merziac

Thank goodness, hope he's back on the bike soon.

curbtender

Bianchigirll 

His eyes still look a little glassy

merziac

You can only hit the deck so many times, he's probably close to the limit by now.

Bianchigirll 

canklecat

Glad he's okay.

Hopefully this'll put an end to that myth about "tuck and roll" or whatever nonsense MUPpets and weekend warriors spout to claim superhuman reflexes will minimize injuries -- instead of crediting pure dumb luck. Most of us have the reflexes of a sack of potatoes being dropped. If the best cyclist in history can fall and smack his head, there ain't much hope for us mere mortals over age 60.

Wear a helmet. Take your Vitamin D and calcium (not that it's done me a bit of good). Have 911 on speed dial. Watch the road. Call out hazards. Don't ride with idiots.

jeirvine 

Speaking of Eddy, I am reading Freibe's "The Cannibal" biography as we speak. I can't recommend it highly enough. It's not the first Merckx bio I've read, but it's hands down the best. He interviews and gets stories and anecdotes from many of the key and not so key figures from the period, and it really comes to life. A fantastic read.
-J

stardognine

Well, yeah, but when you're riding alone, you're kinda stuck with yourself. 😁😉

Lemond1985

You're sounding like someone's mother:

"Cut your hair! Stand up straight! Smile every once in a while, those braces were EXPENSIVE. Buy some decent clothes. And put on a jockstrap, you'll lose your manhood on that crossbar!"

canklecat

Yeah, I know, I'm a nanny. Can't help it. My first career was in health care, starting as a Navy Hospital Corpsman at age 18. Then a newspaper reporter covering the police and fire beat. Then a federal workplace safety inspector.

See enough broken and dead bodies from preventable incidents, it changes you.

I did plenty of reckless stuff in my youth and mostly got away with it. But seeing crashes and injuries to other 50+ cyclists -- especially the long-term effects of concussions -- then discovering I had premature osteopenia last year after I was hit by a car, made me a bit more cautious.

canklecat

Yep, Eddy has always had that charisma that set him apart from most cycling champions. I've watched a bunch of documentaries with him.

I remember first seeing him on a network TV sports show, probably ABC's Wide World of Sports, around 1970. At the time I was mostly a boxing fan and it was right around the time of Muhammad Ali's comeback campaign toward a showdown with Joe Frazier. There was a small segment about the Tour de France and Eddy Merckx. The guy looked like he was cut from the same mold as John Garfield, Mike Connors and Charles Bronson. He was multi-lingual, which impressed the Italian artists who were friends of my mom and stepdad -- they appreciated that Merckx seemed fluent in Italian and Spanish, and seemed to get along in English for interviews.

Changed my whole perspective on bicycles. I started regarding it as a serious exercise machine. Later, as an amateur boxer, I did most of my cardio conditioning on the bike rather than jogging (bad idea, BTW -- gotta work those legs the way they'll be used in the ring, which doesn't include bicycling despite the accusations that slick boxers "got on their bicycles").

But by the late 1970s my attentions had shifted to Jacques Anquetil, mostly because I admired his mercenary business savvy, oh-so-French brusque aloofness, indifference toward being accused of doping, and reputation for leaving kids that looked suspiciously like himself in every village along the grand tour. Gotta remember, this was the cynical '70s, post-Vietnam, the Carter era (and all that entails), and I was a kid raised on 1960s Hollywood anti-hero movies, mostly with Paul Newman playing Hud, Harper and John Russell in Hombre. Merckx was a better cyclist and a charismatic guy, but Anquetil was the bad boy, the anti-hero, perfect for that era.

terrymorse 

Story related by an old ride buddy (ORB). "Old" meaning "advanced age".

There's a fast early morning ride aptly named The Morning Ride, every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 6:25 AM from downtown Palo Alto.

One day on The Morning Ride, ORB notices a fellow rider of advanced age, decked out in a Merckx kit and riding a Merckx bike. ORB rides alongside and says, "Glad to see I'm not the only old fart on the ride today."

Guy in Merckx just snorts back at ORB, so ORB moves along the group until he finds another buddy to ride alongside.

ORB: Did you get a load of that guy in the Merckx kit? He must think he's Eddy Merckx.

Buddy: Yeah, he does. Because he is Eddy Merckx.