The CRASH that nearly killed MERCKX
September 9, 1969. Just weeks after his first Tour de France win, Eddy Merckx lines up for a demonstration race behind derny bikes on the track in Blois, France. A pedal snaps off one of the pacing bikes. His derny rider, Fernand Wambst, can't avoid it. Merckx is found unconscious more than 10 meters away, with a gaping head wound. Wambst doesn't survive. Merckx returns to racing weeks later — but he's never quite the same again. Lasting tension in his hips, a shifted pelvis, chronic back pain on climbs. From 1970 onward he carries a wrench in his back pocket to adjust his saddle mid-race. After Blois, it was only half a Merckx. And he still went on to win 525 times.
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