', there's just no other word for his performances.Hugo Coorevits, Het NieuwsbladBorn in Zwevegem in 1959, Hugo Coorevits lives close to the pavés and hills of the Flemish Ardennes, which is the center of the Ronde van Vlaanderen. After starting writing for the newspaper Het Volk in 1983, the Four Days of Dunkirk 1989 was his first coverage as a professional journalist. Since 1999 he has worked for the Het Nieuwsblad newspaper (Mediahuis group), covering cycling all over the world.

Of course these things are always somewhat illusory. Sprinting is seldom significant in a GC context, and there's much more to stage racing than these five categories. Through it all, however, Merckx remains the most complete racing cyclist who ever raced (Coppi included), and there's an abyss between second-placed Hinault and the other inductees…Herbie Sykes is an award-winning cycling writer and historian. An Englishman living in Turin, he has authored four books about the Giro d’Italia, and is a former editor of the official English language Giro guide.