On this the first day of the 100th Tour de France, and having just watched the wonderful documentary The Greatest Show on Earth, charting the 1974 Giro d'Italia (and ultimately Eddy Merckx's victory), I got to wondering how Merckx, often lauded as the greatest cyclist ever, would regard the practice of slow cycling, and the idea of a 'non-race', and of cycling not as a means to an end but as an end in itself.
I suppose I am wondering if Monsieur Merckx, now 68, ever goes out for a slow cycle in the Belgian countryside, his head swaying from side to side as he takes in the passing pastoral landscapes... a 30km cycle taking a whole afternoon...
Surely, the greatest show on earth cannot be appreciated at 80kph and with your head down....?
'Eddy Merckx, Half Man Half Bike'
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