Eddy Merckx And Molteni

There is so much written about the greatest of all cycling champions Eddy Merckx that I feel I should refrain from writing too much about him since I'm no more an expert on his life than most fans of cycling. However, yesterday I stumbled across three photographs of Merckx taken during his time cycling for the now iconic Molteni team. To my mind they are three of the best photos I've been able to find of him on the internet. The general image of Merckx is that of a man who is cool, calm and collected which is why it's refreshing to see two of the three photos capturing Merckx's raw emotion as well as sheer tiredness after a race.

Merckx signed for the Italian Molteni team at the end of 1970. It was also around this time that Ugo De Rosa started building bikes for Merckx although a formal relationship between De Rosa and Merckx didn't happen until around 1973 at the pinnacle of Merckx's career. Merckx stayed with the Molteni team for 6 years at the end of which the Molteni team withdrew from the pro peloton. After all, what was there after Merckx?