Eddy Merckx - Legends Of The Tour De France (+Book) (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	Good insight into the worlds greatest cycle racer
Disadvantages:	Some poor narating and unimpressive book

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Overview

This DVD is a look at the life and achievements of Eddy Merckx one of the greatest cyclists in the history of the sport.

His Story

Eddy Merckx who is also known as the cannibal was born in Belgium on June 17th in 1945. He was an amazing athelete and definetly the most amazing cyclist ever to graze the planet. His rein as greatest cyclist ever was between the years of 1968 and 1974. He won a record 11 grand tours including the Tour De France and amazing 5 times. He is the only rider to have ever to win all classifications in a single race which were the Tour De France in 1969 and the Giro D'italia in 1968. He has won all the 5 cycling monument classics which comprised of Milan-San Remo, Tour Of Flanders, Paris - Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Tour Of Lombardy and all more than twice to make a record 19 victories in these races.

Of the grand tours he won the Tour De France 5 times, the Giro D'italia 5 times and the Vuelta Espana once to bring his grand total of grand tour wins to 11 which is absolutly astonishing even in comparison to Lance Armstrong who solely chose the Tour De France as his race. In his peaks between 1969 and 1975 he won an amazing 35% of all races he entered which today is still an achievement not matched. He owns the record for career wins which stands at a giant of 525 victories and 445 as a profesional. He was seriously untouchable in his sport. In the grand tours he won an amazing 34 Tour De France Stages.

His career was not aslways a happy scene as he suffered from many crashes and injuries including an end of season race in which each ride had a motorcycle as a pacer and another cyclist and his pacer crashed right in front of Merckx which killed his pacer imediatly and left Merckx with a severe head injury. He also cracked a vertebrae and twisted his pelvis but still this hero of the sport came back and won many more races.

Eddy Merckx in my mind is definetly the best cyclist ever to ride on the planet and this DVD shows all those victories he had in the worlds greatest bike race and shows just how dominate he was and how hard he worked. After he amazing career Merckx decided to retire at the young age of 32 showing that all these victories finally took there toll on him. Although I was not alive during his dominance in the sport being a cycling fan it is something that every cycling fan should know about. He made the sport what it is and will be an amazing hero for many cycling fans to come.

Although Lance armstrong won a record 7 Tour De France titles Eddy Merckx won 5 but won many other races in the season were Armstrong only wanted this one. He had no apetite for one race he wanted them all. One thing that will always stick in my mind is once i was watching Merckx footage of him winning a mountain stage of the Tour De France and the first thing he done was get of his bike and Light up a cigarette which just shows his absolute dominance and heroic nature to one of the most gruelling races in all sports.

The DVD

All in all this DVD covers all of his amazing wins in the Tour and some of the footage is absolutly amazing and should be part of anybody's cycling collection. Its also nice to see that the footage has not been tampered with or remastered it is all original footage which is awesome and adds to the historic nostalger of this great hero. I would say that the only thing that does bug me a bit is that there could be more narating and the book could have more information on Merckx but apart from that this is a must have for all cycling fans young and old.