Does anyone else find it just a little odd that recent revelations about the Cannibal’s potentially fatal heart condition suggests doctors kept the news of the problem from Merckx himself? I did, based on this AFP article, which seemed to suggest Italian cardiologist Giancarlo Lavezzaro was something akin to a Disney villain, green-lighting Merckx to race despite knowing the man could die. Such is the nature of “stuff on the Internet,” though. Only after reading a bit more thorough article on VeloNation did it become clear Dr. Lavezzaro lacked the tests necessary to make a definitive determination.
But still.
In the VeloNation article, Lavezzaro is described as saying, “Every day after work I went back home and asked my wife what had happened in the Giro. I feared she would reply that there was a problem with the Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx,” also stating that, “Today I would never let Merckx race.” What seems odd in light of today’s, um, “extremely thorough” relationship between doctors and racers, is the downright outpatient nature of the diagnosis. Lavezzaro apparently states, “We could clearly see that he had a problem, but an exact diagnosis could then only with an invasive procedure. During the Giro was impossible.”
Brutal as the ’68 Giro was, it did, nevertheless, end at some point, but this all pre-dated iPads and even Google Calendar, so I guess nobody thought to write down, “Make sure Eddy’s heart doesn’t explode once the Giro’s over.” Così va la vita.
All this information is coming to light thanks to a new Merckx biography by Daniel Friebe, Eddy Merckx, The Cannibal, and this might be a book I have to own.
Either way, this most recent story continues to prove that things were a little different back then. You could be a big shot actor and still race motorcycles on weekends in the late ’60s, and, while I certainly don’t mean to justify what still, to me, seems somewhat less than Hypocratic patient care here, it’s difficult to imagine the sport of cycling in a world where Merckx stopped racing in ’68, and Merckx himself seems unperturbed by the whole thing, and pretty happy with his career post-68.
Today, in contrast, regulation of athletes and sport continues to be more important than ever. Following the release of new rules by the UCI restricting sock height and forcing teams to leave the “lawyer tabs” in place on their forks, one can only expect to soon see a ruling declaring reflectors mandatory during competition.
At least we should see some sweet UCI-approved technological advancements in the field of competition visibility.
I smell another use for batteries!
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