The One and Only | Cyclingnews

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The Man.(Image credit: Tim Maloney)

An interview with Eddy Merckx, February 4, 2004

In his home country, Belgium, Eddy Merckx is considered as more than an icon. As the most successful bike racer of all time, he is more like an amalgam of Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan. Simply put, Eddy is the greatest sportsman ever in the land of the Flemings and Walloons. Cyclingnews European editor Tim Maloney spoke to Eddy in his modern bike factory built in a converted dairy barn in the farmland just north of Brussels on a cold, wet winter day.

Eddy Merckx: Yeah, it was the first time! I'd never done it before and the director of Amstel invited me. He's a Belgian guy and he said 'you have to try scuba diving.' So I tried it and it was great, fantastic. We went eight, nine meters down and it was so beautiful. I did a little school before and he went with me. We were together so it was okay; really great! I like to swim so it wasn't hard to adapt to scuba diving.

EM: It was an old barn that we have completely re-done from the four walls and the roof, plus we've added two times the space from the original building. We have all the capabilities to build and paint bikes here. Originally we didn't paint our bikes here. In those days, we only had one model. We started in 28 March 1980, so it's been 24 years. In 2005, it will be my 25th anniversary as a bicycle builder and at the end of this year, we'll have a special model to commemorate this.

EM: Of course, we'll continue with Lotto-Domo and Flanders - Afin.com this year. For the future, we hope to continue, but we're not Trek or Giant or Bianchi. We think we've made a good investment because we've won Paris-Roubaix three years in a row with Lotto-Domo. Knaven, Museeuw, Van Petegem, Tour de Flandres and not a bad total of wins. Every year since we've started in 1980, we've sponsored a pro team. Back then, we started with the Zeep Centrale team, who were sponsored by Carlos, who went bankrupt and the team didn't have bikes for the Tour de France. So we made their bikes for the Tour that year and since then, we've always been in the pro peloton. Hitachi, Panasonic, Motorola...

EM: Van Petegem is a rider with a lot of talent and class who knows what he can achieve very well. He knows which races are good for him and he gives 100 percent there. The rest of the time, he prepares for the key races. He knows that if he does the Tour de France, that's not good for him. Perhaps he's not that good for San Sebastian or Lombardy, but for the rest of the World Cup races, he can win any of them. He's also a clever rider who knows his adversaries well and knows just the right time to make his move.

EM: Carbon fibre has its advantages and disadvantages for bicycle construction. You have to make standardized sizes, since it's expensive to make the molds. So it's much harder to build a custom-made frame. Sure that can be done with carbon fibre, but then the frame has to be glued and that's much different than a monocoque frame. But you know, carbon fibre is used in Formula One so much, because it's strong and light.

EM: Of course. Even if he wins six, seven... you know, cycling has changed and you can't compare it now to my day. It's certain that if I rode today, I would have ridden differently, because everything has changed. Before, you had to race a lot to make a little bit of money. You had to ride the big races to make your money in the criteriums. But now, the riders are paid better and that's changed everything.