Eddy Merckx - Recorde da Hora (1972)

[MancoBiker]

Apparently, he knew the value of warming up (from the way he starts, no hurried at all)

[lifereguard]

massive gear - 53 x 13 ?

[rbonilla18]

eddy got shot at 1:35

[benoit18208]

battu de 10m en 2000 par borman.. c'est incroyable! c'est Eddy Merckx..

[salles910]

dahora dahora

ve o meu ai galera ..

watch?v=e0tqPCiSINc

watch?v=e0tqPCiSINc

watch?v=e0tqPCiSINc

[meyiyiyi55]

the greatest cyclist ever!

[rick4777]

best all around cyclist!

[Gautran7]

Nice vid

[trueeasyrider]

talking about the best bicycle rider in the world. he is the one.

[lerouche23]

le reccord de eddy merckx restera pour ma part pas encore egaler au vue de la maniere et de son velo et de l.altitude !!

[nonfictionone]

he is not suited to having no competitors. He does not race against himself. This is an inferior effort from the greatest cyclist ever because of these reasons.

[cassioluizzancope]

Great Cannibal!!!!

[andresco50]

What is he putting in his nose?

[sjl62]

Some kind of mentholyptus solution to open up the nasal tubes and make breathing easier. I remember when my dad was racing bikes in Europe in the mid-80s, and before the races that minty eucalyptus smell hung heavily in the air!

[merckxista]

Su preparación no fué la mejor, su posición en la bicicleta no era bien aerodinámica, la bicicleta era demasiado inestable y ligera para esa prueba, su salida fué demasiado rápida y, en fin, un intento mal planificado. A pesar de todo ello lo consiguió. Es el más grande de los ciclistas.

[equinoxranch]

Adding to Please Read This' accurate remarks....

Merckx had completed a full season (as usual) when he pulled this off. No extensive - specialized training. He "simply" did it. Think about that all you gomer armstrong worshippers......

Why Mexico and at the last minute? Because the two to three available European tracks were victim to bad weather. So, just like that..., what's available? Mexico City has a track. O.K., we'll fly over there. Four days later, this is what he did. SO Merckx!

[pdp110]

@equinoxranch hahah, Gomer Armstrong fans?? Get a life you bum.

[ansjol]

@equinoxranch In mexico city the air density is 0,9 kg/m3, less than in europe 1,2 kg/m3, therefore, the cyclist can run faster because has less air friction. Some cyclist chosen Bogotá (2600 msnm) or La Paz, Bolivia (3600 msnm) to beat the record.

[xylfox]

@ansjol But also breath-taking is harder,hm??????

[GiantDefy954]

@equinoxranch In his documentary he said he wanted to do it on the same track as the previous record holder. Also he spent weeks training at home on his garage trainer bike with an oxygen mask supplying him with less oxygen so that he could breathe better when at altitude. He knew that he was going to do it in mexico because he prepared for it months in advance.

[merckxista]

@GiantDefy954 He trained with oxygen mask from the 12 to the 21 of October.

[NowPleaseReadThis]

A supreme effort.

[NowPleaseReadThis]

This would have to be the best ride of all time cuz this record was only beaten 14 years later by an otherwise unknown specialist with more aerodynmaic equipment. Merckx basically just showed up and mounted his bike and took off. Also his coach told him to slowdown after 5 kilometers as he was on a pace to set new world records in all the 5 km increments. Merckx later said he felt he could have gone further otherwise and it was the hardest he had ever ridden and would not do it again.

[1stPlaceDirector]

Your description of Eddy preparation is very wrong. He did not just show up without lots of preparation. His preparation was extremely intense and calculated. You make it sound like his showing up there in Mexico was an afterthought. Merckx was totally wasted and couldn't have gone faster at the time. You can buy the documentary movie called something like "stars and watercarriers" and see how much preparation that Eddy did including specialized breathing apparatus and training at elevation.

[merckxista]

The specific preparation lasted 9 days in its house and 3 days in Mexico. Without aerodynamic preparation. Which present cyclist would arrive at 49 km with that preparation?

[indusrtial]

beautiful!!!! I was born in the wrong era.

[dace364]

@indusrtial why wroge era? was the best era for cycling.

[bluebabethrine]

awesome

[reactancio]

Merckx lo hizo en las mismas condiciones que el anterior Ole Ritter, misma pista y bicicleta convencional. Nadie ha batido a Merckx en las mismas condiciones.

[harp0marx]

Love the Bike my Pista got ran over by a fiat in Linz :(

[lingopresley]

brut 33.

[WerwolfGer]

Merckx won more than the tour de france!!!

Armstrong only the tour de france (with doping i think)....

[ZAOUWV]

There can be no discussion about it, Eddy Merkcx is the greatest cycler of all time! Greetings from Holland

[andresco50]

What he puts in his nose looks like cologne

[macdonaldjohnd]

Can any body imagine racing around a track in a Pursuit gear he used (52-14) and covering over 30 miles for the hour? Chris Boardman barely topped 49.4km on the traditional bike, that I think was more efficient than Eddy's anyhow, with a slick skinsuit and clipless pedals for Boardman

[macdonaldjohnd]

I knew of this great ride when I got into road racing in '84.Does any old timer know if Merckx did special training for the Hour? From what I learned, he would have done better at a track in Europe, he was,nt native to high altitude of Mexico City, so this still awesome ride killed a great rider. I have seen late champions do this hour ride on "traditional" bikes, and they barely beat the 49.4 km!

[devlaeminck]

He said in his diary of the '72 season 'Plus d'un tour dans mon sac' that he underwent tests from late september on in Liège and Milan to check his ability to adapt to high altitude. He was still racing in Italy at the time (won Tour of Lombardy). Back in Belgium he rode in fictional altitude 6X 1/2 hour with a mask making him breathe air that was impoverished in oxygene. The doctors were surprised by the results. His garage looked like a real lab at that time.

[mikemonster]

Somebody gave him this sun block. But nobody told him to apply it inside his nose...is that NOS?

[lofi73]

The great Merckx!

Thanks for the clip...I did´nt know that it was Ole Ritter´s record he beat at that time

[ViveLaColoniale]

Caught doping with what, compared to today's stuff, is like drinking five orange juices. Come on! He was world champion as an amateur at age 19, in '64. He didn't become great overnight. He won one third of all the races he entered. 525 wins. Props to Armstrong, but he's not even the second best ever: that would be Hinault.

[lordraven1980]

dont be a hypocrite...i also consider merckx the greatest rider of all time..but of course he tried to (and did)cheat..same thing with MANY other other elite cyclists. (including armstrong) merckx certainly would have used EPO if available to him.

all of the cycling legends cheated in one way or another. there was lots of stuff that cyclists used before EPO came on the scene in the late 80s.

[ViveLaColoniale]

I see your point. But the guy won the amateur in 64, and went on to win everything. Not like the miracles, i.e. Armstrong. He got a nasty injury in 70, never quite recovered, was felled by a spectator at the TdF 75. He won a third of the races he entered. The best. No discussion. Doping is a culture in cycling. But what he did was get an extra orange juice. Serious. Sure he would have done it. Not to lose to a lesser competitor. He did not need it to win.

[alexvino99]

this guy got caught doping 3 times.

[JRoca79]

For me the best is Lance Armstrong.Winning Tour 7 times in a round after beating cancer is something amazing.Before cancer (1996 Lance was a really good rider.I remember well Oslo (Oct.1993) with rain and cold weather and the great Miguel Indurain,Lance won with 21!! great and nice victory.

LiveSTRONG

[magix2K7]

7 tour is nice but merckx won everything everywhere

[Spooik]

Armstrong doesn't even come close to Eddy Merckx! Yes he won the Tour 7 times and for the rest?

Merckx won everything, except Paris-Tours..

[grimpyms]

merckx could won the tour also 7 times...

he won the tour 5 times, 1 time even the sprinters, yellow and mountain jersey in the same year...

but he had also a terrible crash(where 1 rider was killed in the year of 1969 in France) and one punch in the liver in the tour of 1975 when he had the yellow jersey

and won milan san remo 7 times... was 3 times world champion his first on his 22

5 times giro, 1 spain

[TchoukTchoukNase]

Of course, you are right. He was the greatest, and he will remain the greatest.

[TchoukTchoukNase]

You don't know what about you speak. Can you say me which are the others Armstrong's successes ? He was World champion once, one Amstel, one Flèche wallonne. May be I forget one race or two. And then ? Nothing. Armstrong is not in the twenty best bikers of all time. Coppi was far better, and Hinault, and Bartali, and Anquetil, and Lapize, and so many...

[duveimperial]

hehehe Livestrong. Thats funny! That guy is not even rated next to Merckx,Hinault,Inderain or Anquatil. The greats maybe never won the TDF, seven times.But they had far more victories in a single year that added up,like winning the TDF,3 times in one year, to Lances one.

[soulmancyclist]

I remember this day well. And yes, bizarrely he enjoyed the odd fag, and even did ads for cigarettes. He's still my hero.

[Waldo425]

Do you have proof as to this? I would love to see any proof that Merckx was a smoker at the time. That would be pretty damn bad ass.

[enriquevera2000]

El estilo esta conmadre yo kero un trajesito michi tipo Merck Molteni

[CyclistD]

btw: this is today 36 years ago, to the day!

[CyclistD]

The stuff he poored on him is "olbas" and not testosteron as some stupid haters said earlyer!!!! its like menthol!!!

[phantomxr]

i read somewhere that Merckx smoked cigarettes surely this cant be true,can it?

[partylwc]

jacques antolli or whatever his name is did... the french great rider; so possibly

[vmecobol]

Jaques Anquetil was noted for preparing for major races by staying up all night drinking.

He was quoted as saying : 'To prepare for a race, nothing beats a good pheasant, champagne and a woman.'

[1stPlaceDirector]

Lots of the early Tour de France riders from the 1920s and 30s used to smoke even while riding. It did seem to be something they did for show or to be cool. I doubt they really inhaled.

[mikewhomikeyoung]

Back then, it was widely believed that smoking opened the lungs, so early cyclists used to smoke during races because they thought it would help their breathing.

[amandalynn1983]

actually they thought it opened up their lungs at high altitudes.

[britchey11]

there was a photo of him in the 7o's with a cig and a glass of wine at a party, lots of riders " are normal young men" sometimes. coke, pot, smack used to come up in the tests- not performance enhancing though so no worries.

[myroseaccount]

SIMPLY THE GREATEST!!!

[saberliner14]

whatever he rubbed in his nose sure worked.

[silvanski]

no aredynamic aids, of course the Mexican altitude helped

[mguazzelli]

Yes, is an excerpt from "Eddy Merckx, la course en Tete"

[mplayer98]

Is this an excerpt from a documentary?

[mguazzelli]

Yes, is an excerpt from "Eddy Merckx, la Course en Tete".

[macdonaldjohnd]

I think Merckx overdid everything, and was probably not his strongest for this famous ride in '72 from his hyper active season. Imagine what his ride would have been with a good solid rest!Another Kilo? The man was such a natural, the Muhammed Ali of Cycling.Still the greatest! But oh, whats he like anyhow? Is he a snob? Naaaaaa, really?

[sjl62]

Also -- if he hadn't tried to break multiple records (5k, 10k, 20k, hour) in the same ride, he could have paced his effort more and would certainly have broken 50k. I believe that his first kilometer split is still the fastest of any hour attempt.

[grabmax1]

Without a doubt, he was the greatest cyclist the world has ever seen and there will never be another like him. I was prilileged to be a young cyclist when the 'Cannibal' was at his best.

[kkjellquist]

I would guess, and this is totally a guess, but maybe it's some sort of menthol?

[sjl62]

Would that explain why he douses it on his jersey -- like putting Vicks vapor rub on your chest? (I've wondered whether it's holy water -- Merckx's catholicism was superstious like that.)

[dippercat]

If you ever see "The Impossible Hour", Ole Ritter does the exact same thing before he starts his Hour Record ride in 1968: puts some sort of menthol in his nostrils.

[sjl62]

Also, I love the totally unexpected music in this film. Merckx looks less like a modern athlete than a knight being led off the field of battle.

[sjl62]

I've always wondered what he's sprinkling on his neck and rubbing in his nostrils at the beginning of this scene.

[Vegasbabee]

This record was set in 1972, not 1982!

[D370n470r]

If you mean about de "1982" in the description of the video... it is saying

"The record lasted until 1982"

if it is not about that... sorry. ^^'