This caught my eye on the guardian website, I’ve not seen it before, is it new and has anyone read it yet? I rate Will Fotheringham as a cycling journalist, but wasn’t so keen on his Tommy Simpson book – good content but it seemed dis-jointed to me – so in two minds about buying it.

http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9780224074483

EDIT: It’s a quid cheaper on Amazon.

yeah, I’m about 3/4 the way through it. Really well written, very engaging.

Edit: I’ll add, and this isn’t the authors fault, that it gets a little….predicatble. The author actually starts by explaining that fans grew tired of Merckx winning everything and began jeering during races because he’d made it less interesting. And then I was reading through the book and I figured they had a point, it’s chapter after chapter about Merckx destroying everyone and everything in his path.

“What’s that? There’s a race to the moon?” not only would Merckx win it, he’d bury the competition while he was doing it. Again and again and again.

That’s a significant edit there, samuri! 🙂

Was about to buy on the basis of your original post…now unsure again!

I think I’ll put it on my wishlist, I’ve a long ‘queue’ of books to read at the mo!

fans grew tired of Merckx winning everything and began jeering during races

I was at the infamous World Championships in Zolder in 1969 where everyone, including his own Belgian team mates, made sure that whoever was going to win, it wasn’t going to be Merckx. He retired before the last lap to ensure he didn’t feature on the results sheet, to the boos of 150,000 fans. He was the highest paid sportsman in the world at the time, and didn’t exactly go to any trouble to come across as ‘nice’.

😉 I guess if you’ve read up about him before it might not be that interesting. I just knew he was pretty good, I didn’t appreciated before reading this book quite how much he completely dominated everything.

I like perhaps many other people thought someone like Armstrong was a domineering force, Lance was a wimp compared to Merckx.

Have this on order…

It’s a good read – Fotheringham is an entertaining writer and Merckx is a fascinating subject. I found myself reading bits out to the wife occasionally, and normally I wouldn’t dream of inflicting a sports biography on her. I suppose that with the sheer amount of winning it could seem a bit predictable, but I still found it compelling reading. The later years of his career are more interesting because he didn’t get it all his own way, yet he still managed to win even when suffering from the results of serious injury and with the rest of the cycling world trying to stop him. An incredible athlete, and Fotheringham’s book is an excellent way to learn more about him.

Lance was a wimp compared to Merckx.

You can say that again. Merckx won everything – all the classics, all the grand tours, 4 world champs, plus everything else, from 6 day track races to the hour record.

Give it a go. I’m about halfway through and enjoying it (enjoyed the Simpson book too). Samuri’s got a point, but I wouldn’t let it put you off. Fotheringham’s actually quite light on the superlatives and I find myself having to remind myself of the sheer magnitude of Merckx’s dominance.

And its EDDY!!!!!!!

absolute monster. what a legend.

I’m in the process of reading it – like it so far