Eddy Merckx, The Cannibal by Daniel Friebe

Having reviewed “Eddy Merckx The Cannibal” soon after publication a decade ago, it’s been back on this summer’s reading list in the light of Tadej Pogačar’s results and frequent comparisons to Eddy Merckx. Plus it’s Merckx’s birthday today, 79 years old..

With Tadej Pogačar racking up wins and often by a comfortable margin there are inevitable comparisons with Eddy Merckx, the reference point in the sport. These are often quantitative comparisons, such as the first rider to do this-or-that since Merckx, the biggest winning margin since Merckx, a plethora of what sports fans call statistics and what statisticians often call anecdotes.

What’s enjoyable with this book is that there’s so much on the qualitative side, it’s full of tales and not numbers. Yes Merckx wins often, he wins big and he really hates losing. Here it’s the stories and even the psychology that makes it an entertaining and informative read. As an example one of Merckx’s masterpieces was the the stage from Luchon to Mourenx in the 1969 Tour de France, he won it by almost eight minutes but Raymond Riotte put it better, “he was in the shower and we still had 15 kilometres to ride” which says more than the actual eight minute winning margin that day.

The author didn’t interview Merckx – a “blessing” writes the Friebe – but instead spoke many of his challengers and plenty who got crushed at the time, seeing their income drying up but are nowadays happy with their lot. Because of the many voices it’s a useful corrective. To reprise the Mourenx win again, Merckx often says he attacked because he heard his team mate Martin Van Den Bossche was leaving the squad and he didn’t like this act of disloyalty and, so in a fit of pique, chased down Van Den Bossche on the Tourmalet and then he kept going to the famous win:

“We’d learned the evening before that he was going to join the Molteni team, that was a hard thing to take, a disappointment because he could have waited for another moment…. …it was to deny him the points for the mountains competition that I attacked on the Tourmalet, before finding myself alone at the front”
– L’Equipe special edition “Impera-Tour”, June 2024

But Van Den Bossche is interviewed here and says Merckx did not know about the contract for the following year and was just being Merckx in trying to win everything going. Who is right? That’s not clear but Merckx is able to give his version events more often than the others, the winners get others to write their history.

The book touches on Merckx’s popularity. When the first lunar landings were happening Merckx was regularly sharing the front page with the Apollo module or Messrs Armstrong and Aldrin. “Fans” would leap over fences to get into his garden and steal his jerseys drying on the washing line.

Rivalries and challengers abound. Merckx won plenty but others were able to find opportunities. What’s interesting is how Merckx’s arrival on the scene and some of his wild moves at the start set the scene for years to come. Even Merckx later admits some of his long range attacks were reckless but with hindsight these cowed the others who saw him as near-unbeatable so they often didn’t try when it could have worked from time to time to challenge him directly.

Today the lack of rivalry is remarkable, to the point where it’s invisible. Framed against the tales in this book it’s arguably the big contrast between now and then. Yes Merckx is wearing a wool jersey and pulling chicken legs out of his musette as race food while today it’s lycra racesuits and gels. But it’s the personal clashes that stand out from the past era.

Pogačar may be the master of so much but Jonas Vingegaard has beaten him twice in the Tour de France. Yet there’s little rivalry between the two, just exchanges of polite words at the foot of the podium truck and talk of respect. Which is pleasant and good for them but it may not make for a sizzling read in decades to come. Similarly Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel are arch rivals on the road and probably would not go on holiday together but it’s hardly Merckx vs. Rik van Looy or Roger Roger De Vlaeminck and the book puts it all in stark relief.

The Verdict
Enjoyable a second time over, although it pays to sit down and read one chapter at a time rather than do more in a sitting so as not to be overwhelmed by the list of triumphs. There are other books to enjoy, William Fotheringham’s biography the other choice in English; in French there’s Merckx’s own “Mes Carnets Routes” diary, or Philippe Brunel’s biography and more. They surely all suggest that Merckx’s domination was near-absolute, both in terms of results but also the mentality and the way he imposed himself on the sport.

The recent Giro did see Pogačar run off with the race and he’s been doing this in other races like Strade Bianche and the Volta a Catalunya; yet Merckx did throughout the season, for many years and often infuriating his rivals. Pogačar hopefully won’t have it so easy this July.

More books to read at inrng.com/books

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