Eddie Merckx, on right in yellow jersey, leads the peloton in stage 9 of the 1970 Tour de France
If you need a break from all the woeful news these days, or searching for worthy, new heroes to worship, I recommend watching the 2025 Tour de France. NBC Sports has been streaming ½-hour segments on YouTube summarizing each stage. The 18th of its 21 stages took place today (July 24) in a mountainous region of southeastern France.
The heroes in this case include Eddie Merckx, a Belgian who won the Tour five times, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, and 1974. Next in line comes American Greg LeMond, who won three times: 1986, 1989, and 1990. Not among them: Lance Armstrong, the Texan who won seven times consecutively from 1999 to 2005, but all titles were officially stripped in 2012 due to doping violations.
Professional cycling on the world tour is one of the most, if not the most, grueling sport known. It is almost mindboggling to comprehend the discipline of training, intensity of competing, physical punishment, and the technology, all collected within sponsored teams. It’s another paradox: An individual sport that requires a team.
My first exposure to the Tour de France occurred many years ago in roughly the same region of southeastern France as today’s 18th stage. On the morning of July 5, as I departed from the village of Colmar heading for Paris aboard my new Triumph 650 Bonneville motorcycle, I was sidetracked briefly by a huge parade of vehicles and bicycles. In one of my Forrest Gump moments, I didn’t know what it was. More on that later.
LeMond legend
Today, if you were to ask almost any middle-aged French person about LeMond, I’m guessing virtually all would know who he was and what he did. Ask an American, and it’s likely that many would not. I was surprised to learn that he lived with his family for many years not far away in a Minneapolis, MN suburb. Recently, they moved to Kentucky. From his website www.lemond.com he sells high-end electric bikes.
Before reading a book about him, I didn’t know a whole lot other than him winning the Tour several times. All the rest – and there’s a lot – can be found in a 2018 book by Daniel De Visé, The Comeback – Greg LeMond, the True King of American Cycling, and a Legendary Tour de France. The comeback refers to a hunting accident in 1989 that nearly killed him. He recovered and won the 1989 Tour, capturing le maillot jaune (yellow jersey) in a historic dramatic finish of the final stage in Paris.
In addition to his inspiration, I appreciate his role in the development of so-called aerobars. Along with the conventional road bike handlebars that look like downward curved horns, aerobars extend forward, putting the rider’s upper body in a more aerodynamic prone position. It may have made the difference in his 1989 Tour de France victory of an unheard of few seconds over the French favorite, Laurent Fignon. I know that aerobars on my Trek road bike helped me add about one mile per hour of speed in triathlons.
Pedaling peloton
Peloton is the French word for platoon. If you have watched the Tour de France or other bike road races, they all ride in a group, the peloton, until a team launches an “attack,” surging forward toward a victory. I can imagine what that is like – not the attack part – from one time riding in a peloton in a local road bike race. It was scary yet exhilarating. Scary in that you were flying at 20 to 25 miles per hour, just inches from other riders. Exhilarating in that you hardly had to pedal in the strong slipstream. All that comes into play with teams and strategy.
In my mind all 184 riders who started the 2025 the Tour de France are heroes, or all riders who have ever started the race since the first one in 1903. Except maybe for one. At first, Americans were enthusiastic about the incredible success of Lance Armstrong. The event has had a long history of drugs and doping.
While most of that has been cleaned up, Armstrong got caught, thanks in part to LeMond’s pursuit. Perhaps there’s a parallel here with the Postmodern and Metamodern cultural paradigms. Armstrong representing the first, with its cynicism and disinterest in truth and honesty; LeMond the latter with his almost naïve yet flawed honesty.
Among cycling fans, the real and legendary hero is said to be Eddie Merckx, the Belgian. Imagine watching the New York Yankees play in the 1920s. You see a batter come to the plate with No. 3 on his jersey, yet, you don’t know who it is. That’s the way it was with me and Eddie Merckx.
Something really big
That time long ago, after leaving the village of Colmar and cruising on my motorcycle along scenic mountain roads, I soon began to notice crowds of people along the way. Many had camping RVs, or had chairs and blankets, many with picnic baskets of good French bread, cheese and wine.
While seeing a motorcyclist on a large bike might attract at least a glance, this was different. As I passed by people seemed to snap to attention as if they were awaiting something big. As the crowds grew in number approaching the next village, I became aware that something really big must be happening.
In the village a local gendarme vociferously waved at me to get off the road. I pulled over in the village among a throng of people, their eyes straining to see down the road. Soon a parade of vehicles approached, many festooned with commercial signs and displays. They cheered seeing the first rider far ahead of the peloton. No, it wasn’t Eddie. Although the overall leader, today he was back leading the peloton. At least what my blurry photo shows, the helmetless leader wearing a yellow jersey.
Today, Eddie, now 80, lives a quiet life with his wife (m. 1967) in a village near Brussels, visited by their two children and grandchildren. Along with guys like LeMond, they are true heroes, with the only shortcoming of Eddie Merckx that I can see is the need for another vowel or two in his last name.
