The greatest Eddy Merckx (Bel) "The Cannibal" was the last rider to date to have won the Giro D' Italia 5 times in 1968; 1970; 1972; 1973 & 1974
Eddy Merckx gives praise to Alejandro Valverde: "He is the cyclist who has most resembled me"
CyclingThursday, 18 May 2023 at 22:00
For Eddy Merckx, possibly the best cyclist in history to give you any kind of compliment is something priceless. But for him to directly say that you are the rider most similar to him is something of incalculable value, and that is what has happened to Alejandro Valverde.
The former Movistar Team rider received praise from the Belgian legend, who assures that he was very happy when he won the rainbow jersey in 2019 and that he misses more cyclists like him in the current peloton: "I was happy when Valverde won the World Championship because he deserved it. He may be the one who has been the most similar to me because he ran all year and in all the tests. Today's cycling would need more Valverde's."
Thus, the five-time winner of the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France explains what made him special. What made him become the cyclist with the most wins in history. The secret was simply to go for it.
And that is precisely what made Valverde seem like Merckx, since as the Murcian himself commented in statements collected by his colleagues from Diario del Trialtón, his objective in each race he ran was always the same: "I have always gone out to win and enjoy. I like to win at everything. Even at cards."
Just in
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
Nov 05, 13:04
0
Popular news
Latest comments
- I counted 16 riders under 24 out of 43 that started. Once was only 16 ! Two of the top riders are Zoe and Schreiber and both under 23 yet that have done 50 min races in the past with the elites so I think it's just bad clock management. Let them race 50 freakin' minutes! One more lap could have made a big dffierence most times in the podium and winner.frieders319-11-2024
- He needs to finish out his contract and then go hit MTB and Cross/Gravel really hard, that's where his heart is.awp18-11-2024
- Pidcock is starting to sound like Froome now.Sweep18-11-2024
- I think this was because there were junior women in the race. If a race has junior women am pretty sure it has to be less than 45 minutes. I believe a rule is coming in for next season that will fine organisers that don't put on a junior women's race a fine equivalent to the prize money. So fingers crossed we should see more longer elite and junior women's races from next season.NorrisHippocampe18-11-2024
- Of course he CAN. Big salary in cycling is not when you win but when they talk about you (and your team / sponsors). For every news about Jonas, MVdP or Wout there are 10 times more(!) news about Pidcock (like everyday for last 2 months?). Since cycling is advertising sport not competitive sport (in terms of from money comes from) Pidcock is winner and GOAT - change my mind. ;-)averagecyclist18-11-2024
- Why do the women CXs keep getting short changed with the length of theor races? They could have easily done another lap to put them at 50 minutes which is their time limit. Yet another CX race where they fail to reach this when they had a chance to. Come on ... the math isn't that hard to figure out lap times and divide into 50 min!frieders318-11-2024
- All pro cyclists are massively underpaid! The amount of riding and physical exertion they put their bodies through is crazy compared to other sports. I can't think of any other sport where you are physically active at a very high level of power output for hours on end each day.Pogboom17-11-2024
- When I was working for Starkist/Heinz my manager quit. So the next week my group was put under another manager. During our first meeting he asked if there was anything we needed to tell him. I said that I would be out the following week on vacation. He said "I don't know if I can let you go on vacation". I replied, "You can't tell if I can go. You can only tell me if I can come back".Sweep17-11-2024
- :-)Sweep17-11-2024
- What a mess there :-)
DareDevil17-11-2024