You can see there the first colombian rider in europe:The Great Martin Emilio Rodriguez Gutierrez,nickname "Cochise";he was in the Bianchi Campagnolo team partnered with Felice Gimondi and both won 1973 Baracchi Trophy and The Verona Grand Prix.He won also 2 stages in the 1973 Giro d'Italia,the Amateurs 4000 mts individual track pursuit,4 times La Vuelta a Colombia,4 times La Vuelta al Tachira,1 time El Clasico RCN,beat the World Hour Record in 1970,won gold medal in the 4000 mts pursuit in Panamerican games in 1967,in American games in 1962, in Bolivarian games in 1965,in Central American games and was also the Road Championship of Colombia in 1965....he was our "Merckx";it means he was"Un Ciclista Berraco" or an "extraordinary rider" or a Cannibal,he won everything in Colombia.

Thank you very much! I ❤️ these classic videos. Great footage.

Eddy merckx mon idole le roi des rois toujours dans mon coeur toujours la même champion qui me facine mais le mondes entiers . Eddy merckx toujours humble mais son palmarès reste inégalé en 2022 personnes mais personnes n'a son panache eddy était un vrai passionné de son métier ce qui a donné un palmarès de 525 victoires sans les victoires sur piste eddy ne souvient plus eddy est incroyable vraiment incroyable. Que dieu protège bien notre géant de la route le roi eddy merckx.

Great close ups of intense chewing.

true men of steel

It would be interesting to see someone like Froome or some other high cadence riders, go up these mountains on bikes like this. Low cadence, high lactate, massive gears.

These were the real tough men of cycling , the grand tours were about 600km longer in those days too.

No sign of granny gears back then, and the tours were about 600km further than they are in recent years.

Merckx fell off one time ..fractured 2 Ribs and dislocated his shoulder ...then got back on the bike and went on to win Tour de france title .... Mark Cavendish couldn't cycle more than 200 yards without crying and calling for a Team mate to come and massage his Botty-wotty with Talcum powder! ....

min 2:08 Martin Emilio "Cochise" Rodriguez

Like how they changed speed gears hhh

min. 8:33 hahahahahahaha!!