From the Library: Half Man, Half Bike

After all, what self-respecting cyclist has not read a book about the sport's greatest. Go ahead, you can say it - "it's about time!" And it is, if you said it with a slightly accusatory tone, you're right. Lemond, Roche, Coppi, Hinault, Armstrong, Rusch, Millar, Parkin, Cavendish, Fignon, sure I have read books about them, they can be found in the library but, until now, never a one about Eddy Merckx.

Fotheringham is among the most respected cycling authors in the game and, while I am not sure how Half Man, Half Bike stacks up from a comprehensive standpoint, I am sure that there is enough information presented in the book to give anyone a well-rounded view into the great one's life, from childhood to retirement. After all a cycle racers career is defined by far more than mere stats and a list of wins (palmares), no matter how extensive that list may be. What do I mean by that? Fotheringham considers the factors that drove Merckx to win nearly every time he sat his bike, in everything from Grand Tours, to one day Classics, and local criteriums. How his competitors reacted to that dominance says almost about Merckx as do the 525 wins he collected during eleven years - between 111 and 151 races each during during that time: "I remember the days when I was in the same form as Eddy. There must have been four a year. About as many as Eddy had bad days. At a certain point you just give up."

Then there is the joke about the heavenly race among all the deceased greats of the past. After the race is run, and won by Eddy Merckx, one racer approached St. Peter and says: "Eddy isn't dead yet, what's he doing here? St. Peter replied gravely: That wasn't Merckx. It was God. He likes to pretend he's Merckx."

Fotheringham, William   Half Man, Half Bike: The Life of Eddy Merckx, Cycling's Greatest Champion   Chicago: Chicago Review Press, Inc., 2013