{"id":192798,"date":"2023-05-02T07:03:11","date_gmt":"2023-05-02T07:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=192798"},"modified":"2023-05-22T07:09:06","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T07:09:06","slug":"opinion-no-eddy-todays-riders-dont-lack-passion-theyre-just-not-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/05\/02\/opinion-no-eddy-todays-riders-dont-lack-passion-theyre-just-not-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: No, Eddy, Today\u2019s Riders Don\u2019t Lack Passion \u2013 They\u2019re Just Not You"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eddy Merckx is unquestionably the greatest road racer since the beginning of recorded history, so when he talks about cycling, people listen. They also listen because he is intelligent and generous with the knowledge and savoir-faire he picked up in his 13-year professional career. However, lately, the Cannibal has made public statements that suggest that either he does not quite understand how the sport has changed since his day or that he has not given his declarations enough thought.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Take, for example, his criticism of Wout van Aert gifting victory<\/a> in this year\u2019s Gent-Wevelgem to his Jumbo-Visma teammate and friend Christophe Laporte. Or his latest suggestion, in the pages of Il Messagero<\/a>, that \u201ctoday’s riders evidently don’t really like cycling, in cycling you need passion.\u201d This was, he went on, because most current riders \u201conly think about one race, it’s as if they don’t care about the others.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement was part of a longer declaration in praise of Tadej Poga\u010dar, who, according to Merckx, \u201craces all year round, he does the Classics, he does Roubaix, he does everything. He’s not one of those you only see in stage races,” as opposed to, presumably, most of \u201ctoday\u2019s riders.\u201d In addition, the now-injured two-time Tour de France winner \u201cclimbs, he rides on cobblestones, he rides everywhere, he knows how to manage himself, he knows how to correct mistakes, he knows how to improve.\u00a0And he wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Merckx said about the Slovenian, \u201cI’m happy to see that there is a rider who doesn’t prepare for just one race. Cycling<\/a>\u00a0is not just the Giro d’Italia or the Tour de France; cycling is all year round.\u201d Everything he said in this interview about Poga\u010dar is true. It is also true about another rider, Eddy Merckx, who in 1975 rode in a staggering 195 races and, according to the Guardian,<\/a> competed in 1,413 races from 1966 to 1977, or an average of 128 a year. If there is one rider today who has taken Merckx as a role model and appears to have the same hunger, stamina and legs, it is Tadej Poga\u010dar. No wonder Merckx said, \u201cI like Poga\u010dar a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it is unfair and unrealistic to expect other riders to approach their careers in the same way, because the sport has changed a great deal since Merckx dominated it. For one thing, there is the money. As Merckx himself told the Guardian in 2013, \u201cSir Bradley Wiggins<\/a>\u00a0made \u00a36m last year\u2026 if I could have made \u00a36m in a year I wouldn\u2019t have ridden as much. You had to ride a lot back then to make money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there is the fact that few riders draw up their own racing schedules. Their schedules are determined by the teams that pay their generous salaries so that their riders will not have to ride all those races to make a decent living. I imagine that even world road-race champion Remco Evenepoel, at this stage of his career, still follows the commandments of his Soudal\u2013Quick Step boss, Patrick Lefevere. Otherwise, considering how ambitious he is, he might already have tackled the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

In addition, road racing today is considerably faster than it was in the 1960s and 70s. That is due to the bike and training technology and to the greater fitness of the modern professional cyclist. Training methods have improved, diet plays a far greater role and the ready availability of lots of relevant data have made today\u2019s riders \u2013 there is no other way to say it \u2013 better and faster than they were when Merckx competed.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, that has made road racing more competitive and more dangerous \u2013 as have the bigger pelotons and larger number of teams in a race. In the 1975 Tour de France, 140 riders from 10 teams were at the start line; in 2022, 176 riders from 22 teams appeared for the Grand D\u00e9part. That adds to the stress, the fatigue and the risks of crashing.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar crashed in the Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge and broke his wrist because he was caught up in the fall of EF Education-EasyPost’s Mikkel Honor\u00e9, who had suffered a double puncture. But the Slovenian always seemed to be able to avoid crashes before \u2013 this was the first time in his career that he quit a race because of a crash. Did fatigue play a part in his crash? Maybe. Perhaps his reaction time was just a little bit slower because Li\u00e8ge was his third tough race in eight days. Anyone active in a high-performance sport knows that you tend to be hurt more easily when you are tired. And you also tend to win less. It is telling that the year Merckx rode in 195 races, 1975, he did not win the Tour de France because he crashed and broke his jaw. He did finish the race \u2013 and came in second!<\/p>\n

And finally, as Merckx must surely know, not all riders are created equal. Riders like the great Belgian and Poga\u010dar come along only once in a half-century. No one else possesses their ability to maintain a superior level of fitness for long periods of time, their powers of recuperation after a punishing race, or their hunger for victory. Merckx was and Poga\u010dar is one of a kind in their respective eras.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t expect every rider in the peloton to be you, Eddy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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