Eddy

September 3, 2011 at 17:37
filed under cycling
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Eddy Merckx is the greatest cyclist to ever throw a leg over the bike. Getting to meet him was unexpected in itself while having 15 minutes of one-on-one time with him felt surreal.

This past July, a last minute opportunity to interview the man nicknamed ‘Le Cannibal’, which was given to him because of his intense desire to win, presented itself to me and I jumped at the chance. The pride of Belgium was attending his son Axel Merckx’s Gran Fondo in Penticton, B.C., an event in which I was a participant, and Radio-Canada asked me if I could interview the father-son duo for ‘Ouest Express’, a weekly show focused each week on a different topic. Eddy had accepted to do the interview as it was going to be conducted in French, which had made him much more open to the idea of dealing with the media on what was essentially a family visit for him.

As directed by the show’s producer, I was going to interview both Eddy and Axel on the topic of the highs and the lows of cycling and of their careers. I first sat down with Eddy and I must admit it was a bit intimidating to hear first-hand many of the stories that all passionate cyclists have heard of and/or read about: his first Tour victory (1969), his 7 (!) MSR wins, his ’68 Giro performance under the snow on the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, his crash in Blois, etc.

A very pleasant surprise was how cool and articulate Axel was. He was really nice and had many interesting perspectives on cycling. The edited interview of both Eddy & Axel Merckx can be heard in the Radio-Canada archives.

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